The Jackets need to figure out what they’re gonna do with him. I don’t think his value has been effected yet, but it will be come the summer, if this continues. He should be playing top minutes every night in the AHL, but because of the tantrum he threw last year when they sent him down, it’s almost as if they’re scared he’ll take off to Europe or fail to report and demand a trade.
His agent needs to have a long conversation with him too. He’s 100% an NHL dman, with a nice future ahead. He just needs to develop more. Clean up his game and play with more intensity consistently.
His agent should show him what that extra time in the AHL did for Clarke and Edvinsson last year. It’s doing him no good keeping him in the NHL playing him like they have been. They’re wasting precious time in his development. He needs to play top minutes, in pro games. Period. Waddell knows this. That’s why you have to question what’s going on?
You’d almost think they cut a deal with him during camp. That they wouldn’t send him down. Something has to give though, because they’re wasting a development season he needs if he’s ever gonna be the player they thought, when they drafted him.
High-end D prospects need to play in the role they were drafted to play. If that role isn’t available in the NHL yet, then send him down. We’ve seen too many young dmen ruined by not playing the role they were drafted to play, and having the player work his way up the depth chart at the NHL level. They just don’t practice enough in the NHL, so they end up developing on the bottom pairing. Never used to playing the important minutes and role.
If they’re not gonna do that, then trade him.