Best forward combos this year, minimum 50 minutes played:
1. Engvall-Mikheyev 65.0xgf%
2. Matthews-Hyman 63.9xgf%
3. Matthews-Thornton 63.7xgf%
4. Matthews-Marner 62.8xgf%
5. Tavares-Hyman 61.1xgf%
6. Thornton-Marner 59.2xgf%
7. Hyman-Marner 59.0xgf%
8. Boyd-Petan 56.0xgf%
9. Boyd-Spezza 54.8xgf%
10. Mikheyev-Hyman 53.0xgf%
11. Tavares-Nylander 53.0xgf%
12. Mikhyev-Vesey 50.9xgf%
13. Mikheyev-Kerfoot 50.2xgf%
14. Vesey-Nylander 47.4xgf%
15. Kerfoot-Vesey 42.7xgf%
16. Tavares-Mikheyev 40.3xgf%
17. Tavares-Vesey 40.2xgf%
18. Mikheyev-Nylander 34.3xgf%
The one that jumps out there, of course, is the Mikheyev-Engvall pairing as the best one so far, ahead of all the various 1st line combos taking slots #2-7. This passes the eye test both this season and last season - Mikheyev and Engvall are pretty ferocious together, and imo its only a matter of time before the pucks start going in for them.
And obviously tavares and nylander haven't been working out too well together, while tavares-hyman seems to be the only combo thats worked for Tavares so far.
Meanwhile Engvall imo looks well good enough at 3C that Kerfoot can now be moved around freely to try and get a better fit for everyone, which opens up interesting possibilities.
the Kerfoot-Tavares-Nylander line hasn't been great but has shown some promise, while the Mikheyev-Engvall-Hyman line looked like a pretty monstrous checking line. so you could just wait and see a little bit longer and hope that the tavares line wakes up. But another interesting move might be to go with something like this:
Kerfoot-Tavares-Hyman
Mikheyev-Engvall-Nylander
That would give Tavares more of the kind of line he was used to in New York - two good and fast linemates, but not elite skilled ones. This might help Tavares simplify his game a bit.
Meanwhile Willy could add in some high-end skill and finish to a line that is dominating territorially already but struggling to convert.