We arent giving up our only Faceoff Center with positive Win Rate's
Evans stays if for no other reason he's the only Center who has Chemistry with Gallagher.

Suzuki-Gallagher didnt work
KK-Gallagher did work but only defensively with no production really
Evans-Gallagher is a balance between Defense and using their speed to create odd man rushes


Drouin-Evans-Gallagher makes the most sense
Speed , Defense and They all Fore and Back Check

Toffoli-Suzuki-Caufield (Goals )
Hoffman-KK-Anderson(Depth Goal scoring and Special teams )
Drouin-Evans-Gallagher(Fore/Back Check )
Byron-Perrault-Armia (Speed, Skill and ability to force Turnovers)
Paquette
Lehkonen

Edmunston-Petry
Chiarot-Savard
Romanov- TBA(Need a RD for 20 minutes )
Kulak

Price
Allen

Drouin doesn't backcheck though. He glides back. Big difference lol

So not trading Evans.

Ottawa accepts

Its a summary for 3/3 people on a line


Drouin Fore checks and forces turnovers using his speed to create momentum.
Gallagher does both and is a Spark Plug
Evans does both but is still evolving like Danault did at his age from 4th to 3rd to 2nd to 1st line

Drouin brings OZ presence and is good at the Transition game in NZ
Defensively in our DZ he's not the greatest i agree
But he's a insulated by Evans-Gallagher who can more then cover him
Even if that's worry some he'll be earning most of his ice time on Special Teams and from 3rd line

Either way its the best spot for Drouin
Barring the return of Max Domi i dont see anyone else doing better.
I mean he was playing awesome with Suzuki but im not breaking up Toffoli-Suzuki-Caufield

Neutralising a defence challenged winger by putting him with Evans and Gally is a good idea. But I would switch Drouin for Hoffman.

He also lack defence awareness, but would be a better fit to play "north/south" and create chances of the rush. Drouin's style is the opposite, slowing down the play and go "east-west"...

I actually looked at Hoffman and he does turn over pucks quite a lot but beyond that
Its not that bad Defensively if you factor out the Penalty Kill and that he recovers atleast half the pucks he fumbles

I cant say i disagree about the swap at all
You're probably right

I just think Hoffman takes a ton of heat
When really it boils down to he's not great in anything beyond 1v1 situations defensively.

Drouin has holes in his game Defensively and has earned it
Hoffman im not convinced is as Defensively bad as Drouin
He's just not going to be able to do crap outside covering his 1v1 assignment