Follow me on Twitter by clicking the following link for all Habs updates! Follow @KarineGHG

Now that the Canadiens’ GM has almost confirmed that his offseason work is done, it will be up to Dominique Ducharme to create a line-up with the weapons Bergevin has given him. The Canadiens have lost the following players in their short summer: Shea Weber (injury), Corey Perry (2-year contract in Tampa Bay), Phillip Danault (6-year contract with LA), Jon Merrill (1-year contract with Minnesota), Erik Gustaffson (UFA), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (1-year contract with Carolina), Cale Fleury (expansion draft) and Eric Staal (UFA). Meanwhile they added: Christian Dvorak, Mathieu Perreault, Cedric Paquette, David Savard, Chris Wideman, Mike Hoffman and Mattias Norlinder might come aboard (it’s a long shot, but it could happen.

There’s no way to know for sure what Ducharme lines will look like but I’ll try anyways… I believe the line-up will look a little something like this:

Drouin-Suzuki-Caufield
Toffoli-Dvorak-Anderson
Hoffman-Evans-Gallagher
Lehkonen-Poehling-Armia
Edmundson-Petry
Chiarot-Romanov
Norlinder-Savard
Extras:Paquette, Perreault, Wideman, Byron (LTIR until December), Weber (LTIR for the season)

I think at least to start with, Ducharme will be giving the young guys a chance to show what they can do. Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, Marc Bergevin mentioned Ryan Poehling as a possible part of his center line. I know, Dvorak wouldn’t be a second line center on a good team, but Danault shouldn’t have been either. As for Drouin, Ducharme has always been a fan and I have a feeling he’ll want to give him yet another opportunity. Toffoli and Anderson have earned second line duties with last season’s performances. Gallagher and Hoffman fall to the third line but should both see some power play time.

This is what I thnk we might see on the first day of camp on September 21. Doesn’t mean it will be though, the coach can sometimes work in mysterious way, I must admit that I cannot wait for everything to start-up again!

Join the Discussion: » 114 Comments » Post New Comment

» In Hainsight: One Last Defeat

» In Hainsight: A Very Good Start

» Hutson: We Are Ready for Lift-Off

» In Hainsight: A Good Show

» Pregame: Montreal vs Ottawa