I don't think I have ever watched this current team play passive. I agree with most things you post, so we must have a different definition of terms.
When I say aggressive, I mean leaving their position, abandoning discipline and chasing the puck as an entire unit.
It is a huge pet-peeve of mine as someone that coached youth hockey for nearly a decade, it would drive me absolutely crazy when my players would abandon their assignments to double and triple team the puck.
Here is a segment at ES I am talking about. (I don't have a replay available atm of the blues game, so I randomly chose an older game to find an example - it Took me less than a minute of watching a random section of the game to find an instance, as they do it every shift).
And here is one from the last Kraken game, everyone mesmerized staring at the puck and being drawn in like moths to the flame while Justin Shultz streaks in on the far side to accept a pass and score an easy goal.
The team constantly moves their feet, but they follow the puck. They get swirling around the D zone, and lose their assignments both on the PK and as ES.
Watch a Bruins or Canes game, and watch how their players heads are on swivels, constantly swinging around tracking the oppositions players, and watch how they will abandon pressure if they can't get their to break up a pass in time. They will pull up and reset back into their defensive position, keeping their spacing tight and eliminating the passing lanes.
Then watch Buffalo and watch how their heads never turn, they all just stare at the puck as they follow it around the zone, and skate toward it and end up bunched up eventually as the puck goes across ice for a stellar scoring chance.
It's really not the team's personnel. This team has the skaters to tighten up the D, but the defensive coaching is for lack of a better term, ass.
I love how Granato gives the kids freedom to develop, but he has got to teach them to better read the play and to have faith in their teammates. Recognize their man/defensive area, and do their own job. Let their teammates do theirs. Right now there are 5 individuals on the ice trying to defend and it is often painful to watch. They are not a unit.