I cannot see Ferraro in the lineup on opening day. Aside from pickles, I cannot think of any dman who jumped straight into the nhl from juniors or college. Dmen take a lot longer to develop and adjust to the Nhl game. I am quite confident he will start in the A. I am not sure however who the 6/7 dmen will be. Dougie may choose to sign a depth guy on a min contract or heed or even Ryan. The top 5 are pretty set but they won’t stick a top prospect as a #7, it’s bad for development. They’d want him playing 22+ mins in the A not riding the box or even playing 8 mins in the nhl. The question is whether Middleton, disimone, or wood get a chance (or Roy or Gregoire)? Disimone and wood were both qualified so I think dougie is panning to have them duke it out for a 6/7 spot. Should be interesting to see if any of them stand out in training camp and preseason.
Definitely going to be a spot on both O and D for newbies so the preseason appears to matter this year a lot.