In Red Wings Land

Projecting Detroit Red Wings’ season-opening roster, lines | MLive

It’s never too soon to talk lines, as we’ll see from the comments your question will generate.

Here’s what I came up with just the other day while scribbling some stuff on a napkin at Starbucks:

Anthony Mantha-Dylan Larkin-Filip Zadina

Andreas Athanasiou-Frans Nielsen-Michael Rasmussen

Gustav Nyquist-Darren Helm-Thomas Vanek

Tyler Bertuzzi-Luke Glendening-Justin Abdelkader

Extras: Martin Frk, Luke Witkowski

I didn’t include Henrik Zetterberg because some in the organization doubt he’ll return. But I don’t believe anyone knows for certain, maybe not even Zetterberg himself.

I dig these lines (especially if Zetterberg is done). My only real thought is that I’d like to see Bertuzzi on one of the top three lines, but who do you move?

If Zetterberg does play, let’s get wild and break out the line blender:

Bertuzzi-Zetterberg-Zadina

Mantha-Larkin-Rasmussen

Athanasiou-Nielsen-Vanek

Abdelkader-Helm-Nyquist

Of course, this will never happen. Hell, I don’t even know if these are the best combinations. Zadina would probably end up in the AHL in this scenario. Plus, there’s no way they’d scratch Glendening and Nyquist wouldn’t be buried on the 4th line. It’s probably better to inflate his stats playing in the top six in an attempt to get the highest possible return at the trade deadline.

Around the League

The noise surrounding secondary assists | TSN

There are a couple young Red Wings on the ‘Highest Secondary Assist Impact’ list and one vet on the opposite end of the spectrum.