with Domi mcmann patches looking to be back sometime in the next week....
let's say this is my ideal lineup for now though i could quibble around the edges obviously.
Knies --- Matthews --- Marner
McMann --- Tavares --- Domi
Pacioretty --- Minten --- Nylander
Holmberg --- Dewar --- Lorentz
(Grebenkin --- Robertson)
McCabe --- Tanev
Rielly --- Timmins
OEL --- Myers
Benoit
Stolarz
Woll
they can't keep this roster together tho with Reaves here. so Grebs will obviously get dropped to keep Reaves. And it's probably better for grebs to be in the ahl than in the pressbox or even in a 4th line role tbh (though maybe he's an upgrade to the 4th line too). but fine, demote grebs for now. hopefully they can find a way in their hearts to put reaves in the pressbox at least as much as it may break their hearts.
but then there's Hakanpaa, who a few days ago had a little thing done to his little thing to help it a little bit and is apparently only a little bit away from returning. at that point, a hard decision will have to be made.
they've made zero signs of wanting to avoid having 8 dmen on the roster, and seem to like all 8 guys, so I don't see a hard decision coming there.
Most likely that's when we'll see the end of the line for one of Robby or Holmberg.
And then whenever Kampf comes back, it's probably sayonara to whichever one avoids the axe this time.
underlying all that thought is the fact that Kampf Krok Reaves Hakanpaa cost $6.5m to not really even deserve to be in the lineup, and we could easily use that capsapce to add an impact piece or two via trade.
