I would like to see McCann on the first line and Johnson scratched. Play Joseph, he is way better.

Agree with McCann on the first. I'm sure within the first weeks we will see McCann, Kahun, and maybe even Tanev or Galchenyuck up with Sid. I think Johnson is going to play all 82 if he is healthy unless they can trade him or one of the younger guys is extremely impressive in camp and he is not. Probably would rather see Riikola over Joseph until he puts on some pounds.

Sullivan is a guy who loves his speed and puck moving defenseman. I think the reason why he plays JJ is because the organization forces his hand. If we see another year of Johnson, it will be a disastrous season, especially if he plays in the top 4.

I don't think he will be a disaster but it is not an ideal situation. All we can hope for is for him to be a serviceable 5/6 I guess. After watching a bunch of teams offload bad contracts you have to think Jim is at least going to try to get rid of his. It really isn't a bad cap hit just WAY too long.

Finally someone with reasonable analysis of Johnson. He isn't the reason the team didn't have success last year. Was he put into a position to best suit his abilities he performed fine.

You could easily justify hornqvist above rust on the depth chart. Probably Kahun as well. He only has one year in the league.

Agreed, I think they are going to give Kahun first shot at playing on the top line because he fit in well with Toews and Kane in Chicago. If it doesn't work out I would imagine McCann is next in line and then Rust and lastly Galchenyuck or Horny. But i really feel like Malkin and Galchenyuck are going to fit nicely together. Read an article from Yohe. Sounds like Johnson is going to be with Gudbranson to start the year. Have a feeling they might go the route Nashville has by sheltering their bottom pairing heavy.

They could shelter them and with the minutes the other top 4 are capable of playing that won't be hard to do. I still think that is a pretty good bottom pairing though. Even if they are overpaid. It's not like the pens would have landed any big names in free agency if they didn't have those contracts on the books. They would have had to sign bottom pair free agents to replace them.