Training camp starts this week across the NHL and that means we finally start to get some actionable information. To this point, the only information we have besides projections – which are educated guesses themselves – are estimations of lineups and playing time. Things change throughout the preseason but even with split squads, we start to be privy to key lineup information.

I thought it'd be worth taking some time to point out important positional battles that we need to keep an eye on. Back in July, I talked about some tenuous power play situations for defencemen, like in Montreal and St. Louis, with blue liners that could eventually take over the top PP role. We are going to look at a lot of forward situations, both at even strength and on the power play, that have significant fantasy implications. Many of these battles have been discussed in passing all through the offseason, though now we're going to put them all in one spot.

Before we get to that, a reminder that projected line combinations are included for every team in the 2022 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide! And these line combos, and their implications, will be updated all through the preseason. Pick up your copy, get a skate up on your league mates, and help support what we do all season long!

Alright, let's chew the lineup fat with many lineup battles to pay close attention to. As usual, data from Natural Stat Trick or our own Frozen Tools, unless otherwise indicated.

Buffalo Top Line Right Wing

The assumption here is that Buffalo will start the season with duos they finished last season with: Tage Thompson with Jeff Skinner and one of Casey Mitteldstadt/Dylan Cozens with Alex Tuch. That would leave the second-line left wing spot open and that's where Victor Oloffson would slide in. The last spot in the top-6 is the right-wing slot next to Thompson and Skinner. With those two on the ice last year, Buffalo generated nearly 3.0 expected goals per 60 minutes and nearly 3.9 actual goals. (We should note that they scored more with Alex Tuch than without but were still very proficient regardless.) The assumption among many, including myself, is that role will almost certainly go to rookie Jack Quinn. Anyone that has paid attention to the NHL knows how hard it can be for a rookie to just step into a top line role, though, so we'll need to see how their exhibition games progress.

Vegas Top PP Defenceman

With the caveat that the Vegas power play formation changed a lot all through last season given their plethora of key injuries, they finished the season giving the majority of power-play time to Alex Pietrangelo. Mark Stone's health may play a factor into just how good the Vegas power play is early in the season, but the defenceman having that role is the one we want to draft in fantasy leagues. The team hiring Bruce Cassidy as their new coach makes this all very uncertain and I'm not sure there's much we can draw from his Boston tenure. Despite trying different PP defencemen, they eventually settled on Charlie McAvoy. My assumption is they use Pietrangelo because it would be an easier passing situation feeding Jack Eichel on his off-side (like John Carlson and Alex Ovechkin in Washington) but with two viable options, we could see shuffling all season long.

Detroit Fourth PP Forward

In Detroit, we are assuming that all of Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, David Perron, and Moritz Seider are on the top power play. With all the offseason acquisitions and injury returns, the team has a lot of options for that fourth forward. They have Jakub Vrana, who is second in the entire league in goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 over the last four years, coming off a year where he missed over 50 games with a shoulder injury. They also have Lucas Raymond, who is coming off a 23-goal, 57-point rookie season where he was a fixture of the top power play. Andrew Copp has limited power play experience but is an option if they want two centres up there. Finally, there's Robby Fabbri, who had an ACL surgery last March and whose status for training camp is uncertain but has seen top PP time for the Wings. (If anyone has seen an update, let us know in the comments, but I haven't seen anything yet.) Derek Lalonde is the new coach, and he doesn't have the same history with the players, so it's not a guarantee that Raymond is the fourth forward. My lean is that he gets the spot as the incumbent, but there is no certainty. Exhibition games will help clarify things in this regard.  

Minnesota Third And Fourth PP Forwards

The only real constants of Minnesota's power play forwards last year were Mats Zuccarello and Kirill Kaprizov. The other two roles were a rotation of Kevin Fiala, Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman, and Matt Boldy. Fiala has moved on to Los Angeles, so there are three options left, but the team is also expected to have Marco Rossi join the fold. Not that I'm assuming a rookie jumps right to the top PP over established players, but that option is there.

Eriksson Ek played significant PP minutes on the top unit last year so he's the first guy I think makes the cut. He's a better faceoff option that Hartman and plays the net-front role well so he's a natural. The final spot would play somewhere in the middle but could migrate to either circle, a spot that Fiala often occupied. As HockeyViz shows us, that seems to line up well for what Boldy did on the power play last season:

That is my assumption here: we see a quartet of Kaprizov, Zuccarello, Eriksson Ek, and Boldy. The issue is that they're all left-handed shots so if they want a righty, maybe Boldy is taken off for Hartman. Watch the Wild in the preseason to see not only what the PP combos are, but where the players setup as well.

Columbus Top Line Centre

There may not be a lineup spot more discussed by myself this offseason than this top-line centre slotting. The reason is obvious, as the addition of Johnny Gaudreau could give them a high-scoring top trio along with the centre of choice and Patrik Laine. Maybe they split up that winger duo, but it would still leave someone with Gaudreau, which is obviously a great spot to be. With the news that Boone Jenner is ready to go following a back injury last year, he certainly looks to have the inside track. However, Jack Roslovic showed well over the final month or so of the season. I have constantly said his poor faceoff percentage will keep him from the top line role, but we'll find out soon enough.

Nashville Second Line Left Wing

This is another spot where we have to have assumptions. Here, we are assuming a top line of Filip Forsberg, Mikael Granlund, and Matt Duchene. The second line will have Ryan Johansen as its centre and (likely) Philip Tomasino on his right side. Tomasino is not a guarantee, but I wrote last month about how good his rookie season was and expect him to lock down that role. That leaves the left-wing spot next to Johansen-Tomasino open with two candidates: Nino Niederreiter and Eeli Tolvanen.

Quietly, the duo of Johansen-Tolvanen were good last year for Nashville, as the team controlled 52.8% of the expected goals at 5-on-5 and outscored the opponent by a 3:2 margin. The problem is Tolvanen's role was greatly minimized down the stretch for Nashville as he skated under 11:30 a night in the month of April. If he doesn't impress the staff in the preseason, they have a very capable replacement in Niederreiter. My assumption is that Tolvanen at least gets a chance to prove he's a top-6 option for them, but the leash won't be long, and it could be the difference between second-line and fourth-line minutes. For all the Tolvanen backers, let's hope for an impressive training camp.

Anaheim Second Line Left Wing

Down the stretch in 2021-22, Adam Henrique played a lot with Troy Terry, and the two of them were largely off Trevor Zegras's line. Anaheim also added both Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano in the offseason, both of whom are expected to start somewhere in the top-6. Now, whether Henrique and Terry stay together, or Henrique moves to the right wing, is up in the air, but we do have five Ducks forwards that are near-locks for top-6 minutes: Zegras, Terry, Henrique, Strome, and Vatrano. It leaves a left-wing spot on the second line open, assuming Henrique is on the right side. We have two options here: Max Comtois and Mason McTavish.

It is hard to have watched any of McTavish over the last year, whether in the NHL, OHL, Olympics, or World Juniors, and not come away very impressed. But I wonder if they want to have him develop as a centre out of the gate, in which case he'd be pushed to the third line. He didn't play that role for them in his brief NHL stint so maybe he goes right to the second line; he certainly looks like he's ready for it. But they could also look to see if Comtois can bring anything to the team. McTavish is the likely candidate here to round out the top-6 but it's a matter of how Anaheim coaches view his role, not us.

St. Louis Seven Forward Problem

The Seven Forward Problem is something I've discussed in my Ramblings. Dallas is a team that has this issue, and St. Louis does as well. With the departure of David Perron, the team has Ryan O'Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jordan Kyrou, Robert Thomas, Brandon Saad, Pavel Buchnevich, and Brayden Schenn as top-6 candidates. One of them is going to get stuffed to the third line and it seems hard not to think it'll be Schenn. He is usually a centre and that would leave him behind O'Reilly and Thomas.

St. Louis did add Noel Acciari to the mix, though, and he could be a third-line centre for them if they want to go in that direction. It would move Schenn to the left wing, and could complement Thomas on faceoffs as they're of opposite handedness. That would likely move Saad to the third line with Acciari and would give them a decent depth trio. My guess is that Schenn is indeed the third-line pivot, but training camp will give us the information we need. Even with a PP1 role, that could be a problem for the 31-year-old.

Tampa Bay Top Line Left Wing

Ondrej Palat is in New Jersey and the top-6 forward mix is open. Tampa Bay used Alex Killorn with Anthony Cirelli a lot towards the end of the regular season, adding Brandon Hagel when he was traded from Chicago. They could very well just run that trio back but there are complications.

First, it's the role of Steven Stamkos. When Tampa Bay has both Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli healthy, Stamkos plays the wing. (He's not a true winger in that he still takes a lot of faceoffs, I'm thinking of just how we would write it out.) If he's on the "wing", it's on the right side, where Nikita Kucherov will also be. That would lock up the team's two right wings, two centres, and one left wing with Killorn. That would move Hagel to the third line and leave us with this:

????? – Point – Kucherov

Killorn – Cirelli – Stamkos

That top left-wing spot is wide open.

(This is where I note the team did experiment with Cirelli on the left wing a few times, moving Stamkos to centre with Point as the other middle-man. That would leave a right-wing spot open instead and that's what makes this such a complicated matter.)

Ross Colton is someone I've discussed this offseason but his second NHL season was a real good one. He paced for over 40 points playing under 13 minutes a game and per Corey Sznajder's tracking data, he was great with controlled zone entries and getting in spots for scoring chances:

He is fine defensively, is good in transition, and can find the back of the net. Putting Colton down on the third line seems a waste of his talents but we'll find out in training camp. How the team puts their top-6 together will be interesting to follow.

Colorado Second Line Centre

Nazem Kadri signing in Calgary leaves a very promising 2C position for the contending Avalanche. I have long said that I believe Mikko Rantanen eventually ends up with the spot this season, but the team has the defensively reliable J.T. Compher around as well as Alex Newhook, who was supposed to be the 2C of the future. They also signed Evan Rodrigues recently and all that makes for a very muddled situation.

Colorado will have Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Valeri Nichushkin, and Artturi Lehkonen in the top-6. It leaves one spot open and at least three contenders. Whoever draws the right straw wins. My lean is Rodrigues but it's a lofty position with a lot of responsibility to put on a guy who turned 29 in July and has zero seasons of at least 16 minutes a night in TOI. This is one of the more interesting battles in the league as far as fantasy relevance is concerned. We may see a lot of movement here, particularly in the early portions of the season.

Montreal Top Line Left Wing

If there's one area the Habs have a lot of depth, it's middle-6 wingers. Outside of Cole Caufield on the top line, they have Mike Hoffman, Josh Anderson, Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia, and the newly-acquired Evgenii Dadonov. Montreal will be bad again this year but getting to the top line with Caufield and Nick Suzuki could be a fortuitous place to be.

My guess is it's not Hoffman, as that seems like a line that would get throttled defensively. Both Gallagher and Anderson are right wingers, so we can exclude them as well. Armia going to the top line seems very unlikely, so we're down to Drouin or Dadonov. To me, it makes sense to have Dadonov there to give the top line a solid defensive winger who can play with Caufield and Suzuki offensively as well. Drouin, in my eyes, is just Playmaking Mike Hoffman and that would lead to a lot of time spent in the defensive zone. There is also the thought of pumping Dadonov's value for a deadline trade, though the same could be said of Drouin.

In all likelihood, they probably want to rebuild Drouin's career and that means putting him with the team's top two offensive options, but Dadonov is very capable, and I think we see him there sooner rather than later. Watch training camp combinations, but if it is Drouin, pay attention to the waiver wire as the season wears on.

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Sonny Milano has joined Calgary on a professional tryout:

Hearing Sonny Milano on a PTO to CAL

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) September 19, 2022

He is a very interesting case. He had a good season in Anaheim last year and the tracking data we referenced earlier shows very good playmaking and transition work going back a few years. With that said, I've seen some writers mention that coaches don't like Milano's lack of physicality and he's easy to play against. It makes me wonder if coach Darryl Sutter will give him a fair shake. All the same, he could lock up a third-line role with a good training camp and his is a situation worth monitoring for anyone in deeper fantasy formats.

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Antoine Roussel to Philadelphia on a PTO of his own:

Antoine Roussel is joining the #Flyers on a PTO.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 19, 2022

It is hard to see him locking down a full-time role with the Flyers but with the right slotting, he could play in banger/PIM leagues. Not a great option, but that's why he's on a PTO to Philadelphia.

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We mentioned Mark Stone's injury status earlier. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy shed a bit of light on this:

Bruce Cassidy, at the Knights' charity golf event, said Mark Stone will likely be on the ice the first day of practice Thursday.

However, he may be limited (non-contact jersey, only one session per day, etc.) Exact situation TBD.

— Ben Gotz (@BenSGotz) September 19, 2022

That he'll be on the ice at all is a good sign. They will obviously take their time with him but it's a situation to keep tabs on as preseason wears on.

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Very bad news for fans of the Flyers and for Sean Couturier:

Sean Couturier to Miss Significant Time for Flyers with Another Back Injury https://t.co/QHZXPTzN7z

— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) September 19, 2022

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet would later tweet that Couturier and the team are seeking a second opinion.

We will have to wait and see a firm diagnosis and timeline, but this is about the worst injury news he could have. Let's just hope it's not as serious as it appears right now. If it is a long-term issue, Kevin Hayes is about to step into a huge role for this team.