Let's talk about the 2022-23 lineup

[Burning Beard]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Pelletier-Monahan-Dube
Lucic-Rooney-Lewis
Ruzicka

Hanifin-Andersson
Zadorov-Weegar
Kylington-Tanev
Meloche

Markstrom
Vladar

That is my starting lineup as of today before any camp action has started.

Call me crazy, but I like the look of this team more than last year's. Let's goooo!

[SaskyFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Pelletier-Monahan-Dube
Lucic-Rooney-Lewis
Ruzicka

Hanifin-Andersson
Zadorov-Weegar
Kylington-Tanev
Meloche

Markstrom
Vladar

That is my starting lineup as of today before any camp action has started.

I would flip Pelletier and Mangiapane (at least to start to see how it goes). Backlund helped Tkachuk and Mangiapane break in to the league. He would do wonders with Pelletier too.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by JTech780

Has there been any update on Monahan’s health status?

If he can show up to camp 100% healthy, for probably the first time in 4+ years, can he show some of his former self?

I believe it was Scorpion on Twitter last night that suggested splitting up Huberdeau and Lindholm, letting Mangiapane-Lindholm-Coleman carry the two-way duties and letting Huberdeau carry the offensive load. Having a healthy Monahan could go a long way to making that happen and more manageable.

I think people are a little too optimistic with Monahan. I remember hearing it was a one season play-though recovery on the first hip. He only played 65 games and had the other hip operated on. Wouldn't that make this season a recovery season?

[Vinny01]

Originally Posted by SaskyFlamesFan

I would flip Pelletier and Mangiapane (at least to start to see how it goes). Backlund helped Tkachuk and Mangiapane break in to the league. He would do wonders with Pelletier too.

That is where it would be ideal to see another top 6 center brought in so Pelletier could learn with Backlund. The team as constructed I feel Backlund will be given the tough matchups until Huberdeau confirms he has the same or better checking skills as Gaudreau.

The way I constructed the lines I would really shelter that third li e and hopefully they could be a decent scoring line

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

Monahan should be eating popcorn, healthy or not. We need another center.

Agreed. Penciling Monahan into a third line centre role that he has never been suited for, let alone after two surgeries and a massive decline in play, is suicidal for a team with divisional championships on it's radar.

In a perfect world, Backlund should be in that 3rd line slot with a more offensively minded 2C above him. Is this doable at this point in the offseason? Doesn't seem like it, but I would certainly take a run at Stastny as a guy that can sort of split the gap for one season if it came down to it.

Either way I agree, Monahan should be eating popcorn on this team with the occasional shot on the 4th line if he's ever ready to play again.

[Burning Beard]

Nm

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

Agreed. Penciling Monahan into a third line centre role that he has never been suited for, let alone after two surgeries and a massive decline in play, is suicidal for a team with divisional championships on it's radar.

In a perfect world, Backlund should be in that 3rd line slot with a more offensively minded 2C above him. Is this doable at this point in the offseason? Doesn't seem like it, but I would certainly take a run at Stastny as a guy that can sort of split the gap for one season if it came down to it.

Either way I agree, Monahan should be eating popcorn on this team with the occasional shot on the 4th line if he's ever ready to play again.

The trend certainly suggests you shouldn't pencil him in for a top nine role for sure. Hard to argue that.

Will be interesting though.

It all comes down to where he sits health wise compared to the last two seasons.

Are two surgically repaired hips better than what he's had to work with in each of the last two seasons? If so then he bounces back to some degree.

Honestly a 15 goal 20 assist season would be a huge help to this team.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Burning Beard

Call me crazy, but I like the look of this team more than last year's. Let's goooo!

One more top 6 forward and I do too.

[Goriders]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

Agreed. Penciling Monahan into a third line centre role that he has never been suited for, let alone after two surgeries and a massive decline in play, is suicidal for a team with divisional championships on it's radar.

In a perfect world, Backlund should be in that 3rd line slot with a more offensively minded 2C above him. Is this doable at this point in the offseason? Doesn't seem like it, but I would certainly take a run at Stastny as a guy that can sort of split the gap for one season if it came down to it.

Either way I agree, Monahan should be eating popcorn on this team with the occasional shot on the 4th line if he's ever ready to play again.

If they don’t get Kadri I’d be into trying to land Stastny. Either way I think they need a better option than Monahan. At this point Monahan is an expensive depth forward.

[Funkhouser]

My preferred lineup:

Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli
Mangiapane-Backlund-Coleman
Pelletier-Monahan/Rooney-Dube
Lucic-Ruzicka-Phillips
Lewis

Hanifin-Andersson
Zadorov-Weegar
Kylington-Tanev
Mackey

Markstrom
Vladar

This being said, I think we should trade Hanifin & Valimaki for prospects and picks

[Enoch Root]

I wouldn't mind seeing Pelletier with Huberdeau - get the French connection going.

And if it worked, it leaves the middle 6 stronger, with both Mangiapane and Toffoli staying there.

But it will never happen

[Naitix]

Ruzicka should be in the line-up imo, he has a lot of skill to his game, I think he could contribute offensively on the 3rd or 4th line (hopefully 2nd/3rd as he has good skills and needs to play with players that are creative with the puck and not dump and chase every time, I remember last year there was a 2 on 1 play and Ritchie did not have his head up and just dumped the puck in lol) as a center that has been missing from this team.

Just watch his goals this year, the patience and skill he shows with the puck is miles above our other 4th line centers whose ideology is to get rid of the puck as soon as possible. He's got an amazing shot and good hands and he has the size to get space in front of the net

For example take a look at his goals from last season (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp-V...=RingOfFireCGY). His 2nd goal (and 5th but less impressive) is not an easy one to make, a lot of people struggle with one timer on your natural wing side (leftie on a left wing) even at NHL level and he put a good amount of force into that shot, basically shows me that he is a threat to score on either wing and not a lot of players on the flames can make this shot, very underrated goal. His 3rd goal is even more impressive to me, he shows amazing patience with the puck up close and changes the angle that lets him score, most rookies and 4th line players would try to shoot the puck as soon as possible but he shows confidence in his skills and it pays off. His 4th goal shows his ability to create separation by utilizing his size + reach and skating. I also remember he had some great assists too but I do not wanna go digging for them.

Overall I think his goals shows such diversity in how he scores that it makes me excited for him to get a good opportunity and play with more skilled players.

[Calgary4LIfe]

It is becoming very difficult to come up with an opening night roster.

Some questions need to be answered (and in no particular order):

1) Hate to say it, but Dube and the Team Canada fallout
2) Monahan and how healthy he will be
3) Ruzicka and his off-season
4) Pelletier and his off-season

I won't bring up Dube - we all know the story here. Monahan is not very far removed from looking like a top-line centre. I thought he was going to have a career year in that All-Canadian division. He started off really well from what I remember, and then he got injured. Now that (hopefully) he is all patched-up, I don't think anybody can even guess at what level he may be back at until he is actually back and playing for a month or two, getting his timing back and so on. Maybe he returns to practically being a #1 centre, or maybe he is a 4th line winger at best. Time will tell I guess. Ruzicka I think will make the team (and what position is probably dependent on both Dube and Monahan). I think Sutter really likes him - likes his skill, his IQ and his size, and Sutter has often spoke about how important centres are to controlling the ice. Sutter will give Ruzicka the runway, as long as it is obvious that Ruzicka has put in the work this off-season. As for Pelletier - every coach loves this player for being so mature and willing to play defence. I think he gets a long look at least.

Figuring out the lineups will be hard. While I do think that losing Tkachuk's points is going to hurt somewhat, I actually do think it is reasonable to expect players to fill that internally.

My first guess at the roster:
Huberdeau - Lindholm - Toffoli
Mangiapane - Backlund - Monahan
Pelletier - Ruzicka - Coleman
Lucic - Dube - Rooney

Weegar - Tanev
Hanifin - Andersson
Kylington - Zadorov

Explanations (I personally like to understand the thought process behind people's lineup decisions, so I will give you mine):
Forwards:
Line 1: Toffoli is the best RHS natural RW on the team. Makes sense to try that.
Line 2: Monahan as the RW - I think you have to try him offensively. Finding soft areas and having that incredibly dangerous shot was the forte of his game, so let's see how that looks in an offensive role. Unless Monahan returns to form, nobody is displacing Backlund as the 2nd line centre. Mangiapane moves to the top line if Toffoli isn't cutting it there.
Line 3: Pelletier and Ruzicka can both be sheltered a bit. Coleman is defensively sound, and I think pushing him to the 2nd line is asking too much from him offensively. Baertschi - Monahan under Hartley, Bennett-Jankowski under Peters - having two younger players on the third line isn't always a bad idea, when you can shelter that line and have a more defensively responsible player who is not shy to be very vocal helping out.
Line 4: No brainer here with Lucic. Dube starts off as the centre here, with Rooney on the wing. Dube has the upside, and i like him as a centre more than a winger, so he pushes Rooney to the wing. Won't get an argument for putting Rooney there, as he is a natural centre and the organization obviously targeted him for a reason.

Defence:
First pair: Weegar and Tanev I believe are the first pairing. No need to shelter Kylington somewhat now. These two will go up against the top lines. Sutter specifically stated he matches defence against forwards, and though I like Kylington, he was the weak-link defensively at times. Weegar has elite-level suppression stats, no? Should be a very stifling pair to play against.
Second Pair: Hanifin - Andersson - They were the first pair last year (and I think partly because of Kylington on the 2nd). Call them Pair 1B for all that matters. Both young, both getting better.
Third Pair: Kylington - Zadorov - I think this is going to be a very good pair together. I think Kylington being paired with another defencemen who likes to pinch will make him a MORE effective defencemen, not less. Besides, I really don't think Zadorov is all that offensive anyway. Playing with someone who you know will always have your back makes you have to think less - maybe playing with Zadorov will force Kylington to take another step forward. He will be playing against less skilled opposition - maybe that will increase his confidence too. I think there is a benefit here.

That's how I see it anyway. I think the lineup will be very much in flux for most of the season. I am not even sure that the top line (and whatever version of the top line it becomes) will stay together for most of the season.

Those 4 points above (Monahan, Dube, Pelletier and Ruzicka) will be the driving force behind most of the line-combo changes I am guessing (and hopefully all positive changes).

This team certainly doesn't look so weak on paper, even if you completely remove Monahan and Dube from the equation as 'worst case scenarios'. That defence is looking like it will be hard to get by, with a fast transition from all 3 pairs. This team can definitely make some noise, and I am not sure it is finalized yet. No point in talking about Markstrom and Vladar - both showed they are capable of being a formidable tandem, and I expect (and hope) that Vladar gets more games this year too.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by CalgaryFan1988

I think people are a little too optimistic with Monahan. I remember hearing it was a one season play-though recovery on the first hip. He only played 65 games and had the other hip operated on. Wouldn't that make this season a recovery season?

This season will likley also be a - recovery/learn to adjust to the hip again - season and then he's a UFA. Like others I believe pencilling Monahan in as anything other than a 4th line "he's playing because we're paying him $6.75mil" is setting yourself up for disappointment.

[Kipper_3434]

Mony was tied for the team lead for pp points shortly before being shutdown. I think if healthy he returns to that role. really liked the Dube- Mony- Coleman line when it was tried last season. Could see him playing 3rd line 5v5 in limited minutes, while eating 2-3 minutes of solid pp time per game.

[dammage79]

Roster isn't done yet. Tree still has some stuff left.

[Macman]

If Monahan is healthy and starts the season he’ll surely benefit from playing with Huberdeau.
As will everyone else in the top six for that matter. Sean’s finally had some real recovery time so it will be interesting to see him back in the lineup.

[powderjunkie]

C4L's post prompted this idea - changes in bold:

Huberdeau - Lindholm - Toffoli
Ruzicka - Backlund - Mangiapane
Pelletier - Monahan - Coleman
Lucic - Dube - Rooney
Lewis


I don't mind the idea of Monahan at wing, but I don't see it happening. I'm just kinda intrigued by the idea of that second line, and I think the 3rd line puts both Pelletier and Monahan in a good position to succeed.

[Harry Lime]

I don't think that they bury Dube.
I don't think that Monahan plays the wing.
I do think that they try to keep Mangiapane - Backlund - Coleman together.
I do think that two of Pelletier, Ruzicka and Phillips make the team.

I have no idea who plays RW on the top line. Toffoli if they are conservative. Dube if they are playing 4D chess. Pelletier if they are hoping for a miracle.

[bigpete]

If Monahan somehow magically bounces back to be a capable top 6 center:

Huberdeau Lindholm Mangiapane
Dube Monahan Toffoli
Pelletier Backlund Coleman
Lucic Ruzicka Lewis
Rooney

Weegar Tanev
Hanafin Andersson
Zadorov Kylington
Mackey/Stone

I like all the lines except for the 2nd line which is pretty meh and kind of a mish-mash with lots of question marks. Likely Monahan is still damaged goods, so substitute out one of Monahan (or Dube) for a bonafide top 6 "star" type forward and things are looking real good.