There is no "they." That's conspiracy theory type talk. "Those people."
Couts started out as an 18 year old on a deep team, then he was behind Giroux as the 1C, and competed with Schenn as the 2C. Given the lack of forward depth after 2012, G got the best forwards and Couts and Schenn competed for the "scrubs".
2014: Voracek and Simmonds on the 1st line, Read, Raffl, Umberger, Vinnie the next forwards.
2015: replace Umberger and Vinnie with Gagner and VdV
It was moving G to LW that allowed C to center a scoring line, not some plot against him.
AV was the one who didn't like Ghost, partially due to his style of play, but also b/c he needed time to adjust to his loss of speed after having both knees scoped.
Sanheim played on PP2 his first two full seasons, behind Ghost.
Ghost, Gustaffson and Provorov played ahead of him in 2020-21.
York and Yandle in 2021-22, TDA & York in 2022-23, Drysdale & York last season, but Sanheim still averaged 1:31.
Laughton plays center b/c of lack of centers, last year it was Laughton or Cates. This year Laughton is better than Frost or Cates so far.
We'll see if they made the right move between Jett and Buium. Both were areas of need, so they must have really liked Jett. He does fit what they want. They kept Luchanko on the roster to reward him for coming to camp prepared and give him a taste of the NHL. I doubt they were "trying to justify the selection," things this board obsesses over are probably ignored by most fans.
The real problem has been lack of talent depth (problem since 2012) due to Hextall's bad drafting in 2017 and 2018 and CF trading away too many first and second rd picks.