It took nearly 4 years after junior for Byron to fully develop.
The result? An effective player who is capable of playing regular minutes in the NHL.
So why not take advantage of that? Playing him for the time being allows the Flames to put that same time and patience into guys like Reinhart, Granlund, etc. Byron's refreshing style of play certainly beats having a guy like David Jones in the bottom six.
If a guy with Byron's limited upside has managed to handle his own in the NHL with the amount of time he has been given, how good would our other prospects be with the same amount of time(minus a few exceptions like Monahan)? While a guy like Reinhart could step in our lineup this season and replace Byron, I don't necessarily think it makes our current team better - the long-term gain of having these players develop another year may be the better option.
The players the Flames have spent time developing (Backlund, Byron) have fully developed now into NHL players - why not use them in the lineup now and allow our prospects to develop in the same fashion they did?
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