How they got to the team is irrelevant. The Canes were the youngest team (weighted average) in the NHL the last year, the 2nd youngest team (weighted average) this year, and have promoted a bunch of guys to the NHL in the past few years. To say they refuse to bring up young guys just isn't correct. For years, this board *****ed about how Maurice would bring up young guys and make them "earn it" on the 4th line and wouldn't put them in roles that suited them. Well, now we have a coach that is giving young guys key roles and in some cases, they are learning on the job and making mistakes. If anything, we are probably too young and it shows from time to time (like the Washington game, like Fleury getting pick pocketed last night, etc..).
Your talking out of both sides of your mouth a bit NotOpie. Your saying McGinn and Fleury don't count as young guys (which is a silly statement), but then talk about Zykov, Foegele, and Wallmark? How are they different?
Maybe/maybe not, but we're now talking about guys that will see the ice maybe 9-10 min. a game even strength here. I wouldn't have a problem with the Canes trying 1 or 2 of these guys, but I'll trust that our coach, GM and organization has a better handle on this than we do.
So BBA, it feels like you're misreading my point....My point wasn't that the Canes don't play young guys. I never said that. References to Slavin, Pesce, Aho, et al were meant to highlight the youth that was ready when some or many thought it was not. My point also was that I think there are young guys who are ready and have a skill set that appears to be superior to the guys I'd hope they would supplant. Sure, the coaches obviously are professionals who almost assuredly know better than I, but, hey, this is a hockey message board, and if I want to play armchair GM/Coach, that's what I signed on for.
Guys either are ready or they're not...Slavin, Pesce, and Aho were ready. Hanifin, frankly wasn't, but I believe the college issue forced Ronnie's hand; so he played, learned, and continues to do so at the NHL level. McGinn spent a fair amount of the last two years, splitting time between the AHL and the NHL and rightly so. Fleury, despite the growing pains you highlighted, has mostly proven that he belongs.
Now maybe the coaches' strategy of keeping the kids in Charlotte until they over-ripen (something I'm not always opposed to) will make these guys better players long term. But right now we get no scoring from our 4th line, 17 points across Kruger, Nordstrom, Jooris, and Di Giuseppe. For a team that's starved for scoring, beefing up the production from that line while, in my opinion, not really sacrificing responsible play is a tactic I'd like to see attempted. Plus I think it creates interesting skill-set mismatches. Sure, maybe they get lined up across from Crosby and/or Malkin and get torched. But, frankly, that type of shit happens to Jeff Skinner and Derek Ryan pretty regularly.
The definition of insanity and all....