Projecting Red Wings’ lines, defense pairs after flurry of moves

Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde has probably gone through several scraps of paper scribbling potential line combinations following a flurry of activity by general manager Steve Yzerman the past two weeks.

And you know what they say about line combinations: How they look in Game 1 isn’t necessarily how they’ll look in Game 2, or even midway through Game 1.

But it’s fun for fans to play coach and jot down who they feel would work well together.

Yzerman’s big move was acquiring Alex DeBrincat on Sunday. He also traded for winger Klim Kostin at the draft and signed more than a half-dozen free agents: forwards J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong and Christian Fischer, defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Justin Holl and goaltenders James Reimer and Alex Lyon.

He altered more than one-third of the roster in order to get this team closer to its first playoff berth since 2016.

He’s probably done making moves, but you never know.

In any event, here’s a projection of the Red Wings’ season-opening line combinations and defense pairs. And if one is close to being accurate, we’ll consider it a success:

Forwards (left wing-center-right wing)

First line: David Perron-Dylan Larkin-Alex DeBrincat

A Larkin-DeBrincat combination could be mutually beneficial. Larkin, coming off a career-high 79 points, could top 80. And this would put DeBrincat in the best position to return to his 41-goal form. Who to put on the other wing? Some might suggest Lucas Raymond, but Perron would provide some size, abrasiveness and a net-front presence. Pairing two right-shooting wingers might not be optimal, however.

Second line: Michael Rasmussen-Andrew Copp-Lucas Raymond

The 6-6 left-shooting Rasmussen might be a good fit with Larkin and DeBrincat because of his forechecking ability and net presence. But he had good chemistry with Copp before suffering a season-ending knee injury in late February. Lalonde might want to keep that combination intact and add Raymond, a shooter, to the line.

Third line: Robby Fabbri-J.T. Compher-Daniel Sprong

Compher, a right-shooting center, could be setting up right-shot Sprong for one-timers in the left face-off circle while Fabbri does the dirty work down low and at the net front. Compher also could be the matchup center.

Fourth line: Klim Kostin-Joe Veleno-Jonathan Berggren

Kostin, 24, is intriguing as a former first-round pick with size (6-3, 215) and maybe some untapped potential (he had 11 goals in 57 games with Edmonton). Similarly, Veleno, another first-rounder with upside, needs to take a step like Rasmussen has done the past couple of seasons. Berggren (15 goals, 28 points in 67 games) showed as a rookie the ability to create offense in a bottom-six role.

Extra: Christian Fischer

Fischer projects as the odd-man out on a healthy roster, but he’s a big body (6-2, 212) noted for his checking and penalty killing and figures to play a lot of games.

Will miss the cut: Elmer Soderblom, Marco Kasper.

The 6-8 Soderblom was a training camp…