Originally Posted by frinkprof
On Monahan, I too would like to see him get 9 games and go back to Junior. A couple reasons.
One is that I think that players sticking with the big club in their draft year should be rare cases with special circumstances. Some of those circumstances would include:
- Have already played in the World Junior Championships or World Championship
- In the case of Europeans, have already played, and not just scraping by while doing so, in a European league amongst men
- Are incredibly physically mature for an 18/19 year old. Not just that they have the height and muscle mass, but that they have had it for long enough to be used to playing with it.
- Have exceptional pedigree. First overall in most (but not all drafts) and a few second and third overall. Not to slight Monahan because 6th overall isn't a huge dropoff in this department, but he isn't solidified in that very top pedigree group in this draft. If you're not in that group, you should fit one of the other criteria.
The other reason is the makeup of the Flames heading into this year. There are lots of rookie names in the mix already and I just think that there's only so many rookies you can have on the team before it can become too many to have a healthy atmosphere for them. You need to mix in some veterans (young 25-29 range and older 31 and up range veterans) to help keep a good atmosphere of professionalism, consistency and to foster mentorship of the younger players. These names are Horak, Hanowski, Knight, Ramage, Bouma, Breen, Reinhart and especially the 20 and under guys in Wotherspoon and Baertschi. Some of these guys may stick while others will be up and down to the AHL, but there's a good bet that there will be 4 or 5 rookies around the club at any given time.
Don't get me wrong with all of this, because Monahan and the 2013/14 Flames is an interesting situation and a case for keeping him is almost as convincing as sending him back for me. Development wise, I think there's a lot to be said for the opportunities that would be presented to him by going back to the OHL.
I say let him get his 9 games in, get the first-few-games jitters out, get some familiarity with the city and his future teammates, coaches, trainers and managers, get him a big boy paycheck or two and then send him back to gain some muscle, dominate the OHL, play in the World Juniors and hopefully go deep into the OHL playoffs and to the Memorial Cup.
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