from Ansar Khan of Mlive,
2018-19 outlook: Abdelkader showed improvement from his poor, injury-plagued 2016-17 season (seven goals, 21 points), but still hasn't replicated his breakout year of 2014-15 (23 goals, 44 points), which earned him a seven-year, $29.5 million extension.
The Red Wings will be adding forwards Thomas Vanek, Michael Rasmussen and Filip Zadina to the lineup and losing Henrik Zetterberg due to his back issues.
Where does this leave Abdelkader? Likely in a third- or fourth-line role, if, as expected, Anthony Mantha and Rasmussen (or Tyler Bertuzzi) fill the net-front roles on the top two lines.