While lias is a great 2 way center he isn’t good enough/ have the skill to make that second line better than what it has with strome.. without chytil there it’s howden as the next best option

You might be right...but how about giving Lias a chance? He has played and excelled with Uber talented line mates at all levels of play up to NHL....supposedly has great vision, hockey IQ, and is a puck hound...and he seems to have improved his biggest weakness- his first few steps....give him a shot at 2C!

or at least play the poor kid more then 9mins a game! i believe he can handle it. lias game isn't 2c material, imo. i watched a ton of his games last season in hartford. he was very good but its going to be hard for him to score in this league. i've never seen 'great vision' from him.

While probably true, Lias has been buried on the 3rd/4th line getting only 7-8 minutes a night. It'd be interesting to see him on the same line as Kakko and Kreider.

Just putting out there what I believe was in his scouting report when drafted...at some point such reports should be considered worth diddly squat- replaced by evaluations based on NHL time on ice...but if he continually plays with players whose "bar for a good play" is simply swatting the puck out of their own zone...we may never get a fair evaluation of him...give him some good minutes with high end talent and let him show what he can (or can't) do!

Lias definitely deserves 2c over howden/chytil after the pre-season he gave us.. while howden/chytil have more offensive upside (at this point in time), we've never really seen andersson with talented wingers. He performed very well on a line with the Nylanders in WJC. He's way better two way than howden and is more aggressive on the puck in the offensive zone. It's worth a game or two to see how it works.. they should call up Kravtsov now instead of putting Haley in the lineup

ChytilMania forgot to bring up Chytil lol! Give Lias a shot at 2C!

I do want Andersson to get a chance. That’s why I put him at 2C