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This isn't a critique, just something interesting I observed. I don't have the game open right now but I drafted a promising looking center 6th overall. He was 2-2.5 stars already with good starting abilities. I thought I had a good one that was almost ready for the NHL now so I signed him right away. He didn't make the team, but I like developing guys in the AHL first anyway.
It's been 2 years now and his development has been slow. I believe this is primarily because he has spent those 2 years in the angry state. This was because of "Sent down" and more importantly "Isolated" as he was a Swiss player. I ultimately decided to send him back to the Swiss team which removed the "Isolated" tag. His development seems a bit better now.
I'd love to see the alternate universe where I didn't sign him right away. He would have stayed in Switzerland for a year or two. No "Isolated" or "Sent down". Maybe I'd have seen better development and ultimately a better player.
The interesting part for me is I've usually considered signing a draft pick to be no-loss situation. He's under contract, and I can just assign him if he doesn't make the team. But I don't believe unsigned players suffer from "Sent down" and if morale impacts ability development then it makes sense to be very careful about signing prospects. If this theory is correct I like that it adds a bit of strategy to when to sign a prospect.
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