Opening Day Roster

[trentsteele]

So I've been going through the roster trying to figure out what our starting lineup will be on opening day.

I've noticed a glaring hole at RW since Fehr is out to start.

Does anyone know which players can play C/RW or both wings?

I've come up with 3 posibilities.

1) Moving Buff back to RW. Since our D seems to be deeper than our Fwds, it makes sense as we are able to go with the following lineup

Ladd/Little/Wheeler
Kane/Burmistrov/Byfuglien
Jaffray?/Antropov/Machacek
Glass/Slater/Thorburn

Enstrom/Bogosian
Hainsey/Oduya
Jones/Stuart
Postma

Pavalec
Mason

Questionable 3rd line, but decent everywhere else.

2) If we don't move Buff up, we are left with Jones as the 7th D, and a huge hole on our 3rd line as Antropov likely move the 2nd line RW.

Ladd/Little/Wheeler
Kane/Burmistrov/Antropov
Jaffray?/Cormier?/Machacek
Glass/Slater/Thorburn

Enstrom/Byfuglien
Bogosian/Oduya
Hainsey/Stuart
Jones

Pavalec
Mason

Is Cormier Ready? Who else can play there, Stapleton? Gagnon? Shiefele? Can Klingberg/Gregoire play RW? This lineup offers a lot of questions.

3) Pesonen will make the team and start on the 2nd line. When Fehr returns, depending on the chemistry of the second line, he will likely play on the 3rd line, with Machacek returning to the AHL.

Ladd/Little/Wheeler
Kane/Burmistrov/Pesonen
Jaffray?/Antropov/Machacek
Glass/Slater/Thorburn

Enstrom/Byfuglien
Bogosian/Oduya
Hainsey/Stuart
Jones

Pavalec
Mason


Anyone have any other thoughts?

[GreatCanadian]

Here is my list.

We need Buff as a defenseman more than a forward I think. Also, for opening night you can't put someone like Klingberg cause he's only had 1 NHL game under his belt so far. Too much pressure for the kid I think. I would go for someone like Stapleton instead.

So, for opening night it would look something like this in my mind

Ladd/Little/Wheeler
Kane/Burmistrov/Antropov
Jaffrey/Slater/Stapleton
Glass/Cormier/Thorburn

Enstrom/Bogosian
Hainsey/Byfuglien
Oduya/Stuart

Pavelec
Mason


after Fehr comes back, put him on 3rd line RW. Thorburn or Stapleton would be 4th line RW, depending on who is performing better.

2 good forward lines, 2 good d lines and a good goalie. the rest could be filled better, but it's a start!

[jval07]

As I said in another thread, I don't want to see Stapleton anywhere in the starting lineup ever.
McArdle might have a shot at a starting job.

[IantheD]

Ladd/Little/Wheeler
Kane/Burmistrov/Antropov
Jaffray/Slater/McArdle
Glass/Cormier/Thorburn

Enstrom/Bogosian
Oduya/Bufuglyien
Hainsey/Jones

Pavelec
Mason

[jval07]

Aug 19, 2011 17:35:03 GMT -6 IantheD said:

Ladd/Little/Wheeler
Kane/Burmistrov/Antropov
Jaffray/Slater/McArdle
Glass/Cormier/Thorburn

Enstrom/Bogosian
Oduya/Bufuglyien
Hainsey/Jones

Pavelec
Mason

That looks a little better. Fehr being healthy would help too. I still wish the Brass woulda found one more scorer up front.

[cts]

Keep buff on the defense. He had a great year there last year.

[pank]

Aug 19, 2011 20:50:03 GMT -6 cts said:

Keep buff on the defense. He had a great year there last year.

Keep him with Tobias Enstrom then-Byfuglien went downhill without Enstrom.

He had a great start but a terrible finish. I am hopeful he can do what he did the first 40 games and not the last 40 or so.

[jval07]

There more I think about it, the more I like the move of Byfuglien up on forward. The one thing we have an abundance of is D-men. If BigBuff is on the point then you gotta scratch either Stuart, Jones or Meech and Postma has no shot at making the team. When don't have much punch up front and moving him up might be a worthwhile option.

[IantheD]

It would be a smart move to give Byfuglien the same role he had in Chicago and put him in front of the net. But people forget Fehr is going to be injured for awhile. (Which makes me wonder why they traded for him instead of a healthy player) So once Fehr is back either put Byfuglien back on Defense or just let McArdle keep that wing until he comes back and let Byfuglien stay a defenseman permanently.