The criticisms of DeBoer before joining the Stars across the Panthers, Devils, and Sharks included that he favored vets over youth and was too stubborn to play the kids.
At what point is it on the players - the kids - to seize any opportunity to perform and do so? Amazingly, once DeBoer had a handful of kids who made it impossible to NOT play them, they play, and suddenly he’s “great at doing both.” No, those kids forced his hand.
Kakko and Laf both had many opportunities, and neither performed at a PPG pace at any point of their careers like Robertson did at 19. Hell, Kakko struggled to hit 0.5PPG years after his draft, while Johnston hit that as a 19 year old. They EARNED it. Even Jones - earn it. In practice. In how you show up. In the playing time you do get. Those three (Kakko, Laf, and Jones) have shown far less than the Dallas trio I named. That’s why they play “over the vets.” Dallas doesn’t have any vets to play over them, and they’ve outperformed the rest of the roster. Call me when the Rangers have a single kid do that, because it hasn’t been Kakko, Laf, Jones, Kravstov, Mancini, or any of the others I’ve seen this board pine after as if they were budding superstars merely held back by an incompetent coach who happens to be on of 8 coaches in history with 800+ wins at this level.
Edit: and several of these kids HAD the “play and develop the kids” coach in Quinn, and still failed to show anything close to the Dallas trio. Again, at what point do we force the kids to look inwards rather than blaming multiple coaches at the highest level?