Unclear why they haven’t sent him back to the AHL yet. He could use some more work down there and he’s waiver-exempt.
Agreed. He was playing pretty decent two way hockey for the first 10 or so games of the season, despite the lack of production.
But lately, he's been getting caved in. He has a team worst 29.7% xGF% in 7 games in November, along with team worst 3.72 xGA/60, despite getting very favorable deployments.
I don't see any reason for keeping him up at this point - he needs more ice time and an opportunity to regain his confidence. It's not like he shredded the AHL last year, there's still plenty for him to prove in the minors.
Wright seems to think he does NOT need to do the work.
As I mentioned above, he didn't go to the World Juniors (last year) when he certainly could have. I doubt Seattle would have said NO if Wright said, "I want to go to the WJR's to get some solid playing time against top prospects". What GM would say NO to that? Instead, Wright collected a pay check and stayed home for Christmas.
Someone needs to light a fire under his ass. Send him to the AHL if he's not going to play in Seattle - don't just let him rot on the end of the bench.
It seemed like he had turned a corner with his work ethic during last year in the AHL, and through the first 10 games of this season. But he's been pretty awful lately. Needs to go back down to get a reminder that his effort level needs to stay at 100 if he wants to be an NHLer.