Of course I was just venturing my opinion but I don't see why it was necessary to send players of obvious NHL quality back to leagues where they'd already proved they were too good for. Was Marner ready, I think he was, was he angry, I think his contract negotiations proved that. If Marner was treated properly, if Nylander was treated properly they probably would've trusted the Leaf hierarchy more, felt more part of the team and may have been more willing to accept lesser contracts. Nylander actually had Babs in his corner, Babs wanted Nylander to be on the team after training camp, he also wanted Brown, but it was decided by Lou that they needed to be returned to the "A".
Lou might have had the long range plan(TO tanking) as part of his decision in returning those players but those players basically gave up a year's salary for TO's greater good, not for theirs. I'd be resentful.
Marner might have won the Calder if he didn't have to compete with AM his first year.
We saw Marner spend a great deal of time in his first year on Kadri's line with Marleau and by the end of his rookie year he was driving that line, he gave Kadri another 30 goal year, he made Marleau look like he was still a player. Players don't go from being not ready for the NHL to line drivers when they finally get into the NHL. Look at Marner's record in his last year in junior and compare it to his draft year, he played his predraft year to show his NHL readiness, his year after he was pissed he was demoted, sulked for about 30 games, in other words stagnated, then someone must have told him that his play would probably keep him out of the NHL and he turned it on.
I wouldn't ever expect players to publicly express their frustrations because there are more subtle ways like asking for too much in contract negotiations.
