The primary purpose of a 4th line is to eat up minutes without costing you a game. That's the most important element to a decent 4th line. Keep the puck out of your own zone.
Then you can deviate between two types (with both types being maintaining good defence!):
1) Physical energy line. Just hit everything in sight. The intimidation factor is real. When that 4th line hops over the boards, players are trying to move the puck a bit faster. Just watch how defencemen sometimes end up throwing the puck away when Lucic is coming hard at them.
2) Depth scoring - a good example is when Ryan and Mangiapane were on the 4th line. It worked well because Ryan was a smart player, but that last season it didn't work at all IMO. If you have small guys on that 4th line, they are going to be matched up against guys like Lucic. As soon as that puck ends up along the boards, your smaller players get run over and the puck stays in your zone.
Ideally, you want the best of both worlds - big guys that have depth scoring. If Lucic can find a way to get 10 goals again on the 4th line (rather than from his time on the PP or on the third line, which is how I think most of his goals came last year, no? Maybe I am wrong) that will help. Tim Jackman was an excellent 4th liner type back in the day. Everyone seems to hate him, but even going way back you get a guy like Jason Wiemer on your 4th line. Having 3 guys that can hit, provide depth scoring, but come away without negatives helps your team win games. Nystrom on the 4th line was really good. Stajan became a good 4th liner here.
I thought at times the Lucic - Richardson - Lewis line was solid. The Lucic - Ruzicka - Lewis line was ok. Everything else seemed a bit more mixed to me. I think Lewis is a bit slow to be a center now. I guess that's where Rooney comes in. Hopefully he can really make that 4th line work well.
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