It's because there's more options and flexibility with pro players than with junior players. If you have a borderline junior player, you only have two choices: NHL or junior. With pros, you have NHL, AHL, ECHL.And at all three levels you control the coaching the player receives, what training they're to follow, and therefore have much more hands on with their development. If the borderline junior returns to junior, you lose some of that control.
Would other young players in the Flames organization be in Calgary if Stockton or Adirondack weren't options? Maybe. Would Tkachuk be in Calgary if the OHL wasn't the only other place the Flames could put him? Hard to say with certainty.
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