jd burke is a blogger who in the past has trashed the drafting/signing of adam gaudette, zack mcewan and matthew tkachuk just off the top of my head. i appreciate the guy's dedication and statistical knowledge but he is a stat hound who knows nothing whatever about developing players in the minors, having never spent a nanosecond in the minors being developed or developing guys and having no useful insight that i can see (full disclaimer, i was down on tkachuk also but i don't evaluate hockey players for a living).
i also want to be quick to say i don't know what's going on in utica either and nor do i know the pros and cons of cull's approach. i am just saying burke's opinion on this subject had no weight for me one way or the other. i am much more interested in the comments of comets fans who go to games and watch closely. by and large, they have supported the idea that several in this crop of canucks prospects were not ready to play regularly in the ahl when they got here and have been brought along appropriately relative to how they have performed. i will also say that, anecdotally, junior kids other than the cream of the crop taking half a season at least to adjust to the ahl seems like par for the course.