I've already made a prediction, but now that pre-season is over I'm going to give it another go.
C
Stajan
Backlund
Monahan
Knight (Maybe Reinhart or Horak)
LW
Glencross
Baertschi
Galliardi
Bouma
RW
Stempniak
Cammalleri
Hudler
Jones
McGrattan (Not sure how he fits in here, maybe trade Hudler to make room for him? The team definitely needs an enforcer in the lineup though.)
D
Giordano
Brodie
Wideman
Russel
O'Brien
Butler
Smith
G
Ramo
MacDonald
I would like to see room made for Sieloff on defence. Trade/waive Butler or O'Brien and have him play on the bottom pair.
Berra needs some time in the AHL, he looked shaky last night. His puck-handling needs a lot of work, he was caught out of position a couple times. He had times where he looked solid, but he isn't quite ready for the NHL.
Monahan has impressed the hell out of me all training camp. He looked a little slow in the first game or two of the rookie tournament, but once he got going he looked great. If he gets sent back to Ottawa I'll be really disappointed. If he goes back, he NEEDS to be traded to a Memorial Cup contender. I'd prefer he stay up with the big team though.
Baertschi didn't look great, but that's because he didn't get a lot of minutes and it wasn't with players that compliment his skills very well. Not too worried about him.
Knight looked much better when he was actually playing at center. I would have said Reinhart makes the team before last night's game, but now I'm not sure.
Bouma has pretty much guaranteed himself a spot on the team. He's looked great through the whole camp. His knee doesn't seem to be bothering him at all which is a great sign.
Looking forward to seeing what management thinks though. When are they expected to annouce the rest of the cuts?
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