from Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News,

There are many certainties up front. You have Dylan Larkin centering Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha, which was such an effective line in the final weeks of the regular season.

It will be interesting to see how those three players progress this season, and whether they can maintain and grow on the progress they showed last season.

Andreas Athanasiou had a 30-goal season and should build on that. Athanasiou must come close to that number again, because goal-scoring once again could be an issue with this roster.

Veterans Frans Nielsen, Valtteri Filppula, Luke Glendening, Adam Erne, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm and Jacob de la Rose appear to have spots nailed down, with Taro Hirose close to having one. Hirose must show the same level of offensive skill as he did in the final weeks, but needs to have a similar exhibition season.

That leaves one, maybe two, other forward positions available.

Christoffer Ehn, Filip Zadina, Michael Rasmussen and Evgeny Svechnikov are players who will be closely monitored.

more, plus the defense and goaltending