Possibly. It's up to the coach to utilize his players, but the front office has a say for sure. The fact that Pionk played 6 minutes more each night, and down the stretch even more, than ADA did while also being a true rookie, I don't think that was all on AV. The front office obviously knew they'd be firing AV, so I don't believe they gave him free reign to use these kids however he wanted. I believe they gave him suggestions on how they'd like to see certain guys be used.
Then, also, Gorton brings Pionk along with him to the World Championships, where he played really well in a limited role. I think the front office is high on Pionk. Again, of course Quinn will get to make decisions and have input on everything, but unless Pionk is noticeably outplayed by ADA, I just have a hard time envisioning a scenario where the latter gets more minutes than the former.
Also, with the whole "blank slate" thing, that's only true to an extent. You can go into camp and say say, "Everyone is on equal ground and has an equal chance." But you can't just completely forget past performances. AV and his system really hurt some of our guys, particularly the defenseman, but it would be a failing of management to just put aside everything that happened over the past few years.