Top 5 Detroit Red Wings Storylines to Follow in 2014 Training Camp

The Detroit Red Wings will head into training camp this month with a roster that is pretty much set for the season, but there are still a few battles that will happen for playing time.

Barring any major unforeseen circumstances, the Red Wings will not have the bunching at the forward position that they had last season that forced Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar to start last season in the minors.

Nevertheless, the forwards will still have to battle for ice time and not just be content with a roster spot.

Here are the top-five training camp battles to watch this season.

Note: "Top five" in this sense means battles that will have most relevance to the opening night lineup and ice time played by a given player.

5. Joakim Andersson or Luke Glendening for Fourth-Line Center?

Dave Reginek/Getty Images

When looking at battles that could be resolved in training camp, it is very possible that it will come down to Joakim Andersson and Luke Glendening for the fourth-line center position.

While Andersson has a little bit more experience, it is Glendening who won the job last year and ran with it. Andersson was put on the wing and occasionally sat for prolonged periods of time on the bench without a shift.

Andersson was almost an afterthought, offensively, last season with just 17 points in 65 games. While the Wings weren't necessarily counting on him for his offense, he needs to do more than kill penalties to maintain a spot in the starting lineup every night going forward.

4. Does Tomas Jurco Make the Lineup If Daniel Alfredsson Plays Another Year?

Jana Chytilova/Getty Images

Due to injuries last season, Daniel Alfredsson led the Detroit Red Wings in points for 2013-14.

If the Wings can stay healthy in 2014-15, there is no reason why that should be the case again, but Alfredsson would still provide a valuable right-handed shooting, power-play presence for Detroit.

If he decides to continue playing.

Alfredsson told Red Wings' Bill Roose, Detroit's beat writer, that he needs his right leg to hold up.

The 41-year-old spoke on his leg, saying "it’s been more with numbness and losing strength in the right leg, which is why you need to put the repetition in to make sure you hold up...and it’s not just feeling good for a little bit and then you’re in and out all year long. That’s not what anybody wants."

But with Alfredsson's future on hold for the moment, if he does come back, it creates an issue for Detroit in terms of making a roster move.

Per Cap Geek, the Red Wings have 14 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies signed to NHL contracts. That gives them 22 roster spots filled, with a 23rd roster spot coming when Danny DeKeyser signs eventually. If Alfredsson signs, Detroit would be pushed to 24 contracts, and thus need to make a roster move before the start of the season.

Tomas Jurco shares the undesirable position of being the only player of those potential 24 players who can be waived without going through waivers. Gustav Nyquist was in a similar position to start last season.

It will be interesting to see how training camp progresses (if Alfredsson and DeKeyser are both signed by then) and if Jurco can stay on the Red Wings despite being able to clear waivers.

3. Anthony Mantha's Attempt to Take a Roster Spot Away from Another Player

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

If Anthony Mantha makes the Detroit Red Wings NHL roster this season, he will have to beat someone out for a spot.

As stated on the previous slide, the numbers just don't work out well for Mantha to walk in and claim a spot on the NHL roster.

MLive.com's Brendan Savage interviewed Mantha back in June, and Mantha didn't shy away when asked if he thought he could make the roster.

"

At the end of the summer, I'll be a few pounds heavier. I think I can play there. But as I mentioned, it's (about) coming to camp, being ready and we'll see...I need to keep working, keep getting stronger – on the ice, off the ice...the skill level is there...I think I can play there but obviously I need to be ready next year.

"

In the same article, Savage later asked Red Wings GM Ken Holland about Mantha, and Holland acknowledged that the two-time, 50-goal scorer in the QMJHL will have to bring more to the table than just offense. 

"

How is he physically? Is he good defensively? Lots of times in junior, college and Europe, scores are 5-4, 6-5 and we play a lot 2-1 and 3-2 games. So if you don't score what else do you bring to the table? 

If you don't score, can you kill a penalty, are you good defensively, can you win physical battles, can you protect the puck down low, can you forecheck and force the defense to make mistakes? It's more than just can you score.

"

The questions are on the table for Mantha, and it will be up to him to prove himself capable of handling full-time NHL roster duties for a season and not just in random spurts of time.

Mantha will need to do a lot more of the above (body checking opponents) to get noticed by the coaching staff. Everyone (or almost everyone on YouTube), has seen Mantha score goals, but if he hopes to be an NHL player one day, he must bring his defensive game to another level and also find ways to contribute on special teams as a third- or fourth-line type of role.

The Red Wings already have a player who is fabulously talented in goal scoring in Johan Franzen, but he is not a consistent player. If Mantha hopes to make the Wings this season, he will need to be consistently better than other players in Detroit's lineup.

2. Helm Is on First Line and Weiss Is Healthy, Who Gets the Last Top-Six Spot?

Dave Reginek/Getty Images

Darren Helm will likely see a big boost in his offensive numbers this year, as Mike Babcock announced that he would play him on Pavel Datsyuk's wing this season, per Ansar Khan of MLive.

That move somewhat solidified Detroit's top-six forward group, but ultimately could have resulted in more questions than answers.

The simple fact is that if Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg team up with Helm on the first line, it creates a position battle between Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist to play on the second line with Stephen Weiss and Johan Franzen.

So despite Babcock not openly declaring his top six yet, if he sticks with Helm on the first line with Zetterberg and Datsyuk, it is a safe bet that either Tatar or Nyquist will get the boot onto the third line to start the season. So would Detroit be insane not to start Nyquist in its top-six forwards group after he led the team in goals last year?

Perhaps. 

But Tatar was second on the team in goals as well, demonstrating that he can also be counted on when given more minutes. Will Tatar or Nyquist end up getting that spot come October 9 against the Boston Bruins in the season opener?

It is a big question for the sake of getting offense from more than just Datsyuk and Zetterberg's line.

1. Dan Cleary and His Goal of Making the Opening Night Lineup

Dave Reginek/Getty Images

Normally speaking, a player of Dan Cleary's overall quality wouldn't factor in that heavily to a team's plans for a given season. But after Cleary was re-signed this offseason (against some fans' wishes), it was imperative that Detroit find a place to use him effectively this season.

While it wouldn't be wise to give him top-six ice time for the sake of his knees staying healthy the whole season, the Wings need to give Cleary some quality ice time to get his offense back.

If Cleary wants to be more than the face for the month of September on the Red Wings' calendar, he will need to get some power play time in if he cannot get into the top-six forwards group. 

Although he is a completely different player when healthy, Cleary will be challenged to not only make the roster (if Alfredsson is re-signed), but also to make the opening night lineup for the season opener. 

Cleary won't just be battling one or two players for lineup spots, but potentially as many as six or seven players for the right to get more minutes and bring his offensive numbers back to a respectable area.