I don't know if that's necessarily true. People remember Jason Spezza, but I think he came in with a bit of an ego and desire to play a high-skill, high-risk game out of the gate. Jacques wanted him to work on other parts first.
But some of our former players were put in prominent roles pretty early:
Havlat, Hossa, Redden, Phillips and Bonk were all 19 when they became regulars
Volchenkov and Fisher were 20
Vermette and Rachunek were 21
Neil was 22
Now there were some bumps and benchings, but they were all NHLers at those ages.
My point wasn’t that he didn’t give young guys opportunities. It was that he made them
earn the opportunities. All the guys you listed beat out incumbents in camp.
Earning ice time by beating out people like Dineen or Dackell wasn’t that tall an order for Hossa or Havlat.
Redden was clearly a top 4 option when he came in.
Phillips had to play both ways until he earned a full time D spot.
Fisher, and Volchenkov forced the sens hands with imposing physical play. I distinctly remember Volchenkov in particular blowing up some leafs like Jonas Hoglund.
Vermette had worked on his two way game while dominating offensively in the AHL and his speed was a huge asset, he was definitely the best option on the 4th line.
Neil knew the sens needed toughness. He put up 354 PIMs in his last season in the minors. Then, after the sens got swept and bullied by the leafs in 4 games, he came to training camp and fought every game in preseason including against Domi and Corson, while also being an imposing hitter. He made Roy expendable.
Jacques is not just going to get the team to trade players, particularly good players like Chabot and Chychrun, to make room for an unproven Kleven who didn’t earn a longer look when he was given the chance.
Let him dominate the AHL before we send off guys who are doing ok in the NHL.