The biggest issue is beyond our top 3 up front, as Couture, Meier and Hertl are essentially carrying this team as much as they can. Beyond that, Dahlen and Barabanov are admirable additions for essentially nothing, but they both top out as mediocre 2nd liners, or good third liners. Balcers shouldn't be in the top 6 on a contending team. He's a better PKer and secondary scoring option. Bonino isn't top 3 C quality anymore He doesn't have enough finish. He's useful in a bottom six role though, and is decent defensively.
If everyone was in their ideal roles:
Meier 1LW - Couture 1C - XXX 1 RW
XXX 2LW - Hertl 2C - XXX 2RW
Dahlen 3 LW- XXX 3C - Barabanov 3RW
Balcers 4LW - Bonino 4C - Cogliano 4 RW
So the team is missing 3 top 6ers, one of which was Kane, one of which was supposed to be Labanc but...that's not working out. The problems of Bonino may be related to shit linemates, or it might just be Bonino and father time catching up to him. Wouldn't be unheard of for a guy his age to start to lose his touch.
Again this is ideal lineup. I think Dahlen could still develop into an everyday top 6er, but on a contender he's probably a third liner. Barabanov has some vision and definitely some skill, and has a place on a good team's powerplay I would say.
I think this offseason should be spent cutting some of the fat again from the roster, and trying to fill those 4 holes in the lineup. . It's not unreasonable to suggest Coe/Gushchin/Bordeleau/Eklund/Robins that 1-2 might stick into a top 6 role.
The key to all this though, is they have to sign Hertl. If they don't for a reasonable amount, the team is just sunk. For so many years. There's no center prospect coming that I can see to replace his value, unless Bordeleau is just fire in a bottle next year. The center depth, the one thing we had for so long, is just evaporated.