I wonder if hockey is becoming more like basketball and football, where guys make the team straight out of camp. Elite players make an immediate impact, other players learn over time but it all occurs at the big league level.
In baseball, the vast majority of players spend at least some time in the minors. In Houston, we knew Carlos Correa would be a big league star for the Astros for 2 years before he began playing in MLB.
Maybe the minors in hockey are more important for goalies and defensemen. Are other teams bringing up forwards from the AHL who become top line players? Last Flame to graduate from the minors to the top six was...Cory Stillman? I must be forgetting some.
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