Scherbak had 30 pts in 26 AHL games last year. Domi started the year at a 1+ pt/game production. Galchenyuk had 23 pts in 25 games playing with Radulov and Patch in 2016. Mete looked like our best prospect when he started the year last season.
Show me a full season at the very least. A hockey season is long and you need to grind it out to prove yourself.
The Habs have stock piled prospects and the depth on our NHL roster is decent (except at LD). It's time to let our kids play in the AHL and prove themselves over the long haul vs a 1/4 season sample size and we call them up prematurely
I bet you Evans gets called up if Kotkaniemi was not in the picture.
Agreed 20-30 games isn't enough, which is why I even said I want to see him spend the rest of the year down there so he can prove his current 15 game stretch of great production isn't just a hot streak.
But when looking at his development, I don't see a guy who simply had one good year in juniors and every other season was a disappointment. I see a guy who was a project when drafted who was on a good development path until they started to call him up to early sacrificing his development for the short term wants of being a bigger team.
At the draft he was a project player who showed flashes of upside but had lots of question marks. His D+1 year overall was disappointing, but there was improvement during the season. He was a better player at the end of the season then he was at the beginning of it which is basically what you want to see from a project. His D+2 year was a big leap forward and again he was a better player at the end of the year then he was at the beginning. So at this point he's on a solid development path, wasn't where we hoped he was on draft day but improved to a point where he was now a very good looking prospect.
He starts his pro career with a bang and halfway through the year is looking like not only a lock to be an NHLer but probably a middle-six guy. Then we dick around with his development and he no longer looks like such a sure thing, he's regresses until he looks like a bit of a long shot to have an NHL career.
This isn't a case of a player simply plateauing and not getting better, this is a guy who was on a good path getting better year after year until something happens and he starts becoming worse year after year.
You can see it in his production, you can even see it in his penalty minutes, he went from 1.5 penalty minutes per game his first year in the AHL to well over 2 in the following years. He was focusing on being mean, hitting guys, fighting, etc... instead of continuing to develop his skills which is exactly what our brilliant coaches told him to do. And surprise surprise, focusing on being tough at the expense of your skills is terrible for your development. This year he's gotten back to around 1.5 penalty minutes per game, and we are starting to see his offensive game again.
Hopefully it's not too late for him, but those years where we screwed with his development hurt.