Well it's up to Gillis to call these young players up from the farm, which he hasn't been doing.
I would say AV has given the young players a pretty fair shot when they earn it. Grabner was given quite a few chances in the top 6, Hodgson was given PP time and at point was right in the mix for the Calder. And then there's Tanev, who was used regularly, and earned a spot on the bottom pairing. Kassian is still a work in progress, but he's still only 21.
The only player I don't think AV realy gave a fair chance to was Shirokov. I thought he deserved a little bit more of a chance to see what he could do. Oh well, not every player is always gonna be given a fair shot.