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For the most part agree about never bringing up an 18 y/o, unless it means playing them severely below their level in Junior- a la McDavid and Crosby in their draft +1. Hughes was talking about how this was purely a development year for Slaf tho, and that he didn't wanna send him down because then the results would guide his play rather than the process, which they wanted to significantly alter. What if they send him to Laval next year for the majority of the season? To me that's not rushing a prospect. If they do that they would be forgiven, and if I'm not mistaken they would be granted a slide year on his entry level contract if he plays less than 9 NHL games as he's still under 20 at the start of the year

Great post, I've been constantly re-calibrating my expectations on these 4 myself. For one reason or another they all make you pump the brakes on getting hyped up, Hutson with his size, Mailloux with his playing time, and I have a hard time trusting QMJHL production on dominant teams. I have way higher hopes for the two defense prospects. St. Louis and Robidas have shown they can develop defense this year and Laval has done so too with Barron and Trudeau, so I'm a bit bullish on those two. It'll likely take a couple more years, but I'm hoping (and I think it's reasonable) for one bonified top 4 defender and another 4/5 type out of those two. Everything else is gravy IMO. The Q is so top heavy, those dominant teams always inflate individual scoring. I mean both Gatineau and Sherbrooke have +100 goal differentials. Not exactly a league with any parity. I'm not getting too excited about the Q forwards until they break the door down......Farrell on the other hand has me very interested

A healthy financial environment is good for the sport.

Hutson - The range of outcomes is so wide and there are so few comparables that anything is basically a wild guess. I think with his defensive limitations, he's not going to be a true top-pairing guy even if he racks up the points so I'd peg his ceiling as a second-pairing player with loads of PP time. Roy - Complementary middle-six winger. I don't think he's a play-driver in the NHL as he is in junior. But, the hockey sense is there and as we saw at the World Juniors in both tournaments, he fits with some top forwards. He's the type of player that could get shuffled around a lot. Kidney - He's one that I think will have some difficulty transitioning to the pros. I don't think he sticks at centre and it's going to take some time for him to figure out how to produce against bigger and smarter competition. Whereas Roy could move through the system quickly into that middle-six role, Kidney, who has a similar middle-six ceiling, is going to take longer to get there. Mailloux - The raw upside is there for him to be a top-pairing player if everything came together. I don't think that's going to happen. His defensive concerns will limit him unless he is able to take some steps forward. (And with how much time he has missed, that's definitely possible as a player whose development might be a bit slowed down.) I think his realistic upside is a second-pairing d-man but if you have Hutson in a similar spot, Mailloux might be one who drops to the third pairing (as a Hutson-Mailloux pairing at even strength is probably asking for trouble).

I’d agree that prospects all have different paths. There is a HUGE difference between playing can’t miss highly touted expected to be generational players that are 18 years old vs a Slafkovsky- who we still don’t whether he is the best player in his draft class. I’ve liked almost every other move this Mgmt team has made, but absolutely hated Slafkovsky given more than his 9 game dress rehearsal, as well as him not being loaned out for the world juniors. There’s always the don’t worry Joe Thornton argument where in his first year, he wasn’t even the best 18 year old picked from his draft on his own team, but went on to have a hall of fame career. But important note was that most of those hall of fame credentials came from the team he was traded to. I think the VAST MAJORITY of 18 year olds can benefit from further development. What I absolutely hated was unlike CHL players where you only have one option, NHL or juniors, the habs had four options. 1) Europe - can’t control or influence his development. 2) CHL - can’t control or influence his development, but allow him to dominate hole learning the North American game. 3) Laval - learn the North American game, and be a pro, while having greater control of his development. 4) NHL - most amount of control over his development - whether he is ready or not - which he clearly didn’t looked like he belonged most nights. My preferred choice oils have been #2, than #3. Unless you have a can’t miss guy, it seems stupid not only rushing him, but also wasting a year of his entry level contract. We already rushed other guys who weren’t the consensus best options at where he were picked in Galchenyuk, and KK (not going with Hughes or Tkachuk is looking extremely stupid), in an attempt to finally get a centre. Slafkovsky has a lot of promise, and I really hope he pan out and becomes the best player in his draft class, but right now the decision to rush him looks extremely bad and stupid.