Like many other young guys on the Ottawa Senators, the best thing to happen to Zibanejad was the hiring of Dave Cameron as head coach. He had 13 points in 25 games under Paul MacLean, and 33 points in 55 games under Cameron, and his ice time per game went up at least a minute to a minute-and-a-half under Cameron. He's also solidified the second-line centre position, whereas at the beginning of the year David Legwand was in that spot. With more ice time, a solidified second-line centre, and a coach who shows trust in young players, Zibanejad is in line for a breakout season next year.

5. Patrick Wiercioch

Things didn't look good for the Sens defenceman halfway through the season. He spent much of the season injured, and was a healthy scratch for numerous games. But he finally settled down, and stepped up in a huge way. He should be getting a huge confidence boost from his excellent playoffs (four points in six games), and the fact he's playing with the NHL's best at the World Championships. While he's not Erik Karlsson's regular partner with the Sens, he does plays a lot of shifts with the Sens captain at even strength, and is the regular linemate with Karlsson on the power play. Wiercioch has never played more than 56 games in a season, so if he can stay healthy, 35-40 points should be easily attainable.

4. Jakob Silfverberg

With these playoffs, Silverberg may have finally cemented himself as a full-time second line player with the Ducks. After all, he does have nine points in eight games before last night's game. And head coach Bruce Boudreau does have a lot of faith in him, especially in shootouts. All this could lead to an expanded role next season. In the regular season, he averaged just 35 seconds of power play ice time a night and 15:39 overall, while in the playoffs, it's at 34 seconds of power play time, but 18:09 overall. Doing so well in the playoffs could be a confidence boost, and performing on a big stage could lead to more ice time next season (and hopefully power play ice time as well). If that happens, he could easily improve on his career high 39 points.

3. Nail Yakupov

Yakupov makes this list simply because of the ineptitude of the Edmonton Oilers. Because of their lack of success, they will have another first overall pick this season, but this year, they will land Connor McDavid, considered the best prospect since MacKinnon Hall Crosby. But getting McDavid means Yakupov should be seeing better linemates. If Yakupov moves up to the second line, he'll be playing with McDavid or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as centre, a huge upgrade over Derek Roy and Leon Draisaitl. If he can improve on his 1:53 of power play ice time per game (by comparison, Benoit Pouliot, Anton Lander, and Teddy Purcell all averaged more), then he's in line for a huge breakout, which won't be hard to do, as his 33 points last year was a career high.

2. Jonathan Huberdeau

The biggest thing for Huberdeau's success next season happened on April 12, after the NHL season was finished. On that day, Jaromir Jagr signed a one-year deal to stay with Florida. How big a deal was this for Huberdeau? Since Jagr was traded from the Devils to Florida on Feb. 26, Huberdeau had 21 points in 21 games. Before the Jagr deal, he had 33 points in 58 games. Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov were on the ice for 74.36 per cent of Jagr's even strength shifts. Sure, Jagr probably can't turn Huberdeau into a point-per-game player next year, but there's a lot to be said for a veteran presence on a young player.

1. Mikael Granlund

It wasn't too long ago that Granlund was considered the best player not in the NHL. There were a lot of high expectations when he finally suited up for the Wild during the 2012-13 season. He's been pretty underwhelming so far, but some of that could potentially be chalked up to getting used to North American ice, the culture change and a long schedule (he had only played in Finland before playing in North America in 2012-13, where the seasons are much shorter). His career high so far is just 41 points. But he has all the tools to put it together. And most promising is his playoff run. According to Frozen Pool, 71.19 per cent of all his shifts happened with Zach Parise and Jason Pominville as his linemates, and Granlund had six points in 10 games (he also finished the regular season with those two as his linemates, and had nine points in his final 12 games, and 21 in his last 28 games). If that trio sticks together next season, Granlund owners should expect a huge upgrade in his points.