They will play young players if they're physically ready, Provorov, Hagg, Sanheim's minutes are increasing as he gets acclimated. Konency gets 3rd line minutes approaching 2nd line minutes. Hextall does worry about getting smaller players injured playing against men.
I think they're protecting Patrick, he doesn't look 100% and why would you push him when he could be a top player for 10-15 years? Err on the side of caution.
There are two reasons Morin is in the AHL, one is simply that he wasn't dominant last year and Hextall feels no urgency (Morin or Hagg is a wash right now, two years from now, could be a different story), and Hextall just doesn't want 5 inexperienced players on his defense at the same time. Which is reasonable. Morin and Myers will be up next year at the latest.
As was pointed out, this team is missing the 23-26 year old players who should be the core of the rebuild. Guys who play limited minutes for a couple of years then break out at 22-23 and become core players. Hextall has been patching around this issue for four years, Weise is the only real FA and $2.35M a year isn't exactly shopping in the high price aisle. Filppula is another veteran patch, Lehtera and Read are bodies.
Everything had to go right to make the playoffs obviously things haven't.
