Sure, but is on pace for just under 20G/82 in 12 minutes a game while having the best xG among all Boston forwards. The exact type of forward you want your system churning out for cheap so that you never, ever feel the need to add a Jarnkrok, Joshua, Domi, etc. Spending league min on him to give the same (or better) performance than a 2-3 million dollar bottom 6'er is how you afford to add real talent to your core group when it comes available in free agency or at the deadline.
We had guys like Steeves, McMann, and Holmberg in the AHL while guys like Simmonds, ZAR, Ritchie, Blackwell, Clifford, etc were getting reps. It's not even specifically about the the young guys we didn't give opportunity to (or waited way too long to finally give opportunity to), it's about the ongoing thought in the organization that waiver wire scrubs and cast offs from other organizations were a better option than giving our kids opportunity. We had 30-40 games to give to any piece of shit 13th forward from any non playoff team in the fucking league, but a 22-24 yr old in our own organization scoring at a 60-80pt pace in the AHL? Nah.