With 8 days to go before the season, where does the Bruins' roster stand?

Eight total days separate the Bruins from opening their regular season against the defending Stanley Cup champions in Washington, D.C. Naturally, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of what the lineup will look like when the puck drops for real.

The number of established players whose positions in the lineup are set in stone are more numerous than at this time a year ago, but injuries over the course of this training camp have made the process of efficiently evaluating players for the open spots a bit more difficult than head coach Bruce Cassidy and general manager Don Sweeney would like.

Forwards Patrice Bergeron and Ryan Fitzgerald continued their road back from injuries, skating prior to Tuesday morning’s practice at TD Garden. Fourteen players were trimmed from the roster over the last day, allowing the B's to skate as one group for the first time in camp.

The B’s will be skating on home ice for their final two preseason games, which means the roster should be laden with veterans on both nights. Cassidy hopes for the likes of Bergeron, Noel Acciari, and defenseman Torey Krug to see their first game action as well. And if the team’s health is close to 100 percent come Saturday, that night’s lineup could be a good indication of the season-opening version.

For now, let’s take a look at where things stand:

FORWARDS

There was talk of pairing second-line center David Krejci with Czech countryman David Pastrnak prior to camp, but Pastrnak and Brad Marchand skating together in China was a good indication that their line with Patrice Bergeron in the middle is here to stay for at least the start of the season.

Jake DeBrusk and Krejci need a winger for their second line. Danton Heinen and Ryan Donato are “probably option A and B” at this time, but Cassidy is not opposed to letting things play themselves out over the opening weeks of the year.

“Can he handle a top six every night for 82 games? We're not going to know that until he gets tossed in there,” Cassidy said of Heinen, the third-year pro whose 47 points in 77 games last season were tops among B’s rookies, “so maybe we move him around some nights and throw a bone at Donato or someone else. That's kind of how we handled things last year with moving guys around and trying to keep them fresh.

“I trust him as a player, but it’s just where is the best fit for him?”

The total year of NHL experience likely gives Heinen a leg up in terms of a 200-foot game, but Donato’s 12-game stint at the end of last year proved that he’s a capable scorer at this level.

Whoever doesn’t land with DeBrusk and Krejci should find a home on the third line with veteran and third-year Boston right winger David Backes, giving the B’s an even deeper scoring punch. This is certainly not a bad problem to have.

“Our second line, I'm comfortable with Krech, DeBrusk, and whoever it is,” Cassidy said. “I think they'll score, they'll be hard to play against because David's been in the league a long time and he's a good two-way player, and Jake seems like his game is taken another step from what we’ve seen.”

Noel Acciari and newcomer Chris Wagner have played together since their youth, so pairing them together on the fourth line makes perfect sense and offers a cool local storyline as they are natives of Johnston, R.I., and Walpole, respectively.

That leaves two center spots to fill. Sean Kuraly is the returning Bruin among the group competing there, and his hard, two-way game certainly fits with Acciari and Wagner. He could also move up to man the third-line spot that new Columbus Blue Jacket Riley Nash previously occupied, while Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Trent Frederic are two more skilled options with some preseason numbers to back themselves up.

Forsbacka Karlsson scored 15 goals as the No. 2 rookie point producer for AHL Providence a year ago and has three assists to his name this preseason, while Frederic played in 13 games for the P-Bruins after finishing his second collegiate season at Wisconsin. For what it’s worth, Frederic, who has a goal in three preseason games, developed some chemistry with Backes during the two-game China series.

Should Cassidy opt to give JFK, Frederic, or another youngster like Jack Studnicka a little more time to develop, Daniel Winnik is a veteran option who is hungry to turn his professional tryout agreement into an NHL contract for the second straight year. Slotting in the former UNH forward, who scored 23 points for Minnesota last year, would also make sense if the team doesn’t begin the season with at least close to complete health.

Lee Stempniak is also on a tryout and actually leads the B’s with five points through three preseason games, but Winnik’s versatility as a natural winger with some experience in the middle makes him a more logical fit for a spot on the NHL roster.

It’s likely this battle is decided come the weekend, but I’d expect a combination of the aforementioned players to fill in the gaps.

But no matter what this group looks like at the start, Cassidy is confident the team will have balance up front. The blend of players with NHL experience and rookies or second-year players helped the B’s success a great deal last year, so not having every position set in stone for the season opener isn’t the worst outcome. Sometimes, these decisions take time.

“I do believe we'll have a fourth line we can trust, very similar to last year, so they'll have to play some important minutes for us early until we figure out what our third line looks like,” Cassidy said. “How the third line will shake out is a little bit of a question mark.

“I think we went through some of that last year, but it worked out pretty well for us for the most part once guys settled into their spots.”

Not playing in a preseason game leaves Anders Bjork in a tough spot. He played in 30 NHL games before his rookie season ended due to injury, so you’d like to see him in a game situation before he’s thrown back into the fire. Joakim Nordstrom has been off the ice since the team returned from China.

For the purposes of this exercise, they’re the healthy scratches.

And here's a review of possible combinations:

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
DeBrusk - Krejci - Heinen/Donato
Donato/Heinen - Forsbacka Karlsson/Frederic/Kuraly - Backes
Wagner - Winnik/Kuraly - Acciari

DEFENSE

Adam McQuaid was as likable a guy as there was in the dressing room, but his being traded to the New York Rangers shows just what the Bruins have on defense and also made sorting out the combinations pretty easy.

In fact, these pairs rolled out this morning could be a sign of things to come during the regular season:

Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Krug - Brandon Carlo
John Moore - Kevan Miller
Matt Grzelcyk - Steven Kampfer

Moore saw time playing on the power play and penalty kill in China, so Cassidy said his best fit with this team is to be determined with some more game repetitions. Of course, Krug, who is the final stages of recovering from a broken ankle, will quarterback the power play and Chara the penalty kill. It’s possible Moore spends some time in both situations.

The addition of Moore on the left side likely leaves Grzelcyk as the healthy scratch if Krug is, indeed, healthy for the season opener. It’s tough to see the Charlestown native and former Boston University captain in that position after playing steadily for 61 games with a plus-21 rating as a rookie, but again, it’s a good problem to have.

GOALTENDER

There is no conversation needed here.

Tuukka Rask is the starting goaltender, although Cassidy has said that he hopes the more experienced Jaroslav Halak will push Rask and that the typical backup role is not his automatic ceiling this year.

“Halak has more of a proven resume (as a No. 1 goaltender),” Cassidy said. “If there’s an injury to Tuukka or if Tuukka’s game falls off and we want to run with him, it should be a safer choice than with Dobby (Anton Khudobin). Halak, we do believe is an upgrade.”