Sure, still doesn't mean there's any valid reason to suggest he was "rushed".
Bottom line, he was able to compete successfully at NHL level.
No player is without "issues". That he didn't get good development, particularly in supporting his emotional & psychological growth, is evident. The problem wasn't what level he was playing at, the problem was the organization in charge of helping him grow as an athlete was terrible at that.
They didn't rush him. Repeating that fallacy over and over again doesn't make it any less wrong.
They clearly haven't changed their approach. As described earlier, you're confusing individual pathways with shifting approaches.
Their performance output at the NHL level is not an indicator of wether or not their development is best served at that level... Unless one thinks that point production is the only metric of successful development.
Slaf was very positive development signs well before he put up points in the NHL...
Generalizations & averages are not a useful way to assess ideal individual development pathways. What league a player came from is irrelevant, at the individual level, to where they will best develop next.
Guhke going to the AHL would
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have been the wrong choice. His level of play makes that quite obvious (unless, again, points are what matter most
It's weird how in one case, you think where a player came from (CHL) is an important consideration in making these development pathways assessments... But in the next paragraph, you claim you could care less about their past (undrafted)?
Bottom line. Xhekaj is 23, was undrafted, and has played at NHL level defense. That's a positive development output. Not sure how one spins that as a negative. Wether or not his current level is "good enough" or not is a completely separate question to wether or not he has been developing well (which is about how far they have progressed from where they "started" -in this context, started implies joining the Habs organization)
I don't understand this notion that a player can't or doesn't work on their game at the NHL level. Obviously they do. Some organizations are better at keeping a development & growth focus than others... And that's irrespective of wether they are in a rebuild or contending phase. Different sport, but Phil Jackson describes beautifully how even contending rosters are best served by embracing a culture of continuous improvement... Pep Guardiola embraces the same. What I've seen and heard from the Habs under KH/MSL mirrors this approach... As does the commentary from the players both with and after departing the team.
I get the ptsd.
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The Habs have sucked at development the past 20years... Drafting, I think is a bit more debatable. The success the players we've drafted have had, despite some clearly terrible organization development practices, suggests that drafting has actually been pretty solid
I disagree that it's too early to tell if we have a strong organizational approach to drafting and development.
The drafting side of things arguably will take a bit longer (though early indications through 2 drafts -ignoring 2024- are that several, if not most selections have had stronger D1 & D2 outputs than their relative draft spot.
The success of development side I think is more evident. The progression of our U25 players since MSL took over and the players have engaged with the new player development approach, have been almost unanimously positive (which is different than saying that the actual level of said players is "great" or "good enough"... Development is the trajectory, not the height of the current status). And as I alluded to, with athlete development across sports, there are common emotional & psychological indicators that can be observed from the outside that point to best practices. Habs brass & current players show very evident signs of this.
Future is bright