How does that help you? How does having ANY of those players sitting help you? Is Pilut so superior to Miller or McCabe that it warrants it? You all complain about Botterill's poor asset management. Sending Pilut to Rochester right now with the current players/numbers is the best choice for maintaining asset/player value. It allows the rest of the top six to get some more solid pairings and playtime so that performance can improve, which will not only help the team win, but also improve trade value if possible. I see lots of complaints, but not one legitimate reply showing how keeping Pilut in Buffalo right now brings about the most overall benefit.
Putting McCabe in the pressbox takes a regularly poor performing defenseman out of the lineup and still affords them the flexibility to use Dahlin/Pilut/Jokiharju as the PP point men. In the idea of trying to build for the future, we know what we have in McCabe, Bogosian and Ristolainen. Teams aren't going to suddenly come to a realization that any of them are more than they already are. There is no need to showcase any of them. This isn't the '70's with limited game film availability - these teams can pull up and parse out footage of just about any game and specific players. Yes, they go watch players in game situations, but do you think any of the gaggle of the usual defensive suspects on this team is going to move the needle after personal viewing?