I’m not sure that’s what the team is doing (youth movement). If it was, Rossi, Walker, Hunt, and O’Rourke would be up with the NHL team and guys like Middleton (ROR), Merrill (Hunt), Gaudreau (Rossi), and Greenway (Walker) would be traded.
Management is expecting to win. Expectations should be the same for everyone, rookie or not. Maybe if we were rebuilding I would agree to your above point. Go back to when Dumba was that young. He got benched and sat all the time and he was better than Addison at the same age.
There’s a time to bring up young guys…when they are ready. You pick the fruit when it’s ripe. If you do it too early, you ruin the whole thing. Rossi, and especially Hunt and ROR, are settling in and starting to play well in the AHL, but none of them are dominating. Physically, they are doing ok, and surviving much better than they did in previous years. I can see Rossi getting a call up if a C goes down, or a C is traded. Same with the two Dman, but Mermis, or maybe Sustr, might be a better fit for this year.
Walker is a different story, to me. He is older than the others, has been the best player down in Iowa, and is versatile positionally. He is not strong , either, but has learned to play in spite of it, and does play in front of the net. Is decent defensively, and smart. I can see him as an offensive forward option right now, though even there it’s not like he lit up the scoresheet when he was up. To me, it’s more of an eye test thing. He had on goal called back, I think, and made some nice set ups, hit some iron, etc.. unlike Rossi, he can skate himself out of trouble.