Couple of thoughts...
Saw the overripe comment about the wings above. As someone that was a huge wings fan for a long time, can we honestly say they benefited from that concept? Were any impact players groomed through those years? Tatar and Nyquist both went through that and I honestly think it stunted their growth and we are now seeing an organization that has not been able to replace core pieces. The overripe strategy assumes that a player still has things to learn or work on in the minors. I think many times a player benefits much more from learning at the nil level.
Also, the whole "you have to earn your spot" stiff makes me laugh. Because training camp and preseason are pretty short and poor measures of a players abilities. Not to mention when there are close battles almost every time the veteran stays and the young player with waiver exemption gets sent down to save assets. Organizations need to give players opportunities to prove themselves aside from the preseason when games are not anywhere near the same intensity or competition level.
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