IMO Batherson is NHL ready now & keeping him in Belleville serves no purpose. Belleville has plenty of players that need to develop. I think they should place Batherson with Tkachuk & White to form a very good NHL line & let him learn the ropes beside those guys as those guys learned the ropes along side Mark Stone who plays the game the right way.
NHL coaches now seem to like pairings or tandems that work well together such as Tkachuk & White & Brown & Batherson & Ottawa has a few guys who could fill the third player role for those tandems. Since not much is expected from this team next season, watching Batherson full time might be a spark of hope for the future of this team. Let him learn in a year of diversity to see if he has what it takes to carry his team out of it like Mark Stone did, it didn't hurt Stone's development but instead propelled him into NHL stardom. I would like to see Batherson do the same, fight through the diversity which could be all of next season & come out stronger & a better all around hockey player because of it. Having said that though, I would like to see Batherson back with L.Brown when he is in the NHL permanently & add a LWer who can compliment them creating another very good line.