Let's see if this sounds familiar. Until this year, this left wing was a bit of a "glue" guy. He could play on any line from the third line to a top line. He was a good defensive player and great penalty killer, who never really got much any run on the power play. Offensively, he was more of a goal scorer than a playmaker, and the advanced stats always liked him as a guy who drove possession. He signed a long term deal after a fairly run of the mill season for relative pennies, which seemed market value last year, only to explode this year with career highs in just about every offensive category, in no small part thanks to finally being given some real powerplay time and better offensive talent around him. I'm pairing him with a Selke caliber center who is no slouch offensively himself, similarly signed to a bargain contract. While they may not quite be Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, Sean Couturier will pair up quite nicely with his new linemate, Bryan Rust, LW.
Overall, the Penny Pincher's squad is shaping up quite nicely. On the offensive side, the top two lines both bring high end firepower with every single player on both lines being capable of putting up at least 20 goals. All the defenders are mobile, highly skilled, and strong at moving the puck, so the team will be an absolute menace in transition. In their own zone, we've got an absolute horse between the pipes who has shown the ability to put up terrific numbers even when his team does him no favors at all, except in this case he's got a terrific group of defensive forwards to help buoy his young defenders, all of whom are capable at worst in their own zone, with Marino flashing legitimate lockdown potential. I need a defensive D-man to pair with Hronek, who would likely see his numbers improve dramatically in a less insanely overloaded workload than what Detroit has thrown at him, and of course the entire bottom half of the roster remains to get filled out, but there's a lot to like here.
Jakub Vrana (24)- Nate MacKinnon (24) - Elias Lindholm (25)
Bryan Rust (27) - Sean Couturier (27)- Open
Open - Open - Open
Open - Open - Open
Rasmus Dahlin (20) - John Marino (22)
Open - Filip Hronek (22)
Open - Open
Connor Hellebuyck (26)
Open
Cap Situation:
Nate MacKinnon $6.3 million (2022-23)
Connor Hellebuyck$6.167 million (2023-24)
Elias Lindholm $4.85 million (2023-24)
Sean Couturier $4.33 million (2021-22)
Bryan Rust $3.5 million (2021-22)
Jakub Vrana $3.35 million (2020-21)
Rasmus Dahlin $0.925 million (2020-21)
John Marino $0.925 million (2020-21)
Filip Hronek $0.714 million (2020-21)
Total: $31.061 million
Limit: $81.5 million
Space: $50.439 million