That was my point: If DeHaan knew he had a bone chip or a tiny fracture that was affecting his play, he shouldn't have played. That's on either him or the coaching/management. If he didn't, but was in some pain, why didn't he talk to the team doctors about it, or if he did, why didn't they do something?
DeHaan is not a star much less a superstar. Him playing vs. not playing was not going to affect the team that much. We weren't a playoff team last season and arguably weren't a playoff team when we got gifted the play-in. He also didn't have really any stats to pad. In retrospect the only reason to play DeHaan was possibly to get the games played requirement up to expose him to expansion, but even then it was most certainly not a full load of games.
Plus, with trying to get good looks on Mitchell, Beaudin, and Kalnyuk, with Keith, Murph, and Zadorov on the roster, there was absolutely no need to play DeHaan, much less and injured DeHaan, over any of those three rookies. Remember, the team wasn't going anywhere, and even if the team would have been worse without DeHaan, that would improve our draft slot.
At this point DeHaan looks marginally better than last season. Marginally--like he won't shoot the team in the foot as-often, but doesn't look like a 4.5M defenseman. His contract expires so I'm betting that will be part of an uptick in his play. Best case he does well and we flip him at the TDL. Worst case we simply don't re-sign him. I seriously doubt he will overachieve his paycheck (behind JC or a real coach) and thus we'll have no reason to re-sign him (especially with Seth Jones' 9.5M kicking in next season). I think we can chalk him up to one more overpaid mid-pair D-man that didn't become what we needed them to be.
I'm glad Reichel is sent down. Kid has a ton of promise but there is zero need to rush him.
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