All valid points, but there were other players last year that played much better than they are typically capable...Petry, Shaw, Byron, even Domi. We'll see if they can replicate their performances - Shaw aside of course.
That's why I think Poehling is the key. We'll see soon enough!
Petry simply took on more of Weber's role which lead to a statistical improvement. Byron more or less continued what he had done the previous two seasons and Domi just did what he was always expected to do. Shaw was very much a beneficiary of Domi's skill and it is very likely that we can get similar and possibly better production out of another player put in the same position.
I didn't mention the change in coaching philosophy which had a huge part in the increase in production. You have to account for this when comparing players from the previous season when Ducharme and Richardson were not here.
I also failed to mention that Drouin is a wild card who has the potential to make a huge leap forward based on his poor play last season. There is also the fact that we have a healthy Juulsen back which we never had last season.
People talk about career years but there isn't a single player on this team that anyone should bet against replicating and possibly bettering their totals from last season.
Due to parity it only takes a tiny shift forwards or backwards for a team to experience a significant rise or fall in the standings. This fact can make any of us look foolish when trying to forecast a team's future performance from our telescopic July lens.