Hockey Duckie
Registered User
I think your harping on the NHL players thing a little too much. Zelly is too good for the AHL, and Verbeek sees more positives in his development being in a rotation before we eventually move Dumo closer to the deadline. Is that the best thing for his development, probably not, is it going to stop him from reaching his potential longterm, again probably not.
Harkins is with the big club because Johnston is on the roster and McGinn got hurt. If McGinn isn’t hurt, and you sign another harkins then you are taking spots away from Gaucher and co in the AHL. Speaking of Harkins, I think we all agree Paul Maurice is on of the best coaches in the league, here is some words he has about harkins.
You can try to play meaningful games “pushing” for the playoffs and care about development at the same time, it’s not a one or the other. The longer Dumo stays on the team, the more we care about trying to win this year over completely being developing our young and core, which is a good thing in my mind. Doesn’t mean it’s the best way, but it would be nice to try and build a more winning culture for next season.
Think Macro
Who said Zell needs to go down? See, that's called cherry picking for your own thoughts. Helleson can go back down and see if he can apply what he did in the NHL level at the AHL level, but in a top-4 role. Like I said, y'all cherry picking. Think macro.
So what you're saying is our roster is great at both levels (AHL and NHL) that you see no reason where Verbeek or the Gulls GM could have added a bit more talent to not only shelter the kids but also help them along in the AHL level to begin the season? If you don't agree with it, then what are you typing?! Why are we in the damned basement at both levels? Why the hell are we rotating youths at the NHL level? (The latter queries are rhetorical questions to make my macro point more poignant.)
I don't think anyone is happy with the situation of rotating youths. Now, if there's an injury to our current NHL d-man group, then we're going to call up another youth. We already have done that with calling up Hinds to be our 7th D on a road trip when both Fowler and Vaak were out due to injury (and before Helleson was called up).
Collecting a whole bunch of talents just to sprawl them out without proper guidance or tutelage to see who rises to the top isn't a great way to develop youths. Youths teaching youths shouldn't be any GM's mantra, but it is for Verbeek at both the AHL and NHL levels. All of our offensive youth forwards have been struggling b/c they have to teach themselves what to do in a Cronin system.
Development is taking a backseat to Winning?
You wrote, "The longer Dumo stays on the team, the more we care about trying to win this year." That means putting the youth development on the backburner and be okay with the rotation. We currently have the fifth worst team in points in the league after 49 games played. We are currently the 4th worst team in points in the Western Conference.
What you're saying is the youth who is sitting in the press box gets to be the best cheerleader?