Honestly, his offensive game for the reason I mentioned above, yeah. The pace of play/physicality/rink size etc he's improved tremendously, but if only to prove to him that "hey, you can shoot too. And probably score."
I get the desire fans have to see more scoring... but i just don't think there is any merit to the notion that Slaf's game would benefit, at this stage, from any time in the AHL.
It would be akin to the habs sending Anderson down when he was slumping, or sending CC down to work on his shooting %...
If Slaf's game was showing the signs of difficulty that would benefit from playing at a lower level, sure... but that's not the issue here at all. If anything, his play and his impact have led the team to increase his usage, and he has responded by playing with more assertiveness and confidence with each passing game.
Demoting him at this point would more likely have the opposite effect, creating more doubt and concern in his head, rather than boosting it.
Xhekaj was sent down, and didn't love it. But in his case the significant areas of improvement in his game required more time in a role that he couldn't get in Montreal.
with Slaf, the scoring will come. That much is pretty clear at this point. The progress he made in the other areas of his game came because he could get ice time in more "sheltered" or limited minutes as a fwd, and as he started to play more fluidly in all phases of the game, his impact increased and so did his ice time.
While slumps and rough patches are inevitable (See CC, Josh), at this point it would take a pretty significant regression in Slaf's game for the AHL to be a reasonable place for him to "work on his game".