Yeah it sucks that Puustinen isn't doing anything to make Sullivan reconsider his thoughts on him. I think Sullivan is being dumb with Puustinen but Puustinen isn't doing anything to force Sullivan to change his mind.
Puustinen has absolutely been outplayed by Puljujarvi and McGroarty so far IMO. I'm not 100% on both of them being in the lineup but I have a hard time having Puustinen above either of those two right now. I'm not sure whether Beauvillier can play RW, but I'm coming more around to this bottom-6:
McGroarty-Eller-Beauvillier
Lizotte-Hayes-Puljujarvi
I still feel that it isn't going to hurt McG to play top line AHL minutes even if it's for a few months to help him transition to thee pros instead of playing with Eller or Hayes in the bottom six.
I don't want Sullivan to turn him into some vanilla grinder. If he established himself as a offensive player getting top minutes in the A maybe he doesn't get "developed" into some "safe" third line forward too afraid to make a mistake who doesn't produce.
I'd also rather go with one heavy bottom six line and one buzz saw speedy bottom six line if Puus and McG are both WB bound.
Hayes Eller acari is the heavy line and
Three of: Liz/poolparty/beau/glass make up the other. Split their ice time pretty much 50/50.
I still think if acari gets consistent time at wing instead of center opinions on him will change, and, he becomes a player with some value at the deadline, just like Eller will have.
Eller is a guy teams like Boston and the rangers should be looking at and I could see Florida or Detroit could be a good fit for acari.