The problem with the current team isn't the fringes of the roster, they were pretty solid last season, at least when healthy, Poehling - Hathaway and anyone at LW was one of the best 4th lines in the NHL, Zamula - Risto was a solid 3rd pair. They should be deeper this year, as the LHV roster fills out.
The problem has been the lack of top 9/top 4 talent the last few years, and that is both due to Hextall's drafting and bad acquisitions by CF. It takes a lot longer to fill those spots, you can find marginal players for the bottom of the roster later in the draft, but you rarely hit top guys there.
Replacing Atkinson with Michkov is a major upgrade.
IF Couts and Drysdale are healthy, that's another major upgrade.
But they also need Frost, Foerster and Brink to take a step up.
Hopefully Luchanko can replace Laughton next season at 3C.
One thing that has been ignored is how off the charts good Cates was at LW when he returned last season in the second half:
CF 56.33%, xGF 63.56%, HDCF 64.49%, pp/60: 1.68
CFrel +5.10, xGF +13.91, HDCFrel +13.37
He's not skilled enough for center other than a shut-down checking line, but at LW he's close to elite.