15 games in the AHL or SHL?
There was always questions about DLR's offensive game, but in the 2nd league at 17 he had a pretty good season, here's how he compares with Filip Forsberg as they were on the same team,
At 17 in the 2nd league (like our AHL),
Forsberg - 43-8-9-17 (.4 ppg)
DLR - 38-6-6-12 (.32 ppg)
now that's as far as they compare since the next year at 18 Forsberg was still in the 2nd league but DLR was in the SHL so it's hard to compare them. In the SHL he was 1 of 3 teenagers on the team if you only count players with more then say 15 games. The other two teens were a year older and had 7 pts between them while DLR was 8th on the team in scoring while the guys in front of him were all 26 to 32.
So there was some offense, but what does Lefebvre do, he puts him on the 4th line and he doesn't give his 4th line a lot of ice time. After the WJC's he was moved up and got more ice time and started to put up decent numbers for a 19 year old. Then he gets called up to the NHL after he was just starting to gel imo. In the NHL he plays 33 games and has 4 goals, looks solid for a 19 year old.
But the next year he's sent back to the AHL after training camp, starts off the season very slow, was playing with Dumont and Scherbak I believe, line was just terrible. They change up the lines after some injuries/callups and he starts doing much better and so of course just as he's starting to string together some offense once again they call up him, he plays 22 games, gets 1 freaking point, is jerked about between the 4th line and press box and then gets sent down.
The next season he's sent down after camp again, once again he starts off very slowly. Once again he starts putting it together to the point he's one of their better players so of course just as he's starting to put together offensive games he gets called up barely plays, sits in the press box and then gets sent down.
Now all of this could have been avoided. They could have put him in the OHL at 19, had 3 years in the AHL and he could be a rookie in the NHL next year and while we'll never know what would have happened, it's clear this was a very poor way to handle him even if he didn't show much in the way off offense which I think he did but never could do it long enough because they kept calling him up right as he was heating up.
also it's funny you put you like him but not as much as others, DLR has gotten so much hate around here, it wasn't until later this past season when he was given a bigger role and had some production that more started to think he may actually be a decent 4th liner. I said all along that he was handled very poorly but still could be a solid 4th liner for us.
DLR imo was likely mishandled the worst of any of them, and it's very much to do with the yo-yoing. Just as the kid was putting strings of games together where he was showing/creating/producing what happens? He gets called up, then benched, then sent down and they repeated that mistake every year. Just not sure how someone can think this wouldn't have a big impact on their confidence, development.
Next you say McCarron was mishandled, which clearly he was, but you say not for the yo-yos but for the role they gave him. The problem is that Lefebvre actually did a pretty good job with McCarron at least for the most part. Never once did Lefebvre take McCarron off the top 6 despite how ****ty he was playing at times. He always got quality ice time and PP time. It wasn't until this year that he really stuck him with such crappy linemates for most nights. The problem with McCarron is he comes in and does great in his first month as a rookie in the AHL but it didn't take long to call him up and then bench him and then send him back and he never looked the same. Now of course we can lay blame on Timmins, McCarron, MT, MB, and they are share the blame but imo he could have been handled much better in terms of not calling him up until he dominated for more then 1 month.
Subban they did a great job, Guy Boucher was very smart with him. He dominated the AHL for a full season and then gets called up for the playoffs and looks very good. The rest is history. I don't have an issue with calling up a player at 20, but wait till they dominate for at least half the season if not all the season. Hudon did it, he started out as a 20 year old rookie that was among the league leaders in points early in the season. He didn't have much help so he couldn't keep up the pace but still had a very good year. Yet they left him there.
Gallagher in his last 3 WHL seasons in 172 games he had 126 goals (that's a .73 goals per game) in his rookie year in the AHL he plays really well in half a season and gets called up. I would have left him there all year but to show how good he was, in just 36 games he finished tied for 2nd on the team in goals with players that played just about double the amount of games.
So to me they did the right thing with both Subban and Gallagher. Beaulieu they should have left him in the AHL (and hired better coaches), he played most of the year in the AHL and was pretty good. He tied for the team lead in points but you could see the problems in his own end so I wouldn't have called him up as a 20 year old rookie. Then the same next year, he spends much of the year in the AHL, missed 19 games after being called up and showing mixed results as imo he wasn't progressing yet they still called him up. Not a smart move. Now we all know Beaulieu had his issues in his own end and some feel you can't fix stupid but I still think they should have handled him better.
I do very much believe each case is different, no exact formula. That said I prefer to lean towards the side of caution and I much prefer that they wait unless they are dominating before a call up.
, had to edit some things, yeah you have a good point
