Montreal Hockey Now, a popular website, recently projected potential trios for the upcoming Montreal Canadiens season.

This exercise is interesting because it already shows that the roster will have serious weaknesses in several areas – some surprises are to be expected.

The trios predicted by MHN are:

Caufield – Suzuki – Anderson

Slafkovsky – Dach – Gallagher

Harvey-Pinard – Monahan – Hoffman

Pezzetta – Evans – Dvorak

It appears that Christian Dvorak’s place in the lineup may no longer be necessary, with him playing on the fourth line and as a winger.

Brendan Gallagher would find himself in a more offensive trio with Kirby Dach, and young Juraj Slafkovsky would also be used more prominently on a top-6.

Despite his 3.4 million dollar salary for another two seasons, Joel Armia would be among the extras, while the much-maligned Mike Hoffman would land on a third line. It is far from being a winning formation – though it remains to be seen if this will remain true come October when rosters are finalized.