when you watch the games you don't need excuses, you put everything into context. I know some don't put much stock in coaching, development, but I can never understand that stance as it's bonkers to me but my point is that after we all watched how terrible Caufield looked with 1 goal under Dom, coaching clearly is a valid reason to explain part of why a player is struggling. Development in my experience when it goes bad is usually almost never just due to one thing going wrong.
It's not easy to know what would be the best route for any prospect to take without knowing the prospects mental makeup and various other factors. I'm in the I would rather take our time with any prospect not named Bedard. I didn't want us to draft Slaf just because I knew they would put him in the NHL ala KK and Galchenyuk (doesn't mean it will end up the same of course, each is their own) and I'm just so sick and tired of watching the Habs rush prospects for the past 8 or so years.
Mesar has impressed me a lot at times, so for now I'm not really worried yet but next year will be very interesting to see how they handle him and how it goes.