Drake is our X factor next year.
If he's back to his 2 seasons ago form we will barely feel the loss of DBC, especially with Norris coming back as well.
Yeah, for us to take a substantial step forward we really need:
1. Drake Batherson to play at the top of his game (all-around scorer, playmaker, forechecker with a decent frame).
2. Thomas Chabot to return to the top of his game.
3. Josh Norris to pick up where he left off.
4. Jakob Chychrun to be the top-4 guy we paid for and to play enough games.
5. Our goaltending tandem to stay relatively healthy and not suck.
And that's assuming that everyone else remains at the same level or improves (e.g. Giroux vs. Father Time)
Wild cards are guys like:
1. Ridley Grieg
2. Dominik Kubalik
3. Shane Pinto
4. Jiri Smejkal
5. Mathieu Joseph
I'm not going to count on them but it would be nice if they took steps forward and/or make solid contributions.