We're a few days into preseason and there are certainly some intriguing spots coming out of camp for some players. With minimal happening so far, we can only dive into some practice lines and a few preseason games so let's see what there is.

Ondrej Kase – The talk heading into camp was Nick Ritchie probably lining up with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on the top line to start the season, but the real intriguing player is Ondrej Kase. This is a player that was often praised for his possession numbers in Anaheim, a player that was on the brink of breaking out. Injuries have really hurt his NHL career — playing just 88 games over the last three seasons. From 2017-2018 to 2019-2020, Kase put up 2.06 points per 60 (pts/60) at even strength and a 54.25 Corsi For percentage (CF%) — both of which led the Anaheim Ducks over that time for all players with at least 100 even strength minutes played. Kase is a good player and if he can stay healthy, he will be playing with the most talented players he's ever played with, no disrespect to the aging Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry from his time on the Ducks.

Jared McCann – A bit of a wild offseason for Jared McCann as he was traded from the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Toronto Maple Leafs only to be exposed in the expansion draft and taken by the Seattle Kraken. While many will point to McCann's regular role alongside Evgeni Malkin last season as a reason for his success — and rightfully so — this season may be even better for him. He will have a bit of a catch-22 though, as his increased responsibility in surefire top-6 minutes and top PP time will come with more time spent against the opposing teams top lines and defensive pairings. I think that will be okay for McCann as he is going to be playing with very good offensive players in Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz in all likelihood. This could be a sneaky-good line and McCann may be in for his best season yet.

Tyler Johnson – Tyler Johnson's time in Tampa Bay came to an end with a trade to the Chicago Blackhawks. He spent most of last season on the fourth line, or at the very least, somewhere in the bottom six. Well, Johnson now has two Stanley Cups so he cannot be too disappointed by it all. Leaving Tampa may prove to be great for his career at this point as he has been spending training camp centering Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat. Whether or not he can maintain that role remains to be seen, but there is a lot of potential for him here in Chicago if he can remain on a line with one of the best players in the NHL in Kane and an elite goal-scorer in DeBrincat.

Viktor Arvidsson – After back-to-back 61-point seasons from 2016-2018, Viktor Arvidsson followed that up with a 34-goal, 48-point campaign in just 58 games played. This was one of the next big goal scorers however the two COVID shortened seasons were not kind to Arvidsson. With just 28 points in 57 games in 2019-2020 and a lowly 25 points in 50 games last season, it has been an ugly couple of seasons for Arvidsson offensively. A change of scenery was a must and now he can start fresh in Los Angeles.  Even with those mediocre numbers, Arvidsson was still fourth on his team over the last three seasons with a 1.95 pts/60 and third with an 0.82 individual expected goals per 60 (ixG/60). Additionally, he also had a very respectable 53.33 CF% at even strength. A spike in shooting percentage in his 34-goal campaign was an outlier (17.4 percent), but his 11.4 percent career shooting percentage is still very good. He shot at just a 6.6 percent clip last season which is his lowest since his rookie season in 2015-2016. I would expect that to come back up to the 11 percent range and a nice bounceback season should be in the cards for Arvidsson.

Anthony Mantha – Throughout his career, Anthony Mantha has looked solid on a bad Detroit Red Wings team but his 38 points in 43 games in the shortened 2019-2020 season led to high hopes for last season. However, he struggled mightily with just 21 points in 42 games before being traded to the Washington Capitals. He played solid there with 8 points in 14 games, spending most of his time with Nicklas Backstrom as his centerman. This season should be even better for him as he was able to still put up a 52.73 CF% on Detroit the last three seasons which led the team.

All stats were found on NaturalStatTrick