No, they take time away from Anderson, Gallagher, RHP, Pearson, Ylonen, Pezseta, Dvorak and Evans. Helping your young players by bringing in better players than the scrap the bottom is built out of is how you actually help your team.
Im sure having sulking overpaid vets who are healthy scratches adds extra happiness to the room.
I remember my first yr college, oh boy i earned a spot as RW (off wing) on 4th line.. the C was an actual vet.. dude was miserable, lol... i was just happy to dress, there were 5 black aces..
Half way through the season, Vet is benched, i get moved to C to lead the rookie line.. effing eh!!! "We" were so full of vigor and excitement we got our minutes equal to 3rd line for playoffs...
That, imo is more important than having an "actual" 4th line joyrneyman. We played every shift like a game 7 playoff... it's actually not that hard to do when youre only on for ~4min/period.. all out!! And guess what? The top two lines fed off of what us rookies were doing!
Winning is created in the room.. on the ice is where you go to war for your mates.