[Frank MetaMusil]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Yes. That much is clear over the last four seasons.



Doesn't matter. Bouma, Backlund, Brodie, all these guys were regulars on the NHL roster before Hartley got here. He had no control over whether he played them only how much. It was their own abilities that got them better opportunities, but the original opportunity wasn't in Hartley's hands. Had it been, we don't know if any of them would be in the NHL. Hartley scratched Brodie his first game, he put Backlund through hell in the first half of 2013, and Bouma is so generic a player he's a useless example. Hartley hates the possibility of unfamiliar players making mistakes so much, he holds them back until he has no other option. That's a terrible approach. He'd rather play Chris Butler 22 minutes a game than gamble on an unknown that might not be as terrible as Chris Butler.

Until an NHL defenseman, not a phenom like Chychrun, but an ordinary, internally developed NHL-regular defenseman, plays a calder eligible season under Hartley, that much will be clear.



I would say the only one among Shore, Poirier, Sven, etc that is not still in the organization anymore is in the NHL, relatively succeeding in his situation which involves big minutes. "gifted" is silly, it implies you need to play less than better players to play more. No, you need to play appropriately to how much you contribute to the team. But you're someone who thinks Sven Baertschi should still be the AHL "doing his time" right?

Brodie had just 50-some games under Brent, he was hardly a regular on the NHL roster before Hartley arrived. I seriously think you've got the coaches mixed up here. It was Brent who kept force feeding Butler 20+ minutes per game, not Hartley