Copy/pasting my response in the Dragicevic thread on the main prospects board. Coming from someone who watched every single Americans game this past season.
I think this season was always going to see a step back offensively from Dragicevic. The Americans as a team lost a lot of offensive weapons from the year before and didn't do a lot to replace them. They scored 50 fewer goals this year than in 2022-23. In fact, they were the third-lowest scoring team in the league. You look at his numbers and aside from assists, they're pretty identical to 2022-23. 14 goals vs 15. 4 power play goals in each year, 220 shots this year vs 211 last year.
The big change was assists. 36 this year vs 60 in 2022-23. Power play assists? 18 this year vs 28 in 2022-23. The Americans power play was 27.3% in 22-23, including 32.6% at home (#1 in the WHL). This year? 19.0% (21st in the WHL) and 22.5% at home. He's a talented player, but he can't do it all himself. The team struggled to score goals and his numbers suffered because of it.
Didn't see as much end-to-end or doing laps around the offensive zone from Dragicevic this year as we saw last year. Maybe that was part of the plan? Wanting him to round out his game a little bit and take fewer risks? It was a frustrating year for the Americans, especially from mid-November on when they won 10 games until the end of the season.
I believe the offensive potential is still there for Dragicevic. I'm sure getting this contract is a big weight off his shoulders and hopefully helps him have a strong finish to his WHL career in 2024-25.