First off, I believe that Bennett is a much better C than winger and that the time to give him a lengthy opportunity in a prominent role has come.
If the Flames are unable to bring in another top 6 forward, I wonder if a new mix of the 2nd and 3rd lines may be worth an experiment.
Gaudreau Monahan Lindholm
Dube Bennett Tkachuk
Mangiapane Backlund Ryan
Lucic Gawdin Reider
The Dube-Bennett pairing was a success and I think that Tkachuk may suit their style by creating space like Lucic did and controlling the puck even better down low. I am also curious to see what happens to Tkachuk's production when he is not playing on a shutdown line. Obviously the concern here would be that Bennett and Dube have not yet produced at a level that justify playing with a star like Tkachuk, but both players have shown high end offensive ability at other levels and frankly I think Dube's potential is still underrated by a lot of fans.
A Mangiapane-Backlund-Ryan line would be a fantastic third line, I think. All 3 players can play well in all 3 zones and have demonstrated good offensive ability. There would be a right and left handed C on the ice for the large number of defensive zone draws that they would take and Mangiapane has proven chemistry with both Ryan and Backlund.
I'm not sure what to do with Lucic. He was very good for most of the return to play and playoffs, but I think that Ryan is a better player at this point and between the 2 I would have Looch in a mentor/energy line role.
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