Some food for thought: people should also consider the Chicoutimi factor when looking at Lapierre's numbers. The Georges-Vézina center is generally the Q arena with the fewest goals scored, and it's not too hard to guess why: it's the only CHL arena with an Olympic-sized ice. This may be why it's hard for forwards to shine in the Sags organization: in the past 12 seasons, only 3 players have hit the 80 pts-mark with the Sags. That's very few. I've brought up Mercer's 0.5 PPG drop earlier; the player he was traded for, draft-eligible William Dufour, had a... 0.5 PPG increase in Drummondville. Drummondville, coincidentally, has one of the few Q rinks smaller than NA standard (190 x 85).
I've also wondered if playing half your games on big ice and half on small ice might be slightly detrimental to prospect development. The only (likely) NHL player I can think of who came through Chicoutimi in the last decade is Nic Roy, who hopefully will stick with Vegas full-time next year.