Lalonde appears to be leaning toward having Dylan Larkin with Tyler Bertuzzi and Lucas Raymond as the top line and Andrew Copp with David Perron and Jakub Vrana on the second line. That would leave centers Pius Suter and Michael Rasmussen and wingers Dominik Kubalik, Filip Zadina, Adam Erne and Oskar Sundqvist vying for third-line spots.
If Veleno, who is waiver-exempt, makes the team it’ll likely be as the fourth-line center. Smith also would slot onto the fourth line or possibly as the 13th forward.
Overall a decent read for the state-of-the-races going on, but what strikes me in this piece is that Ansar at no point appears to ask Lalonde about who is making the ultimate call on guys being in GR versus Detroit and doesn’t seem terribly interested in even bringing up that we’ve been conditioned for years to accept this as a GM decision rather than a coach decision.