I quickly scanned our rosters and prospects and was interested in knowing. . .why do I keep hearing that prospects like Brown and Formenton and Brannstrom have a shot at the NHL this year? I feel there is no room. . .

In no particular order (and only using "higher" praised prospects). . .underline means most likely to be on team.

C: Pageau, White, Tierny, Anisimov, Brown, Norris, Chlapik

LW: Tkachuk, Duclair, Boedker, Ennis (I don't if he can go to Belleville or not), Abramov, Formenton, Paul (also a C), Balcers, Carcone

RW: Batherson, Ryan, C. Brown, Varonneau, Davidsson, (Rodewald?)

D: Hainsey, DeMelo, Chabot, Borowiecki, Zaitsev, Jaros, Wolanin, Lajoie, Brannstrom (Englund?, Aspirot?. . .and we still have Lassi Thompson, Docker and Tychionik upcoming).

Forwards:
The way I see it, we have 4 centres (Pageau, White, Tierny, Anisimov), we're over-stocked on LW. . .and most likely Batherson gets one of the right wing positions. . .so the only available space is one RW spot.
So, either. . .

A) White plays as a winger which opens up one Centre spot, or
B) One of labelled "LW" plays the RW slot (Balcers is labelled as LW / RW). . .which makes no space.

That tells me that Formenton and Brown are AHL bound (which in my mind, they should be).

Defense:
If the 5 people I bolded and italicized are guaranteed spots, then I assume Jaros, Wolanin, Lajoie, and Brannstrom fighting for one spot.

Open for discussion. I personally love the depth we have. As they say, it's a good problem to have.
In a perfect world, they would of bought out Ryan and trade Boedker, but I know they're needed for the Cap