Barring injury bug, this is undoubtedly a playoff team.
Replacing Bertuzzi, Kubalik, Zadina with Debrincat, Compher, Sprong, Fischer, and Kostin significantly improves both the offensive floor and ceiling. Factor in the expected jump in development from guys like Raymond, Berggren, Veleno, Soderblum, Ras; plus the potential addition of a hot Kasper, Mazur, Lombardi in GR (though not necessarily expected or likely), this is a playoff caliber forward group.
The defensive group has improved (on paper) as well. We’d still expect a year 3 jump from Seider, if you can imagine that. Walman seems to still be scratching the surface on his potential too. Sub Ghost for Hronek, and Maata will Maata. Holl signing still up for debate, but he’s easily better than any 6th D they put out last year. Also, you could do worse than a Chiarot as (arguably) your worst defenseman. Again, looking at the pipeline in GR, there’s going to be a few names where if you told me they are up with the big club at any point during the season, I would not be shocked.
Trending up are the Wings. Caps, Pens, Flyers, and even Tampa are trending down.