I was putting together some Hershey lines for next spring, assuming an ideal situation where Orlov plays in North America and every prospect develops quickly, including Andrew Gordon, Marcus Johansson and Mathieu Perreault, who all make and stay on the Caps. Here are the lines:
Forwards
Kyle Greentree - Keith Aucoin - Francois Bouchard
Stefan Della Rovere - Anton Gustafsson - Brian Willsie
Michael Dubuc - Jay Beagle - Dmitry Kugryshev
Andrew Joudrey - Jake Hauswirth - Steve Pinizzoto
Bench - Trevor Bruess
Defense
Lawrence Nycholat (L) - Patrick McNeil (L)
Dmitry Orlov (L) - Brian Fahey (R)
Dustin Stevenson (L) - Zach Miskovic (R)
Bench - Joe Finley, Josh Godfrey, Sean Collins
Goalies
Braden Holtby
Dany Sabourin
Talk about reloading -- this is a team that lost Alexandre Giroux, Chris Bourque, Kyle Wilson, John Carlson, Karl Alzner, Michal Neuvirth, Greg Amadio, and, in this scenario, Andrew Gordon and Perreault -- and this version of the Bears still looks great. I think Joudrey would be a 2nd liner on most AHL teams and on the first line of many, but if Della Rovere and Dubuc have good years he might not break out of the 4th line. On defense, I've put a guy who doesn't look out of place filling in at the NHL level for a few games at a time (Sean Collins) on the bench. And the two goalies were #s 10 and 14 in the AHL in save percentage last year.
Doug Yingst is running a pretty amazing organization. Could any other AHL team lose the league MVP, the playoffs MVP, their top goalie and top two defensemen and still look like the team to beat?


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