[SuperMatt18]

I was more worried about 5v5 because the conversation with Bingo was about rolling 4 lines and the ability to play the lines more evenly at 5v5, instead of a 4th line that's going to get under 10 minutes a game.

If you look at the Flames they averaged 48:52 of 5v5 ice time, 4:52 of PP time per game, and 4:40 of PK time per game. So that's 58:24 and then you probably have the remaining 1:36 as empty net / 4v4 etc.

If you split the 5v5 time pretty equally that's 10-14 minutes per forward (give or take) on any given night. So that's actually not too bad and if you are aiming for about 12 minutes each, but then adjust based on how they are playing and what lines are going each night.

Then the question is how you distribute special teams:

PP1 - 2:50 : Kadri, Huberdeau, Coronato, Frost
PP 2 - 2:00 : Zary, Sharangovich, Klapka, Farabee

PK1 - 2:20 : Backlund, Coleman
PK2 - 1:30 : Huberdeau, Frost
PK3 - 1:00 : Zary, Sharangovich/Farabee/Pospisil

So really the guys that aren't getting much special teams time would be like Pospisil, Lomberg, and whoever the young forward is that fills out the roster.

If I look at Kadri specifically - he played 19:21 in all situations last year which was actually the highest of his career. Most of his career he played in the 16-18 minutes range in all scenarios (averaging slightly above 17 minutes a game).

If he's getting 13 minutes of 5v5 time, 2:50 of PP time, and then a big chunk of that remaining 1:36 of empty net / 4v4 etc time that would put him at around 17 minutes a night.

Huberdeau also played the most of his career last year and generally plays more in that 18:30 range. If he got 13 minutes of 5v5, 2:50 of PP, and 1:30 of PK that would have him at 17:20 per game, and then he'd probably get right around 18 minutes when you factor in that other 1:36 that's remaining.

Personally I have no issue with those guys playing 17-18 minutes a night, with more of a balance at 5v5. I think you could say both guys playing over 19 minutes, which was above their prior career highs was maybe a necessity last year but shouldn't be this year.

Looking at it I could see something like this to distribute the 180 minutes available in a game:

Huberdeau: 18:00 (-1:30)
Kadri: 17:30 (-2:00)
Coronato: 17:00 (-0:30)
Frost: 16.30 (-)
Backlund: 15:30 (-3:44)
Coleman: 15:30 (-2:40)
Sharangovich: 15:00 (-1:30)
Zary: 15:00 (-1:00)
Farabee: 15:00 (+0.30)
Klapka: 12:00 (+2:20)
Pospisil: 12:00 (-1:48)
12th Forward: 11:00 (+2:20 - based on Lomberg ice time of 8:40 per game)

The acquisition of Frost / Farabee is going to take some ice away from guys like Kadri, Backlund, and Coleman with a fully healthy lineup.

And to be clear I don't disagree with your point, but with how the roster is built I think you're going to get into that outcome no matter what. You have 9 forwards that probably deserve top 9 ice time, then you have Klapka and Pospisil that both played top 9 at times last year, and young guys that might surprise in camp too. Lomberg is the only clear "4th liner" on this roster.

There are going to be some players at forward unhappy with their ice time...mostly because we have a surplus of forwards that likely all want top 9 icetime after the acquisition of Frost and Farabee.