Lines

Zary is the only potential guy that should be seeing the line up. The hole is 3LW. Ruzicka was bad on the wing, came to camp late, looks as inconsistent as he did last year and will only play if it’s at 4C, which Rooney has done well this year.
Kylington obviously won’t be in the line up any time soon.

-Ruzicka was waiting for a contract which didn't come till the last minute
-Sutter tried him at LW, when he's a C/RW. We haven't tried Ruzicka at RW yet
-Given our depth at C and his Size, I recommend converting and grooming him to be a Left Shot RW Power Forward

I like the idea, especially given we're playing a young fast team in NJD next, but this doens't work.

Besides Tanev & Kylington both out, you can't just dump Lucic (who has a NMC), Rooney & Lewis, two of our PK Specialists who would be claimed and lost to waivers

I'd definitely like to see some of the young guys get an opportunity, but there's only currently room for 1 since Kylington is out and we don't have sufficient Cap Space to bring up 2, even though Tanev is out. Both Kylington & Tanev still count towards the Cap

- Who is at fault for that? You’re saying 762K wasn’t available to him early in FA where he could show up at team facilities and train more than a month ahead of when he did?
- RW is Mangiapane, Toffoli, Coleman, Lewis/Ritchie, Ruzicka has not been better than any of them, the hole is at 3LW
- If he can’t make the team as a 4C then he shouldn’t make the roster. There are better options than having him test the waters on the wing.
- He’s been insanely inconsistent every time he’s in the line up, he doesn’t have a feature in his game that makes him a top 9 play at this point and he doesn’t do a good enough job in the bottom 6 to play 10 minutes a night and his everything. If there’s an injury he’s a good enough replacement for a stretch of 5-10 games but beyond that they should be looking everywhere else before Ruzicka

Move Toffoli to LW. I'm not saying Ruzicka or Phillips are better players, I'm just suggesting giving them a try or grooming them to be pieces we need and that might get them in to the lineup, since the better players aren't doing much there themselves.

We keep putting 1st line Offensive AHL Stars on the 4th line with Lucic, Rooney, Ritchie or Lewis and expecting them to be Defense First Checkers. Doesn't make much sense to me. Let them play with some talent so they can use their offensive skill & gifts to play & produce more like they did in the AHL

Again, maybe it doesn't work, but neither is putting Lucic on the 2nd line or Rooney & Lewis on the 3rd line. Ritchie is the only guy I think is fast enough and can keep the puck on his stick to play in the Top-9 and join a rush imo, but he's not a great option either.

Barring a Trade, options to fill a hole on the 3rd line to me are Toffoli (at LW or RW) OR Ritchie or Ruzicka at 3RW with Coleman moving to LW OR call up one of Zary or Pelletier OR sign Alex Chiasson to a PTO/$750k contract and give him a look.

Just do something different because what Sutter has tried the last 2 games is terrible. We went from having a struggling 1st & 3rd line to every line crapping the bed imo