I totally understand your fear, that we rush them but what must they show you, that you think they are ready?
I don't think a 5 games test stint would hurt their development and I think some of them are ready, just like Killorn and Conacher. Connolly is in my opinion a sure thing to play in Tampa next year again, so he will stay down the whole year. But whats wrong with testing Johnson, Palat, Panik and maybe even Brown in the NHL? If one of them shows he must stay in the NHL, because he is too good to send him down, then he deserves the spot. And I bet with you that Johnson and/or Panik is 100% ready to play 12/13 minutes in the NHL.
Same thing on D, we are all high on Gudas because of his style/play and he shows a lot of promise, but it's still questionable if he has the talent to play a top4 role in the NHL, while many proscouts see a lot more talent in Barberio and I think he has the same "slump" as Conacher after his perfect year last year, so let's give him a chance and see if he can surprise as well. The only problem is we already have to much offense in the D, but I really can't see what he has to do, to give him a call-up? As long as we trade non of our current 8 D, no one will get a chance when some injurys come on the same time, because we would still have 6 to play.
Nobody will know, if they are really ready until they get a chance.
Brown is fresh of a pretty ****ed up collarbone, and has very limited ice time opportunity here. Do we shove him into a third or fourth line role and forget about him, or try to cultivate the talent that he has into a potential second line forward?
Killorn is fine. I don't think Killorn will ever be going back to Syracuse. Hes ready, after a solid showing in college as well as the Ads playoff run. I will be incredibly disappointed if he goes back.
Connolly and Panik are too... I don't want to say lazy, but they're unique players and need to play with adept scorers and playmakers to truly shine. Connolly was wildly inconsistent last year and his callup now wouldn't be beneficial to his development, nor to the production of the team. Same with Panik - you saw his flashes of brilliance with Killorn and Conacher on the same line, but generally they should be approached with a top-six-or-bust attitude, rather than "well lets see what you can do".
Palat is a good player but with a low overall ceiling. His callup here is exactly the kind of thing we need - someone who will go in the corners, mix it up, be responsible defensively, and be a possession player with good hands. If he can win faceoffs, even better.
We have a horrible logjam at defense right now, do we risk calling a guy up now and waiving someone? Who do you get rid of? Waive Mikkelson who hasn't been bad, but has shown he can at least be a replacement level player in the NHL when we don't know (but assume) Gudas or Barberio can?
How about Johnson? That would make a team with three guys under 5-9, with one of them over 35 with a team that has shown reluctance to step in for these smaller guys. Who do you even put Johnson on a line with, Pyatt and who? You think a small, scoring forward is going to thrive with guys like Pyatt and Labrie? Nate and Pyatt? Those guys aren't the most offensively adept, you know.
People are in an absolute panic right now, and yet somehow completely revamping the roster, trading Teddy, Bugsy, and Brewer is going to fix this? Just call up all of the crunch players and destroy the great thing we have going down there and stunting the development of other players like Namestnikov, Connolly, Korobov, JT Brown? How about Devos, and Gauthier who is a big project? Do we just say "well, the team has been gutted, its all up to you, thanks!" to these guys? We've never had a solid, productive, winning AHL affiliate. This team confidence does wonders for player development and i'm not ready to destroy that because everyone is in a panic with the big club.
