It's more that it prevents it from being a difficult decision. If I know I can keep Evgeny in the AHL getting stronger while rehabbing against a lower level of talent AND I can cycle in a bunch of reclamation projects to maybe hit a homerun, I'll do it. If I had to worry about losing Svechnikov by picking up Erne, Perlini, and Fabbri, it would give me more pause. But if I can keep Svech and let him play himself into shape to replace one of those replaceable guys... AND I can freely use excess assets to pick up guys who could be a lucky scratchy lottery ticket, then I'm all for that. I would say that Svech's waiver status is very relevant.
It's a relevant consideration and variable, I absolutely agree. I just don't think it is the determining factor in the context of how this conversation has been framed, however.
In other words, if the team was further along in it's development, and Svech's knee was further along in recovery, his waiver status wouldn't matter, because the gains you would get in his development at the NHL level would more than offset the loss in whatever asset that would get pushed down the line.
I think in this case, Svech was up on a terrible team, accounted well enough for himself from a WinsAboveReplacement perspective, but the org asked the question "what would we/he have to gain, by playing in this environment in this condition?" The answer would be way more complicated if he wasn't waiver exempt, for sure, but I don't think it is
the reason he is in GR and not DET right now.
If you are of the opinion that he's more or less as recovered as he's going to get, and he's been downgraded as a prospect overall, and so his development is taking a back seat to other mechanations in the organization, I don't think that's unreasonable, I'm just not ready to make that determination about him yet.
