No, unless we're talking about trying to re-establish his level of play in Charlotte before coming back up for a few games to see if he has it at the NHL level he absolutely is not entitled to the chance to re-establish his level of play from Chicago. He's had a 30+ game sample size to try to do that already and hasn't gotten it done. The only thing that's happened is that his mechanics have consistently stayed putrid, his puck tracking has been league worst levels all year, and his body language and mental play has gotten worse and worse. Say what you will of Ward the past few games, the team was playing at a better then 100 point clip with him in net this season until this latest stretch. When the other option is so bad that the team can't make the playoffs despite having a guy playing at that kind of pace, the only option is to ditch the guy that was dragging the team down and trying over with something else. The only debate is whether that's in Charlotte or whether that should be on the free agency dumping ground via buyout.
We flat out can not go in to next year with a guy who quite literally played this team out of a playoff spot this season projected to be a mainstay for this team. Can not happen. The only 3 teams that played at a worst pace then Darling has played with us are Colorado last year when they were the leagues laughing stock, and Buffalo when they were literally tanking for McDavid, and Arizona the Matthews year. That's it, that's literally f***ing it. That's how god damn BAD Darling has been. Scott Darling this year has been, BY FAR, the worst season by a goalie this literal decade.