Last week, I gave you my prediction on defense. Here now, is the prediction for the final forward spots, which is a lot harder of a read (no pun intendend) if you ask me:

Forwards

 To me, this is the more intriguing battle.

I mean, we know with the defensemen that ultimately all three are going to be long-term players for the Flyers and nice building blocks as the franchise tries to return to prominence under Ron Hextall’s architectural plan.

But these forward positions are really about the here and now.

Here’s what we know:

Top line: Claude Giroux-Sean Couturier-Jake Voracek

I didn’t think that this would be a regular thing, but rather something Hakstol could turn to at some point down the road when offense was needed. I was wrong. This is the plan.

It started slowly, but over the course of three games got a lot better and much more so on Thursday night. I mean real good. Voracek had a goal and an assist. So did Couturier. Giroux had a pair of helpers. Yeah, that’s good – even for preseason. Not sure right now whose brainchild this was, but we’ll give Hakstol credit until told otherwise. This could turn out to be the most outside-the-box decision in the NHL this season, and perhaps one of the more successful.

Second line: Jordan Weal-Nolan Patrick-Wayne Simmonds

Look, there was never a doubt Patrick was making the team. There was a lot of coach-speak or GM-speak about him potentially going back to juniors, blah, blah, blah. It was a line they had to feed publicly to make Patrick earn it in camp.

But the fact is, the kid is really talented and was going to be here. Playing him with Simmonds will protect him as Simmonds will take care of the 19-year-old rookie. And Weal is a guy who has been a fan darling for a little more than a year now. It’s a line that can provide instant offense. The one worry is it’s not the best defensive-minded combination, so it has to be deployed wisely by Hakstol. I think if there’s a line that could get some tweaking early in the season, it’s this one. But if they’re putting the puck in the net, maybe not.

Third line: Dale Weise-Valtteri Filppula-Travis Konecny

I’m not in love with Weise here. He’s a serviceable bottom six guy, but I think Konecny is a talent and could use a little more gifted offense around him. Ultimately, as the season goes along, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Patrick and Konecny end up together on a line while Filppula plays with Simmonds and Weal. At that point, Weise makes more sense as the defensively responsible player with a couple of young, talented forwards – but I get why you wouldn’t want to start the season that way as they want to ease Patrick into the NHL a little bit.

Fourth line: Michael Raffl-Scott Laughton-??????

This is where it gets interesting. Laughton and Raffl have had excellent camps. They have become close. Their lockers are right next to each other. There are a lot of good, lengthy conversations between the two in the locker room. They’re both solid, reliable two-way players. Laughton has bought into his role. Raffl is a jack-of-all-trades. As a matter of fact, regardless of who their linemate is, unlike a lot of other fourth lines, I’m betting this trio will see a lot of action against the top lines of the opposition, really making them more like another third line option for Hakstol.

So who gets to play with them?

The remaining candidates are a pair of veterans and a pair of young players.

First is the usual suspect – Matt Read.

Read is now 31 and entering his seventh NHL season. It seems like yesterday that he burst onto the scene as an undrafted free agent who scored 24 goals, 23 assists and 47 points as a rookie in 2011-12. Turns out, those were all career highs.

But now, in the final year of his contract, Read is being pushed for a job.

Coming into camp, it looked like he might be the odd guy out – and he still might be. But, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t worked hard to keep his job.

He’s had a very good camp. He’s healthy. He feels good. He’s skating well. Last night he played a lot of minutes against Boston’s top lines and was excellent. He had a takeaway. He killed penalties with good aggressiveness. He looked like a guy who had a job to win.

Does he think he won it?

“I feel like I should be on the team,” he said. “I’m just worried about getting ready for the season. I don’t worry about [competition]. I don’t even think about it. I worry about myself and take care of myself first. I know how I can play and what I can do out there, I just have to make sure my mind and my body are in a good place every game and good things will come.”

It’s interesting, because Read probably should be on the team. His offense has waned, but he’s a veteran player who can play responsibly against top players on the opposition. He has always been a good penalty killer. He has a lot of value in a bottom-six role.

But, like MacDonald on the defensive side, he too has a bad contract and if the Flyers waive him and he clears waivers (which is likely as only one player in the league has been claimed on waivers so far) then they can send him to the Phantoms and save a little more than $1 million in cap dollars.

But, is that really worth it? Wouldn’t he be better suited to be in the lineup or at least the 13^th forward? I mean, you are paying him anyway, is the $1 million in cap savings worth not having a versatile guy like Read around?

I guess that depends on how much you like the prospects:

Taylor Leier, 23, was drafted by the Flyers in the fourth round of the 2012 draft. He played in 10 games in the NHL last year and six the season before. He can skate, he’s smart and he’s got a bit of a scorer’s touch as well.

Oh, and did I mention, he’s had a great camp?

We’ve been hearing about Leier as a future NHLer for some time now and although the bloom has started to come off the rose a little bit in terms of what the team thinks he can be offensively, he still has the qualities every coach and GM are looking for. OK, so maybe he’s not going to be a scoring dynamo, but he does a lot of little things well and will be a bulldog of a worker if the team needs it.

Oskar Lindblom, 21, was drafted by the Flyers in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, and a lot of people are starting to consider him a steal being drafted there. He’s opened some eyes in hockey circles and has been talked about for months now as a guy who could crack this Flyers lineup.

They’ve given him every opportunity, and the fact that he’s still in camp tells you how highly the Flyers think of him.

Here’s the difference between Leier and Lindblom, though – age and experience. Leier is ready to give the NHL a go. He has already proven he can play in the AHL and sending him down to the Phantoms doesn’t make sense. He also would be exposed to waivers, and although we’ve already determined that waivers isn’t as much a gamble as it used to be – it still is a gamble. So, why risk losing a younger player you like instead of a veteran – like Read – who is going to be a free agent at season’s end and is highly unlikely to be claimed off waivers because of his contract/cap hit?

As for Lindblom, he can be sent back down to the Phantoms without being exposed to waivers. He’s still 21 and has a bright future ahead, but letting him play top line minutes with the Phantoms will be good for him rather than fourth line minutes for the Flyers. Not to mention, he’s not a fourth-line kind of player. He’s more of a scoring line winger. The Flyers have time to continue developing Lindblom. He hasn’t had a bad camp, but, he’s only been in the lineup for one of the last three games. He had a chance playing with Giroux in one of the games and didn’t stand out. To me it makes sense to send him down and bring him back later in the year.

The final contender is Jori Lehtera. The 29-year-old center came here as part of the Brayden Schenn trade with St. Louis on draft day. Lehtera had three seasons in St. Louis that got progressively less productive. He roared on the scene with 44 points as a rookie. That dropped to 34 points two seasons ago and down to 22 points last season. The other issue with Lehtera is he’s a natural center and the Flyers are asking him to play on the wing, which Hakstol insists he can do while his former coach in St. Louis, now a coach in Dallas, says he can’t. I guess we’re bound to see who is right.

Lehtera had a pretty good defensive game Thursday against Boston playing with Read and Laughton, but otherwise has hardly been noticeable in camp after scoring two goals in the first preseason game against a mostly AHL lineup for the New York Islanders. He just seems like the square peg in the round hole here – at least at wing.

I’m sure Hextall had to agree to take him and his terrible contract ($4.7 million for this year and next) in order to get the draft picks he wanted from St. Louis, but it really doesn’t make sense with the rest of what is being built here.

Why take on a placeholder with a prohibitive salary for two seasons when you have one already whose contract expires after this season? Morgan Frost, the guy they drafted with the first round pick they got from St. Louis, better turn out to be a winner, otherwise this could prove to be a bad deal.

My Prediction: So, this comes down to whether the Flyers are willing to expose Leier to waivers or not. He’s done enough to earn a spot on the team, but if they think they can sneak him through waivers back down to the Phantoms, then they can carry both Read and Lehtera with one being in the lineup (Read’s the better role player) and the other as the 13^th forward while Leier and Lindblom get plenty of playing time with the Phantoms and are a phone call away if needed.

However, if they don’t want to risk losing Leier, he makes it and one of the vets has to go. Neither would be claimed off waivers, so sending either down to the Phantoms would be easy. But who do you keep?

Common sense says Read, but the fact that Lehtera is signed for two seasons, tells you the decision may be a financial one, which I understand. Sometimes, when it’s that close of a race, money has to be the determining factor.

So what would I do? I’d try and send Leier back to the Phantoms for now and keep the two veterans and see what other circumstances might arise that could get Leier back here quickly (an injury, for example).

But will the Flyers do that? I don’t think so. I think Leier wins a job on the fourth line with Laughton and Raffl and the Flyers keep Lehtera over Read based on the extra year (and frankly more money being paid).

Read either gets shipped to the Phantoms, or Hextall tries to find a trading partner and maybe eats a portion of Read’s salary.

But, as I have proven before, I can be wrong.