Mikko Rantanen To Make Canes Debut On Top Line, Taylor Hall Starting On Fourth

The Carolina Hurricanes had a big shakeup to their roster last night, adding superstar winger Mikko Rantanen and forward Taylor Hall in exchange for Martin Necas and Jack Drury.

The two forward made their way to New York today and are in the lineup for the Canes' 7:30 game against the New York Islanders.

Related: Carolina Hurricanes Pull Off Historic, Blockbuster Trade In Three-Team Deal

Rantanen will be making his Canes debut, at least to start, on the top line playing alongside Sebastian Aho and Jackson Blake.

Hall will be starting on the fourth line centered by Jack Roslovic and with Juha Jaaska on the other wing.

Here's how the forward lineup will look to start the game:

Mikko Rantanen - Sebastian Aho - Jackson Blake
Andrei Svechnikov - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Eric Robinson
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Seth Jarvis
Taylor Hall - Jack Roslovic - Juha Jaaska

I'm sure that coach Rod Brind'Amour will shake things up as the game goes because with neither player having had even a single day, let alone practice, with their new team, there's no way to know quite what the right fit will look like.

"It's obviously exciting to see how it will fit," Brind'Amour said. "Tough for them not to have even one practice or anything, but it's exciting. Just the potential with what's there.

"I gotta be honest, we'll see. There'll be a little bit of adjustment that we're all going to have to go through here for a little while, I'm sure. I don't want to put too much on these guys right away because it's a whirlwind when you get traded, especially when you've been somewhere a long time. Getting used to whatever systems we're playing versus the other. I mean, it takes time and we'll see. I'm hopeful with both these guys that they can contribute. That's the whole name of the game."

Another question going into tonight was who was going to be Carolina's fourth center with Drury traded and it seems Roslovic will fill that role. Center is a position that he's played a lot in his career, so it should be a natural transition for him.

"We'll see how we deal with that," Brind'Amour had said pre-game about the center opening. "We have some options, but there is a bit of a question mark there."

Related: Numbers Assigned For New Hurricanes

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