With opening night only a day away, I thought it would be fun to play around with the roster and guess who will play where. Four guys will miss the first two games, while at NHL camps or because of suspension, leaving some ice time for a lot of rookies. They could have as many as eight rookies lacing up their skates over the two weekend games.All begins tomorrow 🌹#year2— Cody Glass (@Cody12Glass) September 23, 2016
It would be fair to expect this young team to struggle in the early going.
Left Wing
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Center
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Right Wing
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Ryan Hughes
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Ilijah Colina
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Evan Weinger
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Skyler McKenzie
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Alex Overhardt
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Colton Veloso
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Bronson Sharp
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Cody Glass
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Joachim Blichfeld
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Lane Gilliss
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Jake Gricius
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Brad Ginnell/Ty Kolle
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Out: Keegan Iverson (Minnesota Wild camp) and Rodrigo Abols (Vancouver Canucks camp). Brett Clayton (suspension).
-Clayton will serve the fifth and sixth of his six-game suspension this weekend. He will not be eligible to play until Portland takes on Everett next Friday. I would expect Portland to rotate Ginnell and Kolle as their last, dressed forward.
-Mike Johnston has already confirmed that Hughes-Colina-Weinger will be one of their lines, at least to start. The rest are just guesses on my part.
-I like the idea of McKenzie-Overhardt-Veloso as the checking line that M.J. usually likes to put together. They did have some success in the preseason, especially in the final game vs. Kootenay. Also, Glass playing with the speedy Sharp and sniper Blichfeld would be a fun line to watch, though Gilliss would be a good option on one of his wings as well. Despite missing all of the preseason, M.J. assured intrepid journalist Scott Sepich that Glass is healthy and ready to go.
Left Defense
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Right Defense
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Brendan De Jong
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Keoni Texeira
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Conor MacEachern
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Henri Jokiharju
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Carter Czaikowski
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Jake Hobson
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Matt Quigley
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Out:Caleb Jones (Edmonton Oilers camp).
-With how well De Jong played at the Neely Cup, I would expect him to start out in the top pairing. This is a put up year for Czaikowski and since he didn't really stand out too much at the Neely Cup or the preseason, he needs to in the regular season. If he does not, when Jones comes back, he could find himself released. It is no secret that the coaching staff is fond of Quigley and Hobson is a year younger, so it would make more sense for Czaikowski to be pushed out. We have seen flashes of Czaikowski's play-making ability, but we have not really seen it in a game. At five-foot-eight, he needs this to be his calling card, or the team will just go with someone older.
Goalie
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Michael Bullion
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Cole Kehler
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Ethan Middendorf
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