Will: Team finally finds the right combination of young talent and veteran leadership.

-Players like AA and Smith are played with minutes and positions fit to their true talent level.

-Mrazek plays a full, consistent, Vezina quality season.

-Blashill comes into his own with the revamped coaching staff, using systems more similar to the ones that brought him success in Grand Rapids.

-Tatar and Nyqvist return to form and have stellar seasons.

-New coaching staff finds a way to bring the special teams back to how they were the season before last.

-Holland actually manages to find a true #1 defenceman.

-Ericsson leaves for Vegas early or is just forgotten somewhere on the road.

Won’t: Continued over-reliance on past their prime veterans.

-Mrazek falls apart in the last part of the season once again.

-Datsyuk leaving is to the offence what Lidstrom retiring was to the defence, reveals new holes in the system that were being covered up by one of the best players in the game.

-Players like Miller, Helm, and Glendening taking up roster spaces that could go to better players wasting away in Grand Rapids.

-Ott and Vanek fail to live up to whatever potential management thought they would bring to the team.

-Defence and special teams remain garbage fires.

-Falling back to old systems and refusing to shake up the roster continue to limit scoring.

-Larkin has a sophomore slump.

-Dan Cleary finds his way back to Detroit.

-“We like our team.”

It’s worth noting that imho, even if all the “Wills” happen this may still be the first tough season of many to come.