Dayton Musicmen Season Preview

 AFTER an undeserved playoff appearance last Spring (due to another team's goalie over-usage penalty,) with a second-round exit, Dayton made some changes over the off-season and will enter the 2019-20 CCHL regular season with the goal of earning a playoff berth this season.

 DEPARTURES: Crosby, Carter, Dubnyk, Girardi & Oduya...

ARRIVALS: Seguin, Taylor Hall, Rinne, Hainsey & Polak...

The goal this off-season was to get younger and less expensive. We've dropped $10.3M from our payroll since the end of last season and we've clearly gotten younger upfront while staying about the same on defense and in nets.

CENTERS: Seguin, Kuznetsov, Beagle, McCann, Bellemare, Grimaldi

WINGERS: Hall, Hoffman, Dadonov, Guentzel, Comeau & Sprong

DEFENSEMEN: Niskanen, Hainsey, Polak, Montour, Lovejoy, Gustafsson, McQuaid, Dillon, Benning and Ryan

GOALIES: Rinne, Crawford, Brossoit and Subban

ROOKIES: Batherson, Kahun, Chartier, Lammikko, CJ Smith, Kuhlman, Roy, Lyabushkin, Riikola, Hicketts and Delia

Projected lines: 

1st: Seguin, Hall & Dadonov
2nd: Kuznetsov, Hoffman & Guentzel
3rd: Beagle, Comeau & McCann
4th: McCann/Bellemare, Grimaldi/Sprong

Defensive pairings:

Niskanen/Hainsey
Gustafsson/Polak
Montour/Lovejoy

Goalies:

Rinne/Brossoit

A word from the General Manager-

"We think we have a very competitive team heading into this season and lots of good talent on the way in the next few years. Lots of flexibility in our line combination up front and on the blueline and we have plenty of veteran leadership in nets. If we play our game - we should make the playoffs and do some damage."

Rumour Mill: Corfield put Tyler Seguin on the block a few weeks ago and is taking his time on pulling the trigger on a trade for the stud forward. It's been reported he's narrowed his search for a partner down to about four teams in all. We can expect some talented youth and/or picks to be on their way to Dayton in the next week or so. The question some ask is by moving Seguin, does Dayton move into sell mode and move other big fish off the roster or do they find a replacement 2nd line center, move Kuznetsov up to the top line and see how that works before doing anything drastic?