Lines?

Vernace will not be back. He wasn’t qualified. :( Too bad I liked him.

My biggest difficulty in making the lineup is: Who plays LW. I think the Avs have 3 LW’s: Smyth, Tucker, McLeod. Of course Stoa could play there. And so could Galiardi, but I don’t see anyone outside of Smyth being good enough for that 2nd line LW role at the moment. (I’m hesitant to give Stoa or Galiardi a 2nd line role starting out., and Smytty is obviously a 1st liner.) Wolski could work there, but I’d rather keep him in center, maybe, I guess.

The other problem is that the Avs have an abundance of RWs. Duke, Jones, Stewart, Svatos. None of those guys work all that well on the left side. I’m going to tenatively go with Jones on the LW, even though I don’t think it’s his best position. I think he has the skill and play style to grow into it. I don’t think any of those 4 guys are a good fit for the 4th line, as they all deserve more playing time than that.

With that dilemma (that’s a bigger problem than it should be, in my mind) here’s my penciled in lines:

Smytty-SoS-Duke
McLeod – Wolski – Stewart
Stoa – Duchene – Jones
Tucker – Galiardi – Svatos

Koci
Hensick

(By the end of the season I hope Stoa and Duchene play good enough that the second and third lines essentially flip.)

Here’s two I think the coaching staff will set the lines:

Smyth -SoS – Duke
Tucker – Wolski – Svatos
McLeod – Hensick – Jones
Stoa – Duchene – Stewart

Koci
Willsie

The one thing that bothers me about these lines is that there’s no room for Galiardi. I’d like to get him NHL minutes.)

Smytty – Son of Stastny – The Duke
Davey Jones – The Baron – Svats Machine
The Highlander – Hensiiick – Stewie
Stoaconstrictor – Galiardi (no name for him yet) – The Douche Who Stole Christmas

with Massive Headwound Harry and Willy? in reserve.

Your D pairs are

Johnny Hot Pocket – The Hobbit
Footer – The Mouthpiece
Rusty – Wheels

with Macias in reserve.

and of course a Boods/Shermanator tandem in net.

…until all FA signings are done, I see duchene in dev camp, and Sakic announces his decision.

This thread is full of unpatriotic, cut-and-runners who want the terrorists to win. If you don’t post your lines now, how will Schrute know what to do next season?

I think the only lines this organization is going are off of secluded tables in night clubs.

I’ll take another crack at it, using the players from the most recent 2009-2010 post.

Stoa – Stastny – Hejduk
Stewart – Wolski – Svatos
McLeod – Galiardi – Jones
Tucker – Hensick – Willsie
reserves: Koci, ?

Hannan – Liles
Salei – Quincy
Clark – Foote
reserve: Preissing

I’m really not terribly high on Hensick. He’s not really suited for 3rd line duty and I don’t think that he’s a good enough scoring thread to be considered amongst the top 6.

I like Galiardi at third line center. He’s not very big. But, he throws his body around. And he’s shown some scoring touch as well. With McLeod and Jones with him, I think that could be a big/dangerous third line.

I think that Stoa has a chance at a solid 40-45 point rookie season and I would love to see him get some time with Stastny and Hejduk.

I’m thinking that the coaching staff may give Tucker more top 6 minutes than anyone would like. And yeah, he sucked last year. But, since the lockout, he’s put up decent second line numbers and I think that this new coaching staff will give him a shot to do that again. I would just rather see the team’s younger players get those minutes, since they’re supposed to be rebuilding.

I am hoping that Stewart, Wolski, and Svatos all have big years. I am also hoping that Duchene makes the team and centers the second line. If that happens, I think that it’s more likely that Wolski will get bumped over to LW on one of the top two lines than him getting bumped down and centering the third line (although, I wish that the team had enough depth at forward that he could be the third line center).