Why Waste Your Rookies?

[Ashasx]

Monahan had 9 points in 9 games. There was no way you could send him down. It sends the wrong message to both teammates and prospects.

[Eric Vail]

Eric Duhatschek was on the radio about a month ago suggesting that it maybe wasn't the best thing for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to have been in the NHL as a teenager.

At first glance, he scored 52 points in 62 games as an 18 year old rookie looks like they made the right decision.

After three years, his stats have regressed. He's been injured a lot. Maybe he would have been better off waiting until he was stronger before playing against NHL competition.

He makes an interesting consideration.

Sam Gagner would be another that follows a similar path. Maybe he should have waited a year or two before entering the NHL and his career would have been different.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Eric Vail

Eric Duhatschek was on the radio about a month ago suggesting that it maybe wasn't the best thing for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to have been in the NHL as a teenager.

At first glance, he scored 52 points in 62 games as an 18 year old rookie looks like they made the right decision.

After three years, his stats have regressed. He's been injured a lot. Maybe he would have been better off waiting until he was stronger before playing against NHL competition.

He makes an interesting consideration.

Sam Gagner would be another that follows a similar path. Maybe he should have waited a year or two before entering the NHL and his career would have been different.

I feel his points regressed mostly to the tougher zone starts and more 2 way game he has been playing. He looks pretty good this years if you have been watching.

This past summer was first he could train all summer without recovering from injuries and it seems to have paid off.

[JayP]

The biggest problem with the advanced stats community (and this is coming from a strong supporter) is that is blew up really quickly and the quality of writers/bloggers just can't meet the demand. Ryan Lambert is a prime example of someone who has places to write simply because someone has to put out content.

I understand entirely the argument for trying not to burn a year off the ELC. But it's something that Lambert continuously beats the dead horse over without even considering that NHL GMs aren't idiots and obviously have thought of this themselves. You can't just compare it directly to baseball. There aren't 3 dirt cheap arbitration years in the NHL after a player's ELC like the MLB. Those RFA years in the NHL are extremely expensive now.

The biggest thing that I don't see many (if any) people mention in this conversation is that the NHL development system is fundamentally different than every other North American pro sport. The NHL is the only league where you draft a player and then have him develop under the guidance of a third party team (the CHL, NCAA, or Europe). With the AHL age restrictions in place, the only option aside from keeping a guy in the NHL is putting him back in junior where you have zero control over how he's used during games and what he's taught during practices.

You can't simply say that Monahan would show the clear steps forward he has this season (55% corsi albeit under fairly easy circumstances) if he was in the OHL last year. Development is not done in a vacuum. Sure, Monahan looked over his head for a good chunk of last year after his hot start - but he also received world class coaching every day and got to practice & live with elite, pro players. The Flames also got to utilize him in a variety of roles through-out the season. If they send him down in junior it's a real toss-up as to how he's coached and how he's used. Clearly there's some very good coaches in junior, but there's also bound to be some real duds given the quantity of teams. And at the end of the day their primary goal is to win hockey games and keep their job, not develop players (in spite of what they might say). The NHL is very unique from other sports where you do have to have lots of confidence in how your prospect will be handled in junior if there's at all a realistic debate regarding whether he is ready for the NHL or not. I can understand NHL teams keeping a a guy like Monahan up even if he wasn't dominating play.