Ah I forgot Beck, I would put him in our core, he's a sure-fire 3rd line center IMO. I'm gonna edit that. Mailloux I'm pretty high on because of his offensive instincts. Agreed on Dach and Roy, possibly Newhook too he's still young. Also Heineman is starting to impress, if he keeps this up I'm gonna have to add him to my mock core.
I forgot Hage!! He's a core piece imo
You normally only have 3 or 4 core players. There's no way 3rd line center prospects or 4th defenceman are part or your core.
In Pittsburgh it was Malkin, Crosby, Letang and Fleury.
In Colorado it was Mackinnon, Makar, Rantanen and Landeskog.
In Chicago, it was Kane, Toews, Keith and Hossa. In Tampa Bay, it was Kucherov, Point, Stamkos, Hedman and Vasilevski.
For Montreal, I could see something like Slafkovsky, Demidov, Schaefer, Reinbacher and Mckenna. That could be our core when Montreal will be able to compete for the top seeds in the East. All the other players will be plugs and complementary players and yes, Suzuki and Caufield will be complementary players when we will reach that point