Is it coddling him to have him center the 2nd line though? I mean come on. There are degrees of punishing the guy. It's one thing to move him down the lineup it's a whole other thing to put him on the wing and then the 4th line.
His play has gotten worse since we've done this not better. So what are we accomplishing here? Is the message we send more important than the results? Why do this?
If we think he's not going to get it then play him out, get what we can from him this year and then trade him in the summer. Putting him 4th line wing doesn't make any sense as far as I'm concerned.