A few rebuttal points:
a. All 18 yos are not in the NHL because the large majority can't handle it, they are worse than the starters and it makes no sense to sit them in the stands a lot. Even Shane Wright, an exceptional player when younger, has one fluky assist and just ONE shot on goal, in 4.3 minutes per game available, in a MONTH. I get wanting to send Wright somewhere else to play and improve the things that are holding him back from performing in the NHL. Slaf on the other hand has played 11.1 minutes per game available, has 3 goals and 9 shots. More importantly his 3 goals are third on the team, and even with no assists, his 0.33 points per game are tied for 6th-7th on the team among the 15 forwards.
b. Slaf has in fact generated both offensive zone time and scoring chances and has not been an above normal defensive liability. He is top half of the team in both forechecking and backchecking, meaning puck retrieval.
c. It is an absolute myth that players that dominate lower levels will succeed in the NHL. The AHL is full of players who put up many points but can't do so in the NHL, and Juniors are full of players who were over ppg and could not even make a mark in the AHL. Same goes for the ECHL; plenty of good scorers there do zilch in the AHL. Playing weaker players is NOT how you learn to shine at the next level. It is only a necessary evil if you aren't good enough for the next level and want to play hockey.
d. I agree with you that we want a player to be motivated to keep working and not to play too afraid of making mistakes. Neither negative is in fact happening. The coaching staff is clearly not putting too much pressure to be perfect on the young group, Slaf included. Juraj from his comments is clearly very happy with how he is being treated, and is improving constantly. His coach stated publicly within the last week that "Slafkovsky's progression is superb". I see absolutely no reason at this time to switch his mentor from Suzuki to Belzile, his coach from St-Louis to Houle, or his opponents from Brady Tkachuk and Andrei Vasilevsky to Laurent Dauphin and Zachary Fucale.
The actual facts of Slafkovsky's time here do not match up with the (many) situations where demotion is the right or necessary move.
First of all A and C that isn’t my position at all, that was sarcasm because you over simplified that the way to get better was to play against stronger opposition.
A) team send back there player even if they know they will dominate Jr, if it was just about playing against better player they wouldn’t do it… that was my point.
C) Never said that a player that dominate lower level will success but at the same time every player that success did dominate… even if player dominate he can keep improving and not all player keep improving so again it isn’t just about strength of opposition.
like you agreed it is about motivation, pushing your limit and having significant competition those are the key.
I agree that the case to send Slaf to the AHL is a lot less clear cut than sending Wright to the CHL, but Seattle don’t have the AHL as a option, Wright have to go to the OHL, they know that he isn’t ready but they probably feel that the OHL isn’t significant competition for him to improve, and mostly importantly that he isn’t in the right head space to improve, he wasn’t very motivated in is draft year, it probably won’t improve, they are probably trying to work to get him back on the right mindset before sending him back (it has be ruff start for him from dropping to 4th /not playing). Slaf playing 11min it is more than Wright 4min, but he is the least use Player in MTL and that is where I think human Factor come in to play (regardless of coaching) he is outplaying other player but he is still on the bench motivation might waiver, he may subconsciously develop pattern that get more ice time rather progress is game.
playing in Laval doesn’t mean he has to stay there the rest of the season or that the team is going to abandon him or that he will change is whole believe system and sure Suzuki is a great role model, he doesn’t have to be in Mtl to keep thriving toward it and even if Belize is a lesser player he may still teach some thing to Slaf and he is probably a more willing teacher than the Hoffman and Dadonov that are trying to get more ice time…
I can see there is a good case to be made for both NHL and AHL right now. But I see very little risk with him going down to play 20 games in the AHL vs. staying in the NHL where things might start to go south heck even if thing keep going in well it might not be better long term. We are still in the honeymoon phase, I don’t think we have to wait for thing to go south to send him down, that might be even worst (I imagine Seattle would have been better off sending Wright down right away rather than what ever is happening now). Thing are going well we have too many players, it is easy to justify. AHL is significant competition keep everything progressing upward. The fact that Wright and SEattle are dropping the ball is a blessing, imagine media circus if Wright was a ppg player out of the blocks… With Matheson ahead of schedule I would send both Xhekaj and Slaf down to buy time for KH to work something’s out also it might also help the couple of guys in the AHL (like Barron)that should have a role in MTL in the futur. It is very different players but KK, Galchenyuk and Mete all started off pretty well there was the debate but they were progressing early on and they stayed it didn’t work out. Now it doesn’t mean that it is the right decision now especially because of Suzuki and CC, Slaf doesn’t have the pressure of being the savior like KK and Galchenyuk had. I just don’t remember seeing any top end player that progress playing so little minutes for any significant number of game and you might bring up a guy like Thronton who played 4th line C in is rookie season but they also had to trade before he hit is prime and even with his production he never won any significant games. Because development isn’t just about scoring more points or going on to score for a other team.
Like I said there a case to be made for both I just don’t see a history of success with the NHL route when player isn’t getting top 9 minutes. No one will ever know if it was or wasn’t the right decision we will only see the result. My opinion isn’t that if it isn’t 1000% clear cut that he should stay, than he shouldn’t and if there are other benefits like not becoming a UFA at 25yo, being able to send him play in the AHL playoff when we miss NHL playoff, slightly more positive environment with less vet pouting for sitting out games well those are bonus even if they don’t factor in the decision.
