Except you're forgetting the fact that we have two explosive, dynamic playmakers on the ice for 75%+ of the game with OEL and Yandle, and a goalie that is capable of carrying teams on his own.
The 2010 roster looked WAY worse than this on paper going in and won 50 games. We got surprises like Stempniak, Lombardi and Upshall. ****, no one on that roster even put up more than 55 points. Vrbata only had 43.
My point is that if we EVER expected to have a forward corp that can compete on paper with 90% of the league even, then we are looking in the wrong place. Having skill-only forwards has never been how this team wins, and when we've tried (Ribeiro, Wolski, etc.) it's failed miserably. I'd rather have the roster we do now return to focusing on defense first, and scoring by committee/dman scoring than try to be a more offensive team like last year and get smoked.
Not to mention, pretty much everyone underachieved what they are capable of last season, save a very small minority. If, say, Erat or Moss can prooduce what they have done so in the past, that would be a huge help. Regardless, the offense scoring a bunch of goals is not nearly important as the team's overall defense returning to form. The team operates well much more frequently when forwards play defensively sound and mistake-free rather than having a few guys putting up big numbers. It's already been proven that you can win in this league and not have anybody break 60 points.
Given Pi's roster, there are few changes from last year, but I think two of the BIGGEST problems were addressed. Top line of Doan-Vermette-Boedker is a solid enough line. Doan and Vermy both scored around 25 goals, and Boedker is only getting better and will probably put up around 60 points. Korpi-Hanzal-Erat is a great forechecking, matchup line. Hanzal can put up 50 points if he stays healthy, and Korpi and Erat are both extremely hard workers who have put up 20 goals in defensive systems before. Now the BIG (minor) changes. Third and fourth line centers. This may have been the most understated, crippling issue with the team last year. Ribeiro was an absolute trainwreck, and putting him in a third line capacity made it even worse. Didn't matter who his wings were, they suffered because he was lazy and his faceoffs/defensive incapabilities led to a lot of goals against. Halpern was serviceable at best. I thought he put forth a noble effort, but his age and deteriorating skillset/speed really showed. He won faceoffs, but overall the fourth line suffered because they were unable to provide energy and pin teams down in their own end like we are used to seeing. Chipchura will benefit the most from playing with Vitale, and any of Macmillan, Lessio, Rieder, or Klinkhammer (basically high-energywingers) will flourish on the fourth line. Also, Domi will more than likely make the roster, moving the LWs down the depth chart a bit.
Doan-Vermette-Boedker
Domi-Hanzal-Erat
Korpi-Gagner-Moss
Chipchura-Vitale-Klinkhammer
OEL-Michalek
Yandle-Stone
Gormley-Murphy
Smith
Schlemko, Crombeen, Lessio sub in periodically in bottom 6/bottom pairing capacities.
So there's my take. If the team can regain defensive identity, we could surprise a lot of people. However, if the team takes too much of an offensive approach like last year, it will be the race for McDavid/Eichel!