Players should be developing where it is best to develop them. More often than not, you need to play with NHL players to further develop your NHL game. It does a forward's development no good if the puck's in the d-zone 75% of the time. It does a defender's development no good if their partner is a second pairing AHL caliber player playing on his off side. It does a player's work ethic no good if he's not desperate for the spot in the line up because there are no other options.Tciso wrote: ↑Tue Jun 16, 2026 10:07 pm If we traded Hronek and MPete, or a couple of injuries, and we could run a defence next year consisting of
Buium (76) Willander (70)
DPete(98) Mancini (55)
Mynio (0) Kudryavtsev (5)
Schenn (1122)
Gawd, good thing I am not the GM. Schenn raises our average games per player from *cough* 50 to a respectable 200.
Rebuilds are always uncertain and hard, but there were some damn good players that made their way through Buffalo but never got them out of the rebuild, and part of the reason was the lack of NHL complements to help the kids develop. You have to learn to swim in the shallow end.
That's not an argument for holding onto Hronek or MP3 if the right deal is on the table. Its an argument for, if you make such a move, then make sure you are getting a return (or making another move -- so factor that price in) so that a defensemen who is objectively better off cooking in the AHL isn't forced into top 6.
The same can be said for guys like Cootes. You can always sign a center who ends up getting waived if Cootes is ready, but I think the odds are very likely that he's going to be best off taking at least a year in the AHL. For a guy like Sushi, its sink or swim, but guys like Cootes aren't far enough in their development to plan on them having a lineup spot.

