In no way does Sven have an edge going in. Even with the experience factor, Sven didn't do much to rectify the issue management expressed with him last fall. He had an alright season (started lousy), and improved marginally from what I heard, but wasn't a leader on the team when he should've been, esp in the playoffs. Johnny and Sven are the same age, and league experience aside, I think Johnny backchecks harder and better than Sven already. And I think the maturity factor is in JG's favour - he's humble and looks very willing to learn. I think Sven still has issues to sort out, and needs to emerge a top player in the farm team while addressing the 200ft game issues, so I don't think sending him down would be an issue at all. Johnny dominates every level he's played at, meanwhile committing at both ends of the ice to the extent that a player of his size can.
Experience doesn't mean #### when you don't make a conscious and willing changes to your game that the management have laid out for you that are required to make the next level, and when you make comments like "im sticking to my game, because that makes me good" (or whatever it was). Based on that, Sven has much larger obstacles in order to change the minds of the guys watching from above, than Johnny, who simply has to keep convincing, which seems to be a continual habit for him.
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