JJ over MacDermid. No question. JJ isn't good, but MacDermid is terrible.

Kovalenko won't join the Avs until after the KHL season, so he's not a part of this roster unless this is an estimation of the roster in the spring

They should try to find a better option than Meyers for the 4th line. He's okay but struggled a lot last season; his contract can be buried and he's waiver exempt for 10 games so they can call him up when injures arise. And there's no need to save space for the deadline because they have several contracts that can be buried in the AHL. Might as well just spend the money and get a decent player like Suter.

Not disagreeing with you, but they signed him to a one-way deal for a reason. He's gonna get the Newhook look at 4C for at least the first month or so. If he bombs, then you send him through waivers and give up.

It's looking that way, for sure. They'll be monitoring the waiver wire early in the season to see if anything better comes along but they'd be better served by saving Meyers 10 games of waiver exemption.

He's been putting in the work. His highlights from Da Beauty league (which is not real but still hockey) are pretty nice so far. I think they're gonna put the trust in him early and if it doesn't work they're cutting the cord. That's been their development approach for better or for worse.

I agree that Meyers hasn’t looked good at all to date but unfortunately, based on the way things played out, he’s pretty much a lock for the 4C spot

I think he's a lock heading into camp and maybe even to start the season. They will most likely give him a real chance. In Bednar's world, though, "real chance" still means short leash. I think they'll want to see production right away or they figure out something else. Who knows? Maybe one of the other guys pushes for the spot.

Meyers also had bad linemates by the end of the year. I'm hoping he looks better with LoC & Cogs for a whole training camp & preseason. If he is marginally worse than Helm, I don't think it's a bad bet.

I just don't get the hate Meyers gets. IMO, he was incredibly unlucky at the NHL level last year. Of all the guys that got 25+ games, he had the highest xGF% on the roster and the lowest actual GF%. His xGoals/60 was 1st and Goals/60 was 6th on the roster. These rate stats are inflated by the fact that he had similar ice time to MacDermid so with an expanded role, I would expect them to drop a bit. The lack of assists correlates with the fact that pucks just didn't go in the net when he was on the ice. In his 360 minutes last year, the difference between his +/- and expected +/- was 10 goals. Some of those were high danger chances that Meyers failed to convert on, but many were chances that linemates failed to convert on that would have been assists. In his AHL time, he put up 6-18-24 in 30 games for nearly a PPG, so its not like he doesn't generate chances.

If he gets an extended look (60-70 GP, ~650 minutes) and even average puck luck I fully expect Meyers to put up 10-15-25.