Bailey is someone I'd like to keep on the 4th line because of those attributes he brings. The reality though is that above that, he's out of his element and simply not good enough to use his size effectively and consistently. Those details to the game are obviously important but it's still not as important as being able to put yourself in the right positions to create offense. You still need offensive-minded players to do that when your supposedly more balanced players aren't putting points on the board. The fundamental reason a one-dimensional winger isn't sticking here is because they're not afforded the opportunities, plain and simple. Gushchin and Bordeleau are not the only one-dimensional sort of wingers around the league. Plenty are sticking when given opportunities. Some develop more to their game as they go and some don't but they still stick and have roles on teams that succeed.
Guys like Bailey and Carpenter deserve their opportunities. I believe Gushchin, Bordeleau, Cardwell, and Peterson deserve opportunities as well. When we have proven failures in the process of failing that don't bring anything to the team still getting opportunities over them, it's counterproductive to the team's desire to succeed and rebuild. At least in Gushchin's case, I think his offensive talent is enough to translate to the NHL. That alone should make you of all people want to put him in that spot to at the very least improve his trade value because he can actually do that. Hoffman, Labanc, and Zadina cannot. I don't think Bailey can either even though I like a lot of his game. I don't think Carpenter can either. A good thing to have is a 21-22 year old kid with NHL experience that maybe can return you a similar draft pick to where they were selected. Then at least you could draft your guy with another pick acquired.
I don't put a lot of stock in guys with size being able to do certain detailed gameplay if they can't score in those scoring roles. Details only matter if you're in the right position to begin with. None of the pro guys are really in the right position to begin with and their production suffers because of it.
