I think we'll be seeing more of this over the next several seasons.
Veterans will generally hold their spots up until they're traded or their contract runs out.
But as the team starts being more pro-active on asset management, trading away expiring contracts for picks (especially last year), there's going to be a log jam of jobs in both the NHL and AHL that we haven't seen as much before as we seem to be getting more picks/prospects than veterans moving on.
Prospects that have been around for a while will need to step up their game big time or they're going to be leapfrogged by younger, more talented players in short order.
As a fan, I don't think that's a bad thing.
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