I'm not expecting a rookie to blow the doors off enough to make the squad if there already wasn't the possibility of a spot already.
Case in point, Heinola. He's already had a TC where he looked good, and there is "potentially" a spot available and he has to pass through waivers now. I think it would be a bigger surprise if he disappointed in such a short time frame to warrant not making the roster.
I'm a huge fan of Salo, but unless something extraordinary happens, Miller is looking like the 3RD. And then as an org you make the decision that playing big minutes with the Moose as a start is a better development path.
The only surprise on D I am expecting is not so much a surprise, but who out of Coghlan, Fleury, and possibly Lundmark take the 8th spot. Fleury the most NHL experience, but also the only left hander of the 3.
Up front the first 11 spots are written in stone (Scheifele, Connor, Ehlers, NN, Iafallo, Vilardi, Lowry, Appleton, Names, Barron, Perfetti).
That leaves; Gus, Kupari, JAD, Shaw, AJF, and Toninato (as NHL experienced guys), and Lambert, Chibs, and Ford (as possible non NHL experienced guys), with Yager and Barlow going back for a year, and Lucius needing to play a healthy season in the AHL.
I like the idea of Lambert and Chibs making the jump in some capacity, but it only works if they get playing time, and are not playing 5 minutes a night on the 4th. At the very least I am hoping they get a game or two at the beginning of the season, and I'm really hoping that as the year goes on that if a top 6 forward goes down, the Jets don't shuffle the lineup up a bit and then call up a 4th liner like AJF, but start trying to bring up a scorer like Lambert and try him in that role (as long as he keeps doing well in the AHL).