Quoting: d4rk1ll4
Well, all those predictions were about an 82-game-season. Drouin and Domi were 23 years old this year. I don't know why it would be unrealistic to see them improving of some points. You talk about Lehkonen last two seasons without saying he got 18 goals the season before and that he broke a playoffs goal record in the SHL. This Lehkonen-Poehling-Suzuki will be extremely effective on defense and offense. They are 3rd line, but it's only because there are better offensive players on the top 6. They will have a lot of icetime, don't worry. Poehling scored 4 goals in 1 game with Deslauriers and Shaw on the 4th. He will score 20 goals with better players and more icetime. Armia maybe never scored 15 goals, but he scored 13 goals in 57 Games last year (equals to 18,7 goals) and he just enters in his prime. Of course, it will be difficult to get this on the 4th, but he plays with good players. I don't know if you looked at Byron's game, but he is not really better on top 6 than he is on bottom 6. He scores around 20 goals anyway because of his speed. Plus, he needs to play less than 15 minutes to be really effective. If you take Weal numbers with MTL and you put it on 82 Games, that gives 51 points. I say he will have 20 points. Now, for Caufield, it's tough to guess what he'll get, but he is a goal-per-game in junior, he destroyed Matthews record of goals and tied Ovechkin... It is much harder to make it in the NHL, but Matthews got 40 goals at 18 years old, so maybe Caufield can do it at 19. It's still a guess, but it's not unrealistic, if you think he will play with KK and Domi.
It's unrealistic that every single player continues to improve, and will have career years. Domi, career high shooting % is unlikely to be repeated. I don't think he has a good enough shot to be a consistent 30 goal threat and it's not his MO anyways. He's a playmaker whose linemates traditionally score more goals than expected.
I don't care what Lehkonen did 4 years ago in the SHL, or 3 years ago getting top line minutes on a garbage hockey team. 2 years in a row now he's shown to be an average to below average NHL scorer. 20 is unrealistic from the 3rd line with little to no powerplay time. Barring Tampa, who had one of the best teams in NHL history last season, 3rd lines just don't put up the kind of numbers that you are projecting.
Armia had a career year last year, not only in terms of goals and pace, but also minutes played. To expect him to replicate that but with significantly less minutes is ridiculous. Same goes for Byron, yes he can be effective on the 4th line, but he's not going to replicate his scoring with 25% less ice time.