1. Will the blue line finally perform to expectations?
This is a loaded question, for many reasons. First, depending who you talk to, expectations likely run the gamut. GM Jarmo Kekäläinen has spent much of the off-season professing that he was fully prepared to enter the season with the eight guys under one-way deals (Ryan Murray, Fedor Tyutin, Jack Johnson, David Savard, Kevin Connauton, Dalton Prout, Cody Goloubef and Justin Falk). Despite a prevailing view that the off-season would see a veteran blue liner sign on in Columbus, the organization either passed on or missed out on Christian Ehrhoff and Cody Franson, depending upon your perspective and who you choose to believe.