Exactly this. Seattle was the final nail, IMO. He had a full opportunity there with a team that needed scorers. There is a long history of great AHL players who just can't cut it in the NHL, and ABB seems to be more that than a late bloomer.
I mean, what team is going to give up an asset for him? Like, literally anything. This is a guy on a minimum contract who got waived, picked up, and let go. At best we could do a minor league trade with a team intending to play him in the AHL.
If he wants to leave for another league, honestly it's a huge loss to the Crunch, but it doesn't move the needle a hair for TB. He is a non-factor for us.
As for 15 games in any one stint... I mean, he did literally nothing that should have earned him more time. That's where there's a big distinction between him and our other late bloomers. With JAM, you could see he had a goal-scorer's shot, and nose for the net. Verhaeghe was tougher to see, but especially toward the end he was making a lot of plays for his teammates. Neither were putting up points, but there was potential beyond what we saw of them in the AHL.
ABB just hasn't shown that. Maybe he's a guy like Brett Connolly or Richard Panik, who just couldn't process the game at NHL speed. Both of those guys did have one decent season elsewhere, if memory serves, but I mean... at a certain point guys just become expendable. Or at least a lot less protected and/or groomed for success. To me, again, ABB jumped the shark when he couldn't cut it in Seattle. Now he's a great AHL player who doesn't project to anything more than a warm body in the NHL. History is full of those.