It's not so much a problem with the center ice position specifically, just that we are still missing a clear cut top 6 forward (RW or C). Neal and Lindholm were brought in last off season to address the issue and one guy did not deliver. It also doesn't help that Bennett is trending to be a middle six utility guy rather than line driving top 6 forward that his draft position lead us to believe he would be.
Assuming we don't see any changes to the forward group from last year, I wonder if Peters doesn't try both Lindholm and perhaps even Bennett back at C during training camp. He also did mention that he would look at Tkachuk on the right side last year but we didn't see much of it. If nothing else, maybe Ryan's play late last season warrants a look for him in the middle six as well (he did put up nearly 0.5PPG the last two seasons).
I hope they at least experiment with the following lineup combinations that I don't think we've seen before during preseason to find out what else besides Gaudreau-Monahan and Tkachuk-Backlund might work in the top 6.
This relies on Neal's return to 20-25G, 40-50P pace of seasons past:
Gaudreau - Lindholm - Neal
Tkachuk - Monahan - Ryan
Bennett - Backlund - Frolik
Mangiapane - Jankowski - Czarnik
This relies on Bennett becoming at least the about 50 point C he was drafted to be (perhaps he could between these two elite wingers):
Gaudreau - Bennett - Tkachuk
Dube - Monahan - Lindholm
Jankowski - Backlund - Frolik
Mangiapane - Ryan - Neal
Perhaps the answer lies in adding Gaudreau to the Tkachuk-Backlund pairing.
This works if either Johnny or Tkachuk are up to playing on the right hand side and Bennett's play from the playoff series at least partially carries over:
Gaudreau/Tkachuk - Backlund - Tkachuk/Gaudreau
Bennett - Monahan - Lindholm
Dube - Jankowski - Frolik
Mangiapane - Ryan - Neal
This is a likely set up going with what worked (in the regular season) with a small adjustment breaking up Janko-Neal as that combination was an anchor. Neal needs a quick player who can get him the puck in scoring areas and I think Ryan combined with a nearly playoff-mode Bennett (hopefully we see progression from him) could be those guys:
Gaudreau - Monahan - Lindholm
Tkachuk - Backlund - Frolik
Bennett - Ryan - Neal
Mangiapane - Jankowski - Czarnik
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