Should Despres Stay?

he’ll playing as long as needed with the Letang, Z and Martin being out. he still has options in the minors, no need to rush him and as biedergb noted, much better for him to get top minutes in the AHL

I don’t think he’s ready yet: this experience is good for his development, but in my opinion he still needs work in the defensive zone, and he needs to be quicker at making decisions with the puck. He might be with us full time as early as next season, but the roster is full this year, and our regulars will be back.

As for the give-him-9-games thing, my guess is that they will probably just use him as much as they need him, without worrying too much about that. But if he gets to the “burn a year of rookie status” threshold and then there’s a choice between him and someone else (who’s playing just as well) to call up, it’s entirely possible they’ll skip over him in favour of the other guy.

too many injuries =
here for an extended time, possibly the rest of the season.

you have a clear Top 4, then Niskanen,** then Engelland.
if ALL 6 are healthy at the same time, Despres goes down.

difficulty is that having ALL of the Top 6 healthy ALL at the same time, isn’t terribly likely.
if any of them are out the lineup at any time he probably stays up.

PS
**I cannot believe I just typed that.
Wow, what an improvement from Nisky.

I say he needs more development in WBS, both physically (mainly due to his age) and gamewise. Overall though a very good experience for him to play this games, getting confidence and last but not least his 1st NHL goal.