I agree, but I'm an optimist. Are you overly optimistic too?
I think this year went exactly like planned - except, I thought we'd be Detroit bad. Now the foundation is set, we've had a chance to evaluate some of the younger players, we've seen Batherson progress, we've had a quick look at Norris here and heard about him destroying the AHL with Formenton (who could possibly have seen that coming). We've seen Nick Paul go from waiver fodder, to one of the better forecheckers on the team. Brannstrom has developed amazingly in the AHL, and should be primed for a good run with us next year.
Duclair is the one who was one of the best surprises (I thought he was a lock for 30) to one of the disappointments, because you can't go that long in between goals, you just can't. No matter if you're unlucky, hitting posts, whatever the case, in future years, he'd be relegated to a bottom six role (which doesn't suit him), because again, there's just no way you can go months without scoring in the NHL. I don't know what the future holds for him. I loved him at first, but this is a red flag.
Then we'll have the two big righties in the pipeline in JBD and Thomson to go with Pinto and then the two top 10 picks, the Islanders pick, which could easily be top 15 and the 4 other 2nd rounders.
Shit is coming together precisely as planned and you can't have it both ways, you can't say it's a wasted year after the team outperformed any expectations that were put on them.