1. It matters because there is only so much ice-time to go around and certainly not enough to develop not-good-enough-no-longer-prospects like Hudon. If Hudon is the next to go after DLR and Scherbak I won't lose any sleep over it. He's an easily replaceable player. I'm not saying we should actively try to move Hudon, but if he needs to be waived because we have 23 better players, then so be it. In the near future we'll be better off investing that time into guys like Poehling and Suzuki.
Only so much ice time yet we are spending over 10min on each of Chaput, Agostino, and Deslaurier. That's what people don't like. Hudon not being in the top-9 is defensible, playing those 3 above him isn't.
2. There are always exceptions, but if you can't crack a mediocre team's roster at 24 time is running out.
I would argue the opposite, most NHLers improve from where they are at 24. That's why a player's prime years are often considered to be their mid-late 20s.
3. Those players were Shaw, Lehkonen, Danault, and Armia. All of whom were close to Hudon's 30 points of last year and are miles better defensively. As players, I'd take them all over Hudon easily, though Shaw's contract gives me pause. Again, I'm not saying we should actively move Hudon - we should keep him to be in competition with these players for ice-time, but right now he's losing and not deserving of playing time over any of these players.
I was going by ppg to be fair to players who missed games.
Hudon: 0.417
Tatar: 0.415
Shaw: 0.392
Armia: 0.367
Lehkonen: 0.318
None of them are miles better defensively. And the point I made stands, if in any given year it's a coin flip whether they are going to be better, then the team is better served by giving ice time to the guy who could develop into something more. It's the exact same reason Lehkonen deserved ice time despite his struggles (He wasn't close to Hudon's production).
And no one has claimed Hudon needs to displace someone in the top-9, the argument is against using guys like Chaput and Agostino over him. Hudon will develop more on the 4th line then in the pressbox. And either later this year or next year he could easily end up being one of the guys whose better then the others in the top-9.
EDIT: And yes when guys like Poehling and Suzuki are on the roster it would be stupid to play a middle-six guys ahead of them just because they are a little more polished at the NHL level. It's the exact same logic, if the difference isn't big, play the guy with potential to be better.