Silver Nuggets: How to line them up?

It's the end of July and the few remaining UFAs are trickling in. The Senators have been very active this offseason, with a franchise-altering trade, but also appear to be holding out for the young players to develop. Take a look at the depth chart below:

If these players were to make up your opening day roster - how would you line them up? My personal suggestion is below, with the goal of balancing the offense.

MacArthur - Turris - Stone

Hoffman - Zibanejad - Ryan

Michalek - Legwand - Chiasson

Greening - Smith - Condra/Neil

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Methot - Karlsson

Wiercioch - Gryba

Cowen - Ceci

Phillips - Borowiecki

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With this lineup, Lazar would get sent back to the WHL and lead the Canadian contingent at the World Juniors, with Prince, Puempel, and Pageau starting the year in Binghamton. I'm a huge fan of Jean-Gabriel Pageau, and he has all the makings of being an NHL player, despite a rough year with Ottawa last year. He scored at a decent clip in junior, and has had a lot of success in a variety of roles for Luke Richardson: top offensive player, shutdown role, playing the powerplay and penalty kill. For these reasons, I'd seriously consider giving him an NHL spot. I think that Smith has more to show for himself after being anchored by Greening and Neil for the most part of last season, but his even-strength production is worrying. Smith does not rank in the top-120 centremen league wide with respect for P/60. While he's on a cheap contract, this year is big for him, as replacements are knocking on the door.

What's your ideal lineup?

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Sens Links

• Adnan wrote a piece discussing what to expect with our 2015 UFAs. With reports coming out last week that the Senators were meeting with the agents for MacArthur, Ryan, and Methot soon, let's hope we can get something done. Nichols and Yost have recaps of these events last week while also touching on the Robin Lehner situation. [Silver Seven, 6th Sens, HockeyBuzz]
• My favourite internet thing, the Chet Sellers and Luke Peristy podcast, released their 9th episode this week. Go give it a listen! [Bonk's Mullet]
• With the long awaited follow up to his 2014 Bad Contracts team, Varada released the alter-ego this week. [WTYKY]
• Yost takes a crack at how the Sens will line-up this season, arguing that it's time for the young talent to grab their spot at the NHL level. [Travis Yost]
• Jared takes a look at the Sens calendar and marks off his top 5 games for next season. [SenShot]
• Amelia has a Q&A with Winging it in Motown and On the Forecheck regarding offseason addition David Legwand [Q&A]
• SensChirp also talks about the Legwand signing, stressing that a 200-ft player is what the Senators need right now. [SensChirp]
• Our weekly question for this week is "who should be the next Senators captain?" from Sheer_Craziness. [Weekly Question] /

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