from Max Bultman of The Athletic,

For now, let’s focus on Vrana and Fabbri’s returns, because they are the two with something at least resembling a clear timeline. Vrana is expected to play three games with the Griffins before the team re-evaluates him, and while that certainly doesn’t guarantee an immediate return at that point, Jan. 4 looks like the earliest possible date both he and Fabbri could be back in the lineup.

Those are two top-nine pieces for Detroit, and naturally, that would mean some rearranging is in order.

You’d expect the Red Wings to ease the two back in slowly, so don’t count on seeing either one dropped straight onto Dylan Larkin’s wing for a 20-minute workload right away. But Detroit will have some options in how to proceed.

Perhaps the most obvious would be to send two of their waiver-exempt wingers, Elmer Söderblom and Jonatan Berggren, back to AHL Grand Rapids to get a top-line workload. The Red Wings would technically only need to free up one roster spot, but both Söderblom and Berggren are young players, and Detroit has made clear it would prefer both playing rather than sitting.

If this were the Red Wings’ course of action, they could either slot Fabbri and Vrana into Berggren’s and Söderblom’s existing lineup spots next to Joe Veleno — allowing them to ease back into play in a down-lineup role — or split the two up and mix and match in the bottom six opposite wingers such as Oskar Sundqvist and Adam Erne.

Berggren, in particular, has been rather successful in his 19 NHL games thus far — with 10 points already to his name — so seeing him go back to Grand Rapids is probably not the ideal outcome for the Red Wings.

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