Makeshift Wings

When considering who will be on the opening night roster for this upcoming season, I believe the consensus among most Canes fans is that we have our centers figured out. Staal centers the first line, obviously with Ruutu, Sutter and Tim Brent or Jiri Tlusty on the second, third and fourth lines respectively. The biggest issue is figuring out who will be playing the wings on these lines because things kind of look like a mess right now on the first line. Judging from what I've gathered from other Carolina fans, most would like to keep the second line of Jussi Jokinen, Tuomo Ruutu and Jeff Skinner together instead of bumping up Skinner to the first line with Staal and I can understand that because it gives the team more scoring depth. However, that leaves two holes on the first line and there isn't a lot to work with to fill those spots. Then you have to consider who will play the wings on the bottom-six too. Let's take a look at what our options are:

Note: There's a few players who I have ruled out already because, like Jokinen and Skinner, they seem to have found spots on other lines. Chad LaRose appears to be comfortable on the third line and Patrick Dwyer is set on the fourth-line so we don't have to worry about them.

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