4. Brayden Schenn
Springboarding off the Armstrong idea, we have to be thankful for his most recent addition. Schenn has been an unbelievable addition to this team.
Schenn is off to the best start of his own career, on pace to set personal bests in goals and points. As of the holiday, Schenn has 10 goals and 30 points. Even the most optimistic of us could not have predicted that.
What is even better is Schenn has already shut up all his critics. Beyond just his overall stats, he quickly shed the image he built up about being a power play specialist.
Eight of his 10 goals have come at even strength. That already ties him with how many he scored all of last season with the Philadelphia Flyers and we are only a quarter of the way through the 2017-18 season.
At this point, even if Schenn cools off, he’s already set the bar so high that we’d have to be happy with anything from here on out. We all know that is not how fan brains work, but we aren’t likely to see that kind of cool down either.
Schenn and the entire top line have been incredibly good. They’ve found a good enough chemistry that even a slight cool off would not damper the team’s progress.