I like your read on things, my only thought might be a stasny Gus Wheeler 3rd line minutes and copp with Dubois and vaselainen as 2nd and your first, with a checking line of harkins Lowry nash. Wheeler stasny get most of there minutes on pp. I like the depth and hunger for a solid year.

Bro, you put a lot of thought into this. My 2 cents would be to consider the playing styles of the forwards and try to optimize skillsets that could work well together I like a Stastny, Dubois, Ehlers trio for my first look. Dubois is a powerful dude who can go to the net and cause chaos, he is hard on the wall, skates extremely well and has a great shot release. This IMO would mesh well with the zone entry machine that is Nik Ehlers and the wicked smart Paul Stastny. I envision 27 swirling around the O zone playing catch with 25 while 80 commands attention in front of the net. I realize this leaves us with 81, 55 and 26 as a Line 1B but I also see the Jets concentrating on deploying more of a 5 man unit which should cover up some of the defensive deficiencies.
I'm not convinced Ves is the best option on the 3rd line as the players that have succeeded in that slot have been burners that fore check deep and hard (Tanev and Appleton). KV is not that! Lowry is fast but not quick and Copp is average all around. I'm hopeful for Svechnikov but would rather see a Harkins get a shot here. Vesalainen and Gustafsson showed some great chemistry with the Moose previously!
As for D pairs i agree they gotta go Pionk and Dillon as the top pair with Morrisey and Demelo followed by Schmidt and Stanley. Nate will get his minutes on the power play and you can shorten the bench in tighter games. He struggled last year in Van and I think he needs to prove that was an anomaly first! I believe he can return to his all star Vegas form but...
Go Jets go!

I don’t see a reason why we should split up Lowry and Copp they make everyone look really good around them and plus copp is better on a line with Lowry so I don’t think we should split it up. Wheeler and stastny are good partners that can help Dubois find his game again, stastny is also holding that spot for perfetti when he’s ready.

I’m worried about fathertime and foot speed, it would be nice to see copp in a top 6 role for an extended amount of time, before the 4 or 5 year deal is offered. Just an opinion, not a belief in what is actually going to happen. Copp probably with Lowry unless there’s cold spells or injuries.

What Ottawa needs the LEAST is a left handed D man.

Well thought out. Ehlers can make any line work better. In the footage I saw of Dubois’ time in Columbus, it appeared he was often the puck carrier into the zone. I wasn’t sure if Dubois being with Ehlers would change his game into more of a trailer.

One of my biggest problems with the 81-55-26 line is that Scheifele likes to float around for 1:00-1:30 shifts. Wheeler is gassed at the 35 second mark. He goes off and the line combinations get garbled until there is a whistle. Scheifele needs to skate hard and get off. Way too many figure skating shifts, circling around hoping an offensive opportunity will arise.