I don’t see Wallmark as a real contributor at the NHL level. A plug-and-play callup, sure. He’s not awful or anything. But he has 1 goal in 177 minutes of massively sheltered ice time. He doesn’t seem like a guy who can elevate his game enough on either end of the ice to take on on heavy minutes. And he turns 23 before next season, so the likelihood that he takes a huge step forward is starting to dwindle. To me, he’s something slightly less than Zach Boychuk and slightly more than Drayson Bowman.
Zykov seems like another Derek Ryan type figure to me. Yes he can probably generate points in the NHL, but seems to me it would come at a cost. I’d like to see him called up for a few games just to get a good eye test on that theory.
I have no idea what people see in Roy other than AHL numbers. To me he’s a player who would clearly be in over his head against NHL opponents.
Gauthier is young and raw and hopefully grows into an Erik Cole type. But every time I’ve watched him play, I’ve seen him bumble around with the puck. Players that can’t handle the puck get targeted and become turnover machines. He’s not big enough or fast enough right now to make up for that, which I suspect is why he’s not getting minutes in Charlotte. He needs to develop his skill game before he even thinks about the NHL.
The only reason I would even think about a callup for any of these guys, is this right here:
I just think it would be nice to give him a chance to show what he can do instead of wasting a roster spot on Stempniak. There's no need to guess or project what Zykov will need to be successful at the NHL level when we could know for sure by just playing him.
Stempniak has been a low-key Darling/Kruger level disappointment and his career is probably over on April 7th. It’s hard to remember a more functionally useless player who wasn’t an AHL callup. There’s absolutely no reason to have him in the lineup if it’s blocking us from getting useful information or even just rewarding strong play from our prospects. I’m honestly not sure we wouldn’t be better off just using 17 skaters and double-shifting a winger rather than have Stempniak out there, casually observing the game for a few minutes a night.