Agree. If I were Heinola's agent, I would be pushing for that, or (as part of) a trade to team that actually showed confidence in his potential by playing him consistently. Confidence by management begets confidence in players.
I the same thing about Ehlers last year and for the first time in his career he is getting close to the utilization he deserves. I'm sure quiet conversations were and are happening behind the scenes for both players.
It will be very interesting to revisit the Trouba trade in a year from now. If Heinola is gone and they do not resign UFA Pionk after this season, all the players will have disappeared to other teams.
Heinola's agent should STFU, he tried that shit a couple of years ago when Ville was in the minors. And Heinola was clearly not physically ready to play on a contending team in the NHL.
If he keeps learning maybe he and his buddy Lambert, who also has 0s on the board, can make strides together next year.
I mean if Ville was as good as everyone thinks he is he would go on to that top pairing and replace De Melo seamlessly. He'd play shutdown minutes no problem.
Maybe he's a late bloomer like Forsling, so you hold on to the guy. But the entitlement idea, after a handful of games of positive results, well that's just silly. If Ville is of that character, he'd be better off gone. I don't think he is though. Signed a deal with the same value as Fleury (league minimum) but for one more year. Think he's probably happy to be in the NHL. The Finnish defenseman drafted ahead of him didn't cut it, went home. The player drafted behind him didn't cut it, is in the minors. The Swedish defenseman drafted after him didn't cut it, is in the minors. The Swedish defenseman drafted at #11 went home.
The best picks on defense in that draft were #6 Seider, #4 Byram, #18 Harley, and #8 Broberg, who took until the playoffs to have an impact.
You could argue though that if the Jets had taken Mc Michael or Pinto, they'd still have Chisholm