if Raymond can be a 70-80 point player going forward consistently we are sitting nicely when the guys that make it from Danielson/Kasper/Johansson/Wallinder/ASP/ Buchelnikov etc are on the team.
Really the biggest things are shoring up the defense/goaltending and getting a better 2C. We could have all of those in house. Hopefully Yzerman chills on the free agents this offseason and lets some more of these kids up to try and actually fill these positions.
Compher scores the occasional goal but he's pretty blackhole otherwise. Wouldn't call him a great passer, skater, not that creative, etc. When's the last real 2C we had? I'm guessing it was when we had Datsyuk and Zetterberg and even then our winger depth was pretty bad back then forcing them to be put together pretty frequently.
These "filler" middle six Cs we keep signing like Copp, Compher, Nielsen, Filppula, Weiss, etc never bring much offensively. It could also be that they're often asked to play more defensive roles but I think we'd be shocked at what a real 2C or even 1B type of center would do for us. If either of Danielson/Kasper can get there I think what would be so massive for us