God is bang on (that sounded weird). It's likely this year's team should be able to match if not improve upon last year's goals against. Scoring will not be a problem this year and I agree we should be able to score more than last year. I don't even see Little as a darkhorse for the scoring race; he will be counted on as one of our point producing forwards and I expect him to average at least a point/game.
But if we're not getting the scoring punch we should be, players will be shuffled. Last year, Downie's playing time increased heavily as the tournament wore on because there wasn't enough production coming from the top two lines (Pouliot and Latendresse did nothing while Toews and Cogliano were expected to do more). If Gagner is being pencilled in as the 13th forward and we're firing blanks, Hartsburg has seen enough of him this year to know he should be moved up to one of the top two lines. I think Gagner should see first unit powerplay time anyway even if he's the 13th forward. Although I don't have the official stat, I'd be willing to bet no other player on this team practices or has played as much time on the pp as Gagner this year. No disrespect to the NCAA guys, but I really don't think they play enough games to gain the experience to execute well enough on the powerplay compared to the CHL guys.
Also, don't underestimate the ability of checkers like O'Marra and Pyatt to chip in with a goal here and there. These guys should produce more than they did last year. But even if we're not scoring 4 or 5 goals/game, this team has been built to win the 1 goal games, if that's what it takes. This team will hit and check the opposition to death.
If I had to name one concern, it would have to be coaching. This is a roster that Sutter would have gone with; let's hope Hartsburg knows how to steer it.