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Devils projected line-up


USC09

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Ok, so there is a week left til training camp starts, and right now Lou seems content on starting the season with Elias at center or using 7 defensemen with Elias at his wing position. So, right now the line-up will likely look like this:

Parise Zajac Langenbrunner

Elias Zubrus Bergfors

Rolston Pelley Shanahan

Pandolfo Clarkson

Extras: Leblond, Pikkarainen

Oduya Martin

White Mottau

Salvador Greene

Leach

or

Parise Zajac Langenbrunner

Rolston Elias Bergfors

Pandolfo Zubrus Shanahan

Leblond Pelley Clarkson

Extras: Pikkarainen, maybe Halischuk

the D will be like above without Leach

This is unless Lou adds a center before the season starts which I don't think he will since he said he will be fiscally responsible and knowing his priority right now is training camp and at some point of the season start negotiating an extension with Paul Martin.

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Cory Murphy is a cheap, offensive d man. He is like Mottau in a way.

In that they both get paid little, yes, in almost any other way, not so much.

Also, I doubt Clarkson gets 4th line minutes this season. To my eyes, the guy is a monster at working hard to improve his game so I wouldn't be surprised if he comes in this season better than last season, and last season he was already too good for 4th line minutes.

Edited by Devils731
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My wish as of now...

Parise Zajac Langenbrunner - no need to change a good thing.

Rolston Elias Clarkson - got to get the two highest paid forwards to play well....

even if it's Elias at C. Should at least try it with this lineup.

Clarkson brings the physical aspect a line needs, like a Langs lite

Bergfors Zubrus Shanahan - Zubs is a good 3rd center...

Bergfors doesn't have as much pressure to produce plus gets physical protection

Pandolfo Pelly Pikkarainen/Leblond/anyone - it's the fourth line. Pando could hlep Pelly

D:

Martin/White (PLease split up our two moblie D men!)

Oduya/Salvador (Can switch White & Salvo)

Mottau/Greene/Corrente

Leach

Thats my 2 cents. Interested to see what they do.

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Also, I doubt Clarkson gets 4th line minutes this season. To my eyes, the guy is a monster at working hard to improve his game so I wouldn't be surprised if he comes in this season better than last season, and last season he was already too good for 4th line minutes.

Agreed. I'd rather see Clarkson as a third line winger instead of Shanny. Let Brendan play fourth line minutes and on the PP; it'll keep him rested.

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Here's how I see it:

Forwards:

Parise(A)-Zajac-Langenbrunner©

Elias(A)-Zubrus-Bergfors

Rolston-X-Clarkson

Pando-Pelley-Shanny

Extras: Leblone, Pikachu

I think Lou will pick up a center who is can play third line minutes between Rolston and Clarkson.

Defense:

Oduya-Martin

White-Corrente

Salvador-Mottau/Murphy

Extra: Greene

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My wish as of now...

Parise Zajac Langenbrunner - no need to change a good thing.

Rolston Elias Clarkson - got to get the two highest paid forwards to play well....

even if it's Elias at C. Should at least try it with this lineup.

Clarkson brings the physical aspect a line needs, like a Langs lite

Bergfors Zubrus Shanahan - Zubs is a good 3rd center...

Bergfors doesn't have as much pressure to produce plus gets physical protection

Pandolfo Pelly Pikkarainen/Leblond/anyone - it's the fourth line. Pando could hlep Pelly

D:

Martin/White (PLease split up our two moblie D men!)

Oduya/Salvador (Can switch White & Salvo)

Mottau/Greene/Corrente

Leach

Thats my 2 cents. Interested to see what they do.

Not bad. Glad you gave reasons for your lines.

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I think he will add a center or some pure scoring forward, but it likely will come sometime during preseason and training camp. But I do think he has a plan and will execute it when the time permits. I am not panicking because the season has not started yet. I gotta worry about school before the Devils this year. Its a tough year for me.

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Here's how I see it:

Forwards:

Parise(A)-Zajac-Langenbrunner©

Elias(A)-Zubrus-Bergfors

Rolston-X-Clarkson

Pando-Pelley-Shanny

Extras: Leblone, Pikachu

I think Lou will pick up a center who is can play third line minutes between Rolston and Clarkson.

Defense:

Oduya-Martin

White-Corrente

Salvador-Mottau/Murphy

Extra: Greene

i agree with these forward lines as the team stands now, which is why i'm really curious as to how lou is going to fill that 3rd line center position. we don't have anyone in our system that is ready to fill that role yet. plus i think that 3rd line will get a nice amount of ice time so i'd like a center with some nhl experience playing there. if he's still available, i wouldn't mind seeing malhotra hold down this spot for a year or two.

defensively, i'd like to see martin and oduya split up, paired with white and salvador. and i'd like to see corrente play this season, pairing with either mottau, murphy, or greene.

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i agree with these forward lines as the team stands now, which is why i'm really curious as to how lou is going to fill that 3rd line center position. we don't have anyone in our system that is ready to fill that role yet. plus i think that 3rd line will get a nice amount of ice time so i'd like a center with some nhl experience playing there. if he's still available, i wouldn't mind seeing malhotra hold down this spot for a year or two.

defensively, i'd like to see martin and oduya split up, paired with white and salvador. and i'd like to see corrente play this season, pairing with either mottau, murphy, or greene.

I also feel at this point lou is not going to bring a ufa (Malhotra is no more talented than Zubie)Comrie is small and there's a reason this guy hasn't stuck with any team. There will be guys going on waivers, and I've always had this feeling lou would give a guy like smolinski or say glen murray a tryout. smolinski was carrying his own hockey bag last year and is dying to get back into the bigs. he's worth atleast a look.

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Lemaire has pretty much said that he'll try Elias at center, and with Lemaire coming in it's a given that Rolston will be given more responsibilities. He'll play on the 2nd line and it will be with Elias. That leaves the RW job up for grabs and it will probably belong to Bergfors.

Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner

Rolston-Elias-Bergfors

Shanahan-Zubrus-Clarkson

Pandolfo-Pelley-Pikkarainen/Leblond

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I think he will add a center or some pure scoring forward, but it likely will come sometime during preseason and training camp. But I do think he has a plan and will execute it when the time permits. I am not panicking because the season has not started yet.

We'll see. Lou has a way of surprising everyone.

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We'll see. Lou has a way of surprising everyone.

He actually just gave me a call last night and asked me to meet up with him at Panera later today to discuss some issues. Something about a second line center position. So I guess that solves that problem.

Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner

Elias-Crisis-Rolston

Shanahan-Zubrus-Clarkson

Whatever..

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He actually just gave me a call last night and asked me to meet up with him at Panera later today to discuss some issues. Something about a second line center position. So I guess that solves that problem.

Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner

Elias-Crisis-Rolston

Shanahan-Zubrus-Clarkson

Whatever..

Awww. He called me and I let it go to voice mail... :(

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I was hoping for this...but Lou decided to be super scared/conservative/cheap this summer

Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner

Elias-Koivu-Bergfors

Rolston-Zubrus-Clarkson

Pandolfo-Pelley-Shanahan

ex. Pikkarainen

Oduya-Martin

White-Corrente

Salvador-Boynton

Brodeur

Danis

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I also feel at this point lou is not going to bring a ufa (Malhotra is no more talented than Zubie)Comrie is small and there's a reason this guy hasn't stuck with any team. There will be guys going on waivers, and I've always had this feeling lou would give a guy like smolinski or say glen murray a tryout. smolinski was carrying his own hockey bag last year and is dying to get back into the bigs. he's worth atleast a look.

it's not that i think malhotra is a huge upgrade over zubie, obviously i don't since i wanted zubrus on the 2nd line and malhotra on the 3rd. i didn't know lemaire had said that elias would be tried out at center. a rolston/elias/bergfors line is alright by me, i would just prefer elias on the wing.

Edited by xxchaznjxx
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Lou tried to get Koivu but, in retrospect, it appears Koivu was always going to play in ANA, to play with Selanne, and was just entertaining other offers to make sure he got a reasonable deal from ANA. It doesn't sound like any amount of money that Lou offered was going to matter.

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Lemaire has pretty much said that he'll try Elias at center, and with Lemaire coming in it's a given that Rolston will be given more responsibilities. He'll play on the 2nd line and it will be with Elias. That leaves the RW job up for grabs and it will probably belong to Bergfors.

My problem with this is that Elias is coming off of a great season so to me it doesn't make much sense at all to have switch his position to center where he'll have to change his game and the way he plays.

I wouldn't mind seeing us pick up Moore for a season and sticking him on the third line where he should be able to put up descent numbers between Rolston and Clarkson.

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My problem with this is that Elias is coming off of a great season so to me it doesn't make much sense at all to have switch his position to center where he'll have to change his game and the way he plays.

I don't think Elias has to change his game much to play center. I actually think the way he plays his game today, he seems to like to drop back on defense quicker than needed, is more suited for center than a winger. So I think since he likes to be a distributor and still thinks defensive responsibility over offensive that playing center can complement those instincts more than winger. That said, Elias seems to not like playing center, so if he feels weird playing there then it doesn't really matter which position his game complements better.

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I agree that Lou is very cheap and I wouldn't mind seeing anybody right now. Moore would be nice since he has a good two way game, he's not great, but descent. We'll see what happens during training but for now Elias is likely going to start at center even though he is terrible at that position. It would not surprise me if the ZZ pops line gets broken up and they move Parise to center, where he played in college. I think Lou has changed his philosophy to not signing or bringing in anyone right now.

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i'm surprised (although i guess i shouldn't be) that malholtra and moore aren't yet signed. these guys are plenty good enough and worth a $1MM offer (which at this point i think they take). it balances out the devils line up so much more to add one of these guys. elias at center is a bad idea.

this still makes the most sense:

PZL

Elias-Zubrus-Rolston

Bergfors-Moore/Malholtra-Clarkson

Shannahan-Pelley-Pikkarinin

extra: leblond/pando

shannahan is going to play 65-70 games, so the rotation between he, pikka, leblond and pando should be fine. the devils are not very deep in case of injury to a top 6 guy as it is, so without one of these center acquisitions, you're looking to shannahan or bergfors for top 6 minutes - scary.

as for the defense, i think corrente is getting another year in the minors unless an injury or complete inability from one of the incumbents forces his promotion.

Martin-Oduya

White-Murphy (yes I said it)

Salvador-Mottau

Greene

greene and murphy will get plenty of opportunities to play - i can't see either (or whomever the 7th turns out to be) going more than 3 games in a row as a scratch.

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I just want to ask why everyone seems to think Bergfors could be a top 6 forward right away and play on the 2nd line? I would try Clarkson at RW along with Elias and Rolston first.

IMO he's not, but for this team to really thrive in the playoffs, he needs to be. My hope is that if he plays with skilled guys on the 2nd line, he'll learn from them, even if he takes some lumps along the way. Shanny does give them more options, since he'd be a damn good teacher for any young winger. I wouldn't have a problem with them going that route, and using Clarkie as a stopgap, albeit a talented one, on the 2nd line. The only problem is that at this point in their careers, Bergfors needs a lot of minutes, Shanny needs a few, and Shanny is definitely going to figure prominently on the PP, and quite possible the PK.

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