Thank god we didn’t risk Robert Hagg’s development to find out.
It wasn't some conspiracy to keep Morin down, they didn't want to have one rookie in the pressbox.
Hagg was first up b/c of his ability to play RHD on a team with more LHDs. Gudas was the only true RHD on the team.
Manning actually had a solid season in 2017-18 as the 4th D-man paired with Gudas,
CF 50.65%, xGF 48.81% overall
CF 52.09%, xGF 49.95% with Gudas
AMac, Hagg and Sanheim filled out the third pair
Sanheim played with both Gudas and AMac
Hagg with Ghost and Provorov with AMac
In fact, Manning, despite his predilection for bad mistakes, had a solid 2016-17 as well. CF 51.17%, xGF 48.13%.
They were then smart enough to let him walk and he went straight downhill.