A bit of both I think. For all his faults, Granato could recruit pretty well, and when he left he helped convince players to stay and kept most of the incoming recruits. When Hastings came over they brought some solid players with him as well.
The interesting thing is - Silye was the CCHA player of the year with 23 goals and 39 points last year. You can see how good he is, and he hasn't made a huge dent in the stat sheet yet. He does win so many draws though. They also brought over Fitzgerald and he had 16 goals and 13 apples last year. This year he is at 1 and 8. Tassy has been the biggest surprise though, at least on the stat sheet. Between those 3, Whitelaw, and Finley, it's easy to see why they are better this year. I'm pretty sure their highest pick has been out the last 3 weeks too! Exciting to get Stramel back.