Hakstol isn't stupid, you don't have his success, top college program, playoffs 2 of 3 years during a massive rebuild (don't think so, go look at the 2013-14 roster, who's left? Giroux, Voracek, Simmonds, Couts, Raffl, MacDonald) being stupid.
Lehtera and Weise will play only if a bunch of younger forwards screw the pooch.
There are 10 forwards with set jobs: G, V, Couts, TK, JVR, Patrick, Lindblom, Simmonds, Laughton, Raffl
So we're talking keeping 4 forwards for 2 spots: Frost, Vorobyev, NAK, Weal, Leier, MV, Bardreau with Lehtera and Weise pulling up the rear.
There are 7 D-men with set jobs: Provorov, Ghost, Gudas, Sanheim, MacDonald, Hagg and Folin.
Myers makes 8. Morin 9 in the spring. The only way MacDonald and Hagg both play is Sanheim and Myers blow it.
The kids know what they have to do to win jobs, it's stressed in talks with scouts in junior, it's stressed by the AHL coaches, it's stressed in TC.
"how you have to play to be successful as a pro - being harder on the puck, learning when you can make a play and when you should just live to fight the next battle, the physical side, the mental side in finding an identity as to what you need to do to."
The ones who learn this play, the ones who want to free lance, make bad decisions, fail to back check, don't want to fore check, don't focus on gap control, and won't fight for the puck in the corners and along the boards get benched.
This is Hextall, it is the tone of the organization, it's been stressed for four years now.
Get with the program or get out - and most of the players Hextall drafts buy into this approach to the game.