Predicting the NHL Roster Halfway through the Preseason Is Silly, but Let's Try It Anyway

Things are heating up as it cools down

We’re three games into the six-game preseason, and other than an out-of-nowhere injury to Jamie Benn this week, the likely NHL starting lineup seems fairly clear.

Contracts make rosters, but Jim Nill has always made it clear that lineups are chosen by the head coach. And even with a new head coach, we’ve already seen enough for me to have a pretty confident idea of where a lot (if not all) players stand.

So, let’s categorize, with this all based on the assumption that everyone else is healthy on opening night.

NHL Goalies

Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith are goalies. Thus concludes the first category.

Locks to be in the starting NHL lineup on opening night

(9) Forwards:
Mikko Rantanen, Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin, Matt Duchene, Wyatt Johnston, Sam Steel, Radek Faksa, Mavrik Bourque

(5) Defensemen: Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Thomas Harley, Lian Bichsel, Nils Lundkvist

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Most of these names are so obvious that even typing them out felt like I was generating some kind of clickbaity article for an ad-infested aggregator website. But thoroughness is important. (Also, I am terribly afraid I’m going to omit someone obvious and get, like, totally roasted for it by the kids these days.)

Mavrik Bourque and Nils Lundkvist have another couple of weeks to go, but at this point, I think it’s clear they’ll both be getting a lot of runway to start the season, so I’m confident they’ll make the opening night lineup. Build confidence by showing it, at least until you have reason not to.

Lian Bichsel started last year in the AHL for roster management purposes (and a little bit of extra AHL seasoning), but he’s absolutely going to play in every game he can this season. (I mean, I’m not going to tell him he’s not playing. Have you seen that guy? He’s huge!)

Aside: It’s really nice when young players arrive ahead of schedule, isn’t it? For all the talk last decade (of which I was occasionally a contributor) about Jim Nill bringing over the “Detroit Way” and “overmarinating prospects,” I think Nill has generally been bolder and more progressive as a GM in Dallas than either Ken Holland or Steve Yzerman were in Detroit. I suppose he has a few trophies that mean more than this paragraph will, but I think it’s worth pointing out how people change as time goes by. Nill has made some calls that didn’t work out (even as recently as last summer), but man, the Stars are the envy of almost every other organization in the league right now, even without a ton of draft capital. As ever, good management will out.

Expected to be on the NHL roster on opening night