When the Devils announced Damon Severson made their 23-man roster and they'd kept four young blue liners on top of veterans Bryce Salvador, Andy Greene and Marek Zidlicky, many wondered how Pete DeBoer would put together his lineup.
Obviously Adam Larsson, Eric Gelinas, Jon Merrill and Severson each have top-4 potential, so keeping them on the roster doesn't make much sense unless they're playing a lot of games.
They might not play every game, but it sounds like DeBoer is planning to cycle them through the lineup so everybody plays more often than they sit, and nobody is out of the lineup too long.
Via FireandIce: When he was asked about the practicality of keeping Severson as the extra defenseman on Saturday, DeBoer seemed to hint at the possibility of some kind of rotation.“Is he playing every other night? Is he playing two out of three?… DeBoer asked of Severson. “There’s a lot of things that factor into that and there’s a lot of things that happen this time of year. Because it doesn’t look like there’s room for people, there’s ways of creating room for people, too.…
I feel like Merrill's spot is safe and that he won't be part of the rotation, but ultimately his play will decide who is in and who's out.
As for who sits first, it looks like Larsson is the lucky guy. Severson practiced on the top pairing with Andy Greene and Eric Gelinas practiced with Merrill so the writing looks to be on the wall.
If DeBoer is serious about this rotation, it's safe to assume Larsson will return to the lineup Saturday. It'll be real interesting to see how this all plays out.
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