Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon made the decision to trade Reilly Smith in favor of extending Ivan Barbashev. Barbashev was the missing link to the top line with Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault.
The fourth line is set with William Carrier, Nicolas Roy, and Keegan Kolesar.
Chandler Stephenson will center the second line with Mark Stone on the right wing. Brett Howden filled out the second line nicely by putting up 10 points in the playoffs. But Howden had just 13 points in 54 games during the regular season.
William Karlsson will center the third line, but who will his wingers be?
Michael Amadio, Paul Cotter, Pavel Dorofeyev, and possibly Howden will be competing in camp to make the opening night lineup. Coach Bruce Cassidy has options to fill out the second and third lines.
It would be interesting to see if Dorofeyev could have chemistry with Stone and Stephenson. Dorofeyev has a scoring touch at the NHL level. Stephenson and Stone play a very responsible game defensively which would help Dorofeyev as he continues to learn the game.
Karlsson between Amadio and Howden would be a very difficult line to score on. But does that line have enough offensive skill to consistently score goals? Karlsson, Amadio, and Howden combined for 36 goals in 203 regular season games last season.
Cotter is the odd man out in the line combinations above. Injuries and healthy scratches limited Cotter to just 55 games last season. Who’s place in the lineup could Cotter take?
Cotter plays the type of game that Cassidy likes. He is not afraid to go to the dirty areas and battles hard on the boards. Dorofeyev likely becomes the odd man out if Cotter replaces him on the second line. Dorofeyev needs to work on the defensive aspects of his game and the third line is not a good place for someone learning how to play defense at the NHL level.
Howden and Amadio have done enough to earn their spots in the opening night lineup. The battle for ice time comes down to Cotter and Dorofeyev.
Injuries are far from uncommon in Vegas. It is most likely Cotter and Dorofeyev see plenty of ice time once the season gets going.
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