Colorado Avalanche Projected Opening Night Lines

EDIT: AD has the scoop on the actual lines!

Wolski-Stastny-Hejduk
McLeod-Duchene-Svatos
Tucker-Galiardi-Stewart
Koci-Hendricks/O’Reilly-Hensick

Quincey-Clark
Liles-Salei
Hannan-Foote

Anderson

So keep reading if you want to see how close this was or make me fun of me for where it missed ;)

Original Post

I'm not even going to research this one based on line pairings during pre-season. I'm just going to toss it out there.

Wolski-Stastny-Hejduk
Galiardi-Duchene-Svatos
Hensick-O'Reilly-Stewart
Mcleod-Hendricks-Tucker

Foote-Liles
Hannan-Quincey
Clark-Salei

Anderson

Forwards
I've heard that T.J. Galiardi was taking a lot of draws but I don't recall ever hearing him actually playing center. I know that sounds weird but it happens. I don't think it's crazy to expect him to play on the left side when there's a lot of centers on the team and few left wings.

Putting Hensick on left-wing probably won't happen and frankly I'd be inclined to leave him out of the lineup, move Cody Mcleod to the third line and put David Koci at left-wing on the fourth line. That would leave a fairly mediocre fourth line but I wouldn't expect them to see the ice much. I suppose you could even swap Mcleod and Hensick, leaving Hensick with Tucker. I seem to recall they played half-decent with each other last year.

Once Jones is back, things get a bit harder on right-wing, unless Sacco has the sack to sit Tucker.

Defense
It's pretty common to pair a puck mover with a stay-at-home defender. I think it's a safe bet that Sacco/Lefebvre will go that route.

Alternate
If Galiardi does indeed line up at center, I'd shift to this lineup:

Wolski-Stastny-Hejduk
Mcleod-Duchene-Svatos
Hensick-Galiardi-Stewart
Hendricks-O'Reilly-Tucker

It would seem to be a waste to put O'Reilly in that slot though in my opinion. I know Mcleod has been riding shotgun with Duchene so it would make sense to move him all the way up to the second line if Galiardi isn't there.

Final Thoughts
I think the first line is essentially set in stone, the center for the second line is set in stone and after that, it's a bit of a crapshoot to guess what Sacco and his assistants will do.

Thankfully we don't have much longer to wait!

Colorado Avalanche 2009/10 Roster

I'm a bit late on this but after the recent cuts and injuries, the Avalanche's roster will consist of the following on opening night:

Center
Matt Duchene
Paul Stastny
T.J. Hensick
Ryan O'Reilly
Matt Hendricks

Right Wing
Milan Hejduk
Chris Stewart
Marek Svatos
Darcy Tucker

Left Wing
Wojtek Wolski
T.J. Galiardi
Cody Mcleod
David Koci

Defense
Adam Foote
Scott Hannan
John-Michael Liles
Ruslan Salei
Kyle Quincey
Brett Clark

Goaltender
Craig Anderson
Peter Budaj

IR
David Jones
Tom Preissing

I'll be back shortly with projected lines. Just have to find a hat to draw names out of...

Official Avalanche Roster for 2007/2008

The Avalanche roster is all but set in stone heading into opening night against Dallas on Wednesday. After sending T.J. Hensick and Mark Rycroft down to Lake Erie, they put Cody McCormick on waivers so they could send him down as well.

With those moves, the Avalanche have a roster of 24 players which includes the injured Jose Theodore and Brad Richardson. They won't need to be placed on the injured reserve, they will just not be activated before the season starts, which leaves the Avalanche with 22 active players.

Once those two are healthy, Tyler Weiman will find himself tending goal for the Monsters and Brad Richardson will battle it out with Wyatt Smith and Ben Guite for playing time. Or with Marek Svatos if he continues to crash and burn.

It looks like Sauer and Finger are going to compete for the 6th spot on defense. I'm still pulling for Finger to win that role but Sauer has been getting more ice-time. If Sauer gets the bulk of playing time in the end, I won't mind. As long as he is continually reminded that he is 6'4" and 220 lbs of bone-crunching size.

View the current 2007/2008 Avalanche roster