Jonathan Drouin: Bolts By The Bay Roundtable Discussion

After a short (one week) hiatus, Bolts By The Bay is pleased to bring back our Writer’s Roundtable. This week we posed the following question to the staff: What line do you feel is the best line for Jonathan Drouin?

Without futher adieu, here are the responses from the Bolts By the Bay Writing Staff:

Lauren Burg: I feel that Jonathan Drouin should be on one of the top two lines. Ideally, he’d be with Steven Stamkos and Ryan Callahan because that would allow the hot line of Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov to remain intact. That being said, I also wouldn’t mind seeing Drouin alongside Stamkos and Kucherov, with Callahan moving to the second line beside Palat and Johnson.

I chose this because Jonathan Drouin strikes me as a playmaker. You need only to look at his statistics with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. 79 of his 108 points a season ago came via setting teammates up, and the year before 64 of his 105 points were helpers.

Two years ago, he was setting up Nathan MacKinnon, who last season took home the Calder Trophy as the top rookie and has tremendous potential. Here in Tampa Bay, he’d likely benefit more by having the opportunity to set up one of the NHL’s top goal scorers in Stamkos. Jonathan Drouin has the vision and should be the guy to replace former winger Martin St. Louis on the top line with a guy who can score from pretty much anywhere on the ice.

Angelo Resciniti: As Jonathan “Cool Hand” Drouin grows into the superstar we all expect him to become, the perfect place for him both to blossom AND to help the Lightning win games is on a line with captain Steven Stamkos and winger Ryan Callahan.

Two teachers and a star pupil: The thinking here is fairly simple. Callahan is big enough, tough enough, talented enough, and committed enough to battle in the rough places — the corners to dig out pucks and in front of the net to screen and tip – and feed the playmakers. Once Callahan gets the puck to either Stamkos or Drouin, let the playmaking commence! A couple of quick passes and the puck is in the net.

Who hasn’t pictured Jonathan Drouin making a deft feed to Stammer in his office in the left circle, followed by a screaming one-timer into the top shelf? I’m sure this image is what brings a smile to Stammer’s face as he falls to sleep the night before games. This line assignment would also accelerate Drouin’s growth, methinks. He would not want to disappoint Stamkos and Callahan. He would elevate his focus and his game, speeding up his NHL learning curve. And that would help the Bolts net more pucks and win more games. Stamkos-Callahan-Drouin.

Tasha Meares: This is an interesting question; one that is not quite as simple as it seems. Obviously, injuries play a huge factor in this. It seems like every other game someone is being injured; whether it is through the fault of their own or an incredibly cheap shot to the midsection. (Here’s looking at you, Seabrook.)

Jonathan Drouin has the potential to be a real playmaker on the team; however, he doesn’t seem to have found his niche yet. There is one thing that I know for sure; there is one line that Drouin will never be playing on. This is the line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, and Nikita Kucherov. They have an uncanny chemistry with one another and have absolutely no issue in getting the puck to the net.

In other words, when a line is on fire like theirs is, you leave them just as they are. This leaves a plethora of options available to Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper. Ideally, I would hope to see Jonathan Drouin paired up with Lightning captain Steven Stamkos; however, it may not be in the capacity in which you think.

I think that a line consisting of Stamkos, Drouin, and Vladislav Namestnikov would be very beneficial. In my ideal little fantasy world, Stamkos would be on the wing alongside Drouin with Namestnikov running up the center. Stamkos seems a lot more comfortable on the wing, which will open up his opportunities a little more.

Placing him alongside a known playmaker like Jonathan Drouin can only help further the damage this line could inflict on the other team. Also, let’s face facts, Namestnikov is incredibly fast, has decent puck handling skills, and no shortage of ability to take the puck to the net. In an ideal world, I believe this is where Jonathan Drouin will be the most effective and have the best chance of success on this offensively stacked Tampa Bay Lightning team.

Dan Herrejon: I’m torn on this question as I think that the Stamkos-Callahan-Drouin line would be fantastic. I think when Callahan went down early in the season at the time that Drouin’s thumb healed, Jon Cooper played Jonathan Drouin on the 1^st line with Valtteri Filppula and Steven Stamkos. That would be my ideal line but as Callahan came back from injury, I realized that the Drouin-Filppula-Stamkos line required Stamkos to do the dirty work, digging in the corners for the puck, etc. This cannot be Stamkos’ role.

So my first instinct is to say Drouin-Stamkos-Callahan. But as I continue to see Cedric Paquette play, I think a line of Drouin-Namestnikov-Paquette would make a great 3^rd line. Paquette has made it known that he isn’t afraid to hit, be hit, dig in the corners, and hustle every second he’s on the ice. I realize he’s playing to stay in Tampa but he can handle the Callahan role, while Namestnikov and Drouin do their best Filppula and Stamkos imitations.

While Jonathan Drouin is known as a playmaker and has the assists to back that up, he can be equally deadly for the opposition as a sniper. I think developing that aspect of his game would be easier if he isn’t feeding the best scorer in today’s game.

Now, this would be predicated on the Lightning keeping Paquette here but then once everyone is healthy that would mean that one of the following would have to be reassigned and go through waivers: Brenden Morrow; Brett Connolly; Alex Killorn.

Obviously, the team can send Paquette back down to Syracuse as he wouldn’t have to clear waivers as the others would. Or just maybe we found next week’s roundtable question. Stay tuned.

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