12 NHL players in opportune lineup spots to start the season

Credit: © Bob Frid

Now that training camp is over and the regular season is officially underway, we can finally get a better idea as to what the lineups will look like for each team. Some teams will be running similar lines and combinations to what they did last season, and some teams will be integrating the new talent into their lineups without any surprises.

But in some cases, the lineups we get are a bit more surprising. Whether it’s a young player who had an impressive camp to earn a spot in the top half of the roster or a veteran who happened to be the player that was chosen to fill a prime spot in the lineup, not every lineup comes as predicted during the offseason, and sometimes that’s for the better.

Today, I thought I’d take a look at some players who find themselves in that very position. Whether it’s a spot in the top six, the top four or even on the first power play unit, here are 12 players that currently find themselves in excellent spots in the lineup to start the season. And of course, all of the information on lines for each team comes from Daily Faceoff’s own line combos section.

Adam Boqvist (Florida Panthers)

Many wondered who would man the blueline for the Panthers’ first power play unit after Brandon Montour left and signed with the Seattle Kraken, but to some surprise, they’ve opted to go with Boqvist. Take this pick with a grain of salt, as Boqvist’s playing status is up in the air after taking a puck to the face in the Panthers’ season opener on Tuesday, but if he maintains that role throughout the season, he has a chance to be quite productive. The former eighth-overall pick hasn’t quite lived up to expectations and has never surpassed 24 points in his career, but if he’s regular getting power play minutes alongside Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe, Boqvist might be in for his best season yet.

Brandt Clarke/Jordan Spence (Los Angeles Kings)

One of the worst things that can happen to a team during the preseason is losing a player to injury during a game that ultimately has no consequences. That nightmare scenario became a reality for the Kings, as they lost minute-munching defenseman Drew Doughty to an ankle injury. But one player’s injury creates an opportunity for another player, and in this case, it’s two. With just 126 games between them, the Kings will be looking to their two youngest defensemen to replace Doughty’s minutes, as Spence is taking his spot on the top pair alongside Mikey Anderson, while Clarke will get the top power play role in his rookie season. Whether that will be a recipe for success for a Kings team looking to make the playoffs for a fourth straight season has yet to be seen, but it’s an excellent opportunity for the two young blueliners.

Maxim Tsyplakov (New York Islanders)

Tsyplakov was a free agent signing out of the KHL for the Islanders, so while he is a rookie, he comes with slightly higher expectations since he has more pro hockey experience. And of course, since he was productive in the KHL, it only seems natural to put him in a role on the Isles that will generate offense. While he’s not playing with Mat Barzal and Bo Horvat on the top line, he is getting second line duties with Brock Nelson and playing on their top power play unit. The Isles may not be a top offensive team, but that’s as good of a spot as any on this team for Tsyplakov to be put in and get off to a great start to his NHL career.

Anthony Beauvillier (Pittsburgh Penguins)

Beauvillier started his career with plenty of promise as a first round pick, but with the Islanders he could never quite get his production together, even by the standards of their offense. After he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks as part of the return for the Horvat trade, he played for three teams in a calendar year and moving all over the place caused his offense take even further steps back. Now that he’s joined the Penguins, he gets an opportunity to play with Sidney Crosby and just maybe become the player he was supposed to be. There’s no guarantee that it happens, and even if it does, it’s more likely that it’s due to Crosby propping Beauvillier up than Beauvillier finally being a productive winger, but it’s a great scenario to be in regardless.

Philip Broberg/Dylan Holloway/Alexandre Texier (St. Louis Blues)

With some vacancies to fill in the top-six forward group and top-four defense corps due to injuries and offseason departures, the Blues decided to look to some new additions to take those spots. Broberg and Holloway were the notable additions due to the double offer sheets with the Edmonton Oilers that brought them to St. Louis, and they’ve respectively been given spots on the second pair with Justin Faulk and on the top line with Robert Thomas and Jake Neighbours. The other opening has currently been given to Texier, who was acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets over the summer, and he’ll be playing on the second line with Pavel Buchnevich and Jordan Kyrou. Not all of these situations are the best these three players have played in (I’d imagine Holloway would take Leon Draisaitl over Thomas), but all of them are still great spots to start off the season in.

Danton Heinen (Vancouver Canucks)

Despite playing with the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins at various points of his career, Heinen really hadn’t been given too many opportunities to play with high-end talent until last season with the Bruins, where his most common forward linemate was David Pastrnak. Otherwise, he’s generally found himself in more of a checking role in the bottom six. And yet, as he enters the first year of his two-year deal with the Canucks, he finds himself on the top line playing alongside J.T. Miller and Brock Boeser. Heinen will likely act as the forechecker on that trio, but it’s definitely one of the best lines that he’s played on. New additions Jake DeBrusk and Daniel Sprong have also hit the jackpot playing alongside Elias Pettersson, but they’re a bit more established offensive threats in the league.

Pavel Dorofeyev/Alex Holtz/Victor Olofsson (Vegas Golden Knights)

The Golden Knights saw their forward group get decimated during the offseason, losing Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson, Anthony Mantha, William Carrier and Michael Amadio to free agency. Suddenly, a team that was one of the deepest on paper in the playoffs has plenty of holes to fill in their lineup. Instead of signing more traditional names to replace them, Vegas opted to look in the bargain bin to get their replacements. Dorofeyev was already in the organization, but generally played in a lesser role, and now he sits on the second line on Tomas Hertl’s wing. On the other side of that line, Holtz was another gamble the Golden Knights took, bringing in the former seventh-overall pick from the New Jersey Devils in hopes that they can unlock that potential and replace some of their production. Along with those two, Olofsson joins the fold, and while it did briefly look like he’d be playing on the top line with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev, he finds himself on the third line, but also on their top power play unit with Eichel, Hertl, Mark Stone and Shea Theodore. Considering how successful he’s been on the power play in the past, he may be as good of a replacement for Marchessault on that unit that you can get for $1.075 million. With two goals in Vegas’ opener Wednesday, Olofsson is already 28.6 percent of the way to last year’s total.

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