I mean the path for him to be a Montreal Canadiens is difficult regardless if he makes strides or not. We've added Laine and Newhook since we drafted Mesar. We drafted Demidov and Hage. We will likely be taking another high rated forward in the top 10 of this years draft. There's the development of Eriksson, Kapanen, and Roy.
Would be great for him to have a development spike in the AHL this season to at the very least restore his value as a trade chip. You can never have too many good young assets.