He's a step behind the play, given that NHL speed is a new experience, but he's obviously got good hockey sense, that's why he hasn't been getting burned.
It's a good experience for him, seeing what he needs to learn to play at the NHL level.
Yep. The hockey sense is quite evident even though he is a bit behind the play a lot of the time. He's made a few really slick little plays and you really can see that he has very good offensive vision and instincts. Also clearly has some solid defensive instincts as well. And his board play is already at an NHL-level, though i expect it will get even better in time.
When the puck is on his stick is where i think the speed of the game really passes him by a bit right now. You can see the wheels in motion there, starts to make a play, starts to try to dangle someone, etc., but just clearly doesn't have as much time as he's used to, and he's going to have to learn to use his size more effectively to create that extra little bit of space for himself. Between just coming back from the big ice in Sweden, and then adjusting to the pace in the AHL though...that's really not surprising.
A good experience for him, but as others have remarked, i'd expect to see him back down with Chicago as soon as Raymond/Kesler is ready to go. Still a work in progress, but the tools are very promising, and he may not be that far off at all.
It really wouldn't surprise or offend me at all to see him back up with the big club come playoffs, as depth/insurance. We'll see how things shake out over the rest of the season for him and what our cap situation looks like next year...but it really wouldn't surprise me to see him log some significant games with the Canucks next year either, much as Schroeder has done this year, shuttling up and down.
As a whole, still extremely high on him as a prospect, and his brief stint thus far in the NHL has done nothing to change that.