This is absolutely true.

It's also absolutely true that Dries returning as our 3C would make me throw up.

I agree with both statements. Dries has been a nice piece for us, but he's not a 3C. That's the biggest place we need to upgrade. However, we can just move forward with this roster as is if it's gonna cost a stupidly high price to create the cap room to upgrade Dries.

Yeah, the Canucks can bring back basically the same team and be cap compliant. But it sure looks like a "not better team", so another missed playoffs.

While it is a pretty similar team, there are a few pretty big changes. We'll have a full season of Beauvillier instead of Horvat, which will shake things up. We'll also get to see Hronek play for the Canucks (he only played 4 games last year). That's a pretty big improvement going from Schenn to Hronek in the top 4 full time. We'll also get Mikehyev back healthy, after he only played half a season (and was injured for that entire half season before he finally decided to undergo surgery). The other major change is having a full season under Tocchet. That will be big for Garland and Boeser, both of whom played significantly better under Tocchet than Boudreau. We'll also see if Tocchet can get something more out of OEL, with OEL having seen success under him in Arizona. On top of all that, Demko will hopefully be healthy and bounce back to what we saw from him the 2 years prior to this season.

To summarize, Mikeheyev and Beauvillier going from half a season to a full season in the top 6, adding Hronek to the top 4, getting a healthy Demko, and playing under a new coach is certainly some pretty big changes in and of themselves. While it certainly isn't the ideal scenario, it isn't absolutely terrible since there are certainly some pretty big changes from last season. I wouldn't say another missed playoffs guaranteed, but this team certainly isn't making much noise at all if they manage to get in.