There was a case to be made last year that swapping Willander for Jiricek made sense because Jiricek better fit the Canucks’ timeline, but given their respective development I’m not sure that’s even the case at this stage.
Trying to come up with a comparable situation where a highly drafted prospect ends up in total limbo like this (not able to get opportunity in NHL, not playing full time in AHL), with clear disagreements between player/agent and team on where they should be, where the player gets moved to another opportunity and then they go on to reach their potential. Just seems like it's usually a big hit for the player's value as their development gets hampered so early into their post draft career.