18 year old Sam Bennett, the best 1st liner the league will see

Lindholm and Monahan are your only options for 1C cause they're drafted and rarely traded.

Yes Backlund should be playing 3C, that was the entire purpose of going after Kadri in the off season. Its not necessarily that Monahan is the teams current 1C that is the issue. Its more that a team needs both center depth and balance. By moving Lindholm to 1/2C split with Monahan it gave the team center depth but opened up a massive hole on the right wing. Before Robinson was brought up Calgary was 1 of only 2 teams in the league without a right handed winger in the line up (because Czarnak is in Stockton and both Ryan and Lindy are down the middle). The other being Detroit and they aren't exactly having a hot year.

More or less the point I'm making is a team doesn't need an elite status center to succeed (17-18 Vegas, 18-19 Sharks, Carolina, Nashville, Arizona, Columbus, Philly, Tampa, NYI). Last year the Gaudreau - Monahan - Lindholm line was one of the most successful in the NHL, right up next to Colorado's and Boston's in terms of production and chemistry. However the teams secondary scoring was certainly an issue and it clearly showed when the first line struggled at the beginning of this year. Backlund taught Tkachuk how to play a good 2-way game but Chucky still had to solo carry that line all season offensively.

Over the next 3 weeks Treliving has a couple options; he can look for a new right handed replacement for the Monahan line, or he can bank on bringing in a 2C (ideally right handed) like JGP to play with Tkachuk and Mango and put Lindholm back on the RW

If the team can move forward with a line up as follows and get its synergy working again the team should succeed
Gaudreau - Monahan - New RHW/Lindholm
Tkachuk - New 2C/Lindholm -Mangiapane
Dube - Backlund - Bennett (unless traded for above piece)
Lucic - Ryan - Rieder

You make some really good points, and I generally agree with you.

My only thing is that I think the team needs somebody else to play with Gaudreau besides Monahan. Those two were first paired together when the team was in rebuild stage, and it just made sense to play them together, largely because they were the two young guns on the team with lots of potential. And they have been a good pairing over the years. But things have changed. If we really want to see Gaudreau living up to his full potential, without him disappearing come playoff time, then I think he needs a more dynamic centre who can drive play a bit more (i.e. Dubois, Point, Drouin, etc.). Put Monahan on the second line, and just let him be Mr. steady, while Gaudreau wheels around on the first.