Saying he was sent back to junior as an over-ager is like saying the Flames sent down Ortio to the AHL for experience.
The real reason is they weren't good enough for the league they were in, otherwise they would've stayed up with the club and gotten experience in a better league.
Ultimately it comes down to this:
When given comparable icetime, guys like Colborne, Jooris, Byron etc have all significantly outproduced Ferland in the same role. This year, the waiver wire pickup Paul Byron, has twice as many goals as Ferland in less games.
He's 23 years old, it's put up or shut up time for him. Adding Hathaway to the mix and seeing what he has to offer is just making Ferland look worse as he is clearly lacking in the same get up and go that some of the other roster players have shown this year.
If he has such offensive upside, why aren't we seeing any of it?
The simple answer is that it isn't translating to the NHL. It's as simple as that.
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