It is true we have not had much in the way of young talent lately, so those who failed to impress were always going to fail because when you are not the most talented youngster, you need opportunity. Sullivan has not been good at providing these guys that opportunity.
BUT, our prospect pool is greatly improved from what it was even a year ago. There can no longer be excuses like, "well, we don't have the prospects to promote, so that is why middling player X is on the roster."
If those middling players stick, it will be by organizational choice. And we know they will stick if Sullivan has his say. I hope not, but Puustinen could end up like P.O. Joseph (the winger version). Joseph is still 25 years old (somehow), but we preferred to give middling talent like Grzelcyk, Aho and Shea a chance to win that roster spot. And we simply gave up on Joseph. Yeah, he probably ends up not being much, especially since his roster chances were probably better in Pittsburgh than they are in St. Louis. But losing that asset is still dumb, considering what we did to replace him. In Puustinen's case, the arrivals of Beauvillier and Glass, plus the return to health of Acciari and presence of Puljujarvi, could really hurt his chances of making the team this year. Poulin? His fate is sealed in my opinion. Hayes, Lizotte and Eller still being here makes Poulin a long shot at best. In fact, he may have already been surpassed by Ponomarev and Yager, too. Broz is close, as well.
The bottom line is, Dubas will not be given the benefit of the doubt anymore if we don't actually create any room in order to get younger, which is his stated goal. And it probably won't happen with the guys who have already tried to get Sullivan's attention in the past, and failed like Poulin and Puustinen. Now, I am focused on how we treat the top prospects in the organization: Yager, Blomqvist, Pickering, Koivunen, Ponomarev and the recent draftees down the road.
Those other young guys are stuck in this organization, and their fate will likely be decided similarly to what happened to Joseph.
I have a feeling this could end up being the most frustrating training camp of them all, which is saying something with this team.