Roster Taking Shape
Posted by:
Ben Wright on
September 19, 2007 at
12:15PM EST
Well- the first round of cuts has been made and there weren't many (if any) surprises. If you take a look at the current roster almost all of the forwards have either some NHL experience or are AHL veterans. The three with a year or less of AHL experience are Jordan LaVallee, Bryan Little, and Brett Sterling. Sterling has looked pretty comfortable with White and Kovalchuk so you probably won't see him getting sent down any time soon. That leaves about seven forwards (including Little and LaVallee) fighting for one remaining forward spot that will likely be on a checking line unless some impresses enough to bump Brett Sterling from the Kovalchuk line or makes a case for being good enough to center Hossa and Kozlov. Every indication is that Holik has that job for now, so somebody would have to blow the coaches away to take it from him.
It should be interesting.
On defense it gets even more interesting. 12 players- seven spots. Two of them are up for grabs with the other five being held down (presumably) by the four returning defensemen (Havelid, Zhitnik, Exelby and MCCarthy) and Ken Klee. That leaves Grant Lewis, Boris Valabik, Karel Pilar, Nathan Oystrick, Joel Kwiatkowski, Tobias Enstrom and Mark Popovic fighting for two jobs. Of that group three have NHL experience- Pilar, Kwiatkowski and Popovic.
So who do you think is going to make it? Who are the serious contenders for the open spots?
(10) Comments
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Posted by: Anonymous on September 19, 2007 2:01PM EST
how about goalies?
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Posted by: Ben Wright on September 19, 2007 2:35PM EST
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Posted by: roh on September 19, 2007 3:06PM EST
so mccarthy is actually going to get to play this year??????
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Posted by: PW on September 19, 2007 3:16PM EST
I would like to see Boris stay because we need the edge. For the second slot, that is a more difficult choice.
Kovy needs some distractions on his line and players that can keep up with him. It was frustrating to see him get the puck and be the only one down there and ready to shoot. I would like to see Sterling tear it up. I hope he and White click.
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Posted by: keep the faith on September 19, 2007 4:07PM EST
A Kovy/White/Sterling line sounds exciting as does a first line of Kovloz/Holik/Hossa although the Larsen/Holik/Dupuis line played extremely well in the playoffs and would be a nice shut down line that could also provide some offense. If Sterling doesn't work out on the Kovy line I hope Dupuis gets a shot there especially if they end up breaking up the Larsen/Holik/Dupuis line.
Could we potentially be looking at a Kovy/Little/Sterling line which would enable White to center Hossa and Kozlov and allow Holik to stay with Larsen and Dupuis?
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Posted by: Ben Wright on September 19, 2007 4:39PM EST
there are no guarantees for McCarthy but coach Hartley has said there are two defensive spots open and i'm assuming (fairly safely I think) that McCarthy gets one of the five taken spots.
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Posted by: roh on September 19, 2007 5:01PM EST
Have you guys decided who this year's fan correspondent is going to be yet?
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Posted by: Anonymous on September 19, 2007 6:13PM EST
What about Colin Stuart?
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Posted by: Ben Wright on September 19, 2007 8:23PM EST
He hasn't been talked about much lately but Colin Stuart is certainly a viable candidate for a checking line role. So is Jordan LaVallee.
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Posted by: Kerrie on September 20, 2007 1:26PM EST
Kwiatkowski is by far the best choice in defensemen. If he doesnt stick than that is just wrong
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