What's Best for Frolik?

Recently, the Miami Herald ran an article whose key focus was on Michael Frolik, including a quote from head coach Peter DeBoer that may, or may not, be alarming to some Panthers fans -- and probably all Amerks fans.

If we get to the quarter mark of the season and he's not playing, obviously you start to weigh if this is detrimental to him or not.

This early, he's learning about the NHL; he's learning what it takes and is on the ice with NHL players every day.

And now, you know you've got to take DeBoer's words with an understanding that one of the best junior coaches in recent years knows what he's talking about with an NHL rookie. Because of this, as much as I'm frustrated by Frolik's lack of playing time, I'm definitely willing to give DeBoer the benefit of the doubt.

Here's a kid who, at 20 years old, had a decent preseason. He had a great first game in the preseason playing on a line with David Booth and Stephen Weiss, and then slowly trailed off, getting juggled onto different lines to look for chemistry. When all was said and done, it was centre Shawn Matthias, four NHL games to his credit last season, getting cut and sent to the AHL, while Frolik remained.

Frolik has gone now three games as a healthy scratch, playing in only one of the four games, earning 5:48 of ice time over nine shifts. He sat for the third period and overtime in the game, while the Panthers went on to knock off the Thrashers in the home opener.

Tonight, Michael is in the line-up for a big game against the Canadiens (4-0-1 through the first five games) and he will get his next opportunity to prove his readiness and prove the coach and general manager's decisions to be the right ones.

It's an approach that is hardly unfounded. One only needs to look back to Fabian Brunnström in Dallas last week. After going a healthy scratch for a couple games, practicing with the team and observing, he was inserted into the line-up when the coaches felt he was ready to get out there.

Brunnström scored a hat trick in his NHL debut, only the third player in league history to do such a thing. He was named the NHL's third star of the week last week for his four goal, three game efforts.

To compare Frolik to Brunnström wouldn't be fair, though. Michael has got tremendous NHL upside, and even has the experience of playing for Kladno in his native Czech Republic, but for the last two years, he's been playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with Rimouski. Moreover, his two seasons were shortened (52 games in '06-'07 and 45 games in '07-'08) by injuries. Brunnström, on the other hand, spent last year playing for Färjestad in the Swedish Elite League on a team that made it to the league semifinals.

Both players are coming from very, very different situations, so a similar approach may not be what Frolik needs. It may work. It's very possible, and I believe DeBoer is someone worth trusting on Michael's development, but it also may only be slowing that development.

Kevin Oklobzija posited that DeBoer's comments are an on-the-spot defense of general manager Jacques Martin's decision to keep Frolik here. This does seem a more likely scenario, and if JM doesn't want to send Frolik down, all we can do is trust DeBoer to do this to the best of his abilities.

It's not necessarily a good indicator of where the Panthers' organization stands on the developmental abilities in Rochester.

When the Panthers took over the sole affiliation responsibilities, they knew what they were getting in to. Rochester was coming off of one of the worst years in the team's history dating back to 1956 and no more impressive was the financial disarray and off-ice troubles the team was going through, but the sale of the Amerks to Curt Styres and the need for a development team was enough to get the Panthers on board.

So you go back to Michael Frolik and wonder, even if he will be okay getting eased in the way DeBoer has been doing this, at what point do the Panthers man up and take action to live up to their word of promising a good team and a goal of bringing the Calder Cup back to the city? Frolik can benefit from playing 20 minutes a game, too.

No matter what happens with Repik and Matthias, Michael Frolik would be the best player on that team. His upside is tremendous. If the veterans that are relied upon (Stewart and Sprukts for example) to help the team signings continue to put up zeroes, and the rookies continue slowly adjusting, people are going to stop going to the games. When that happens, what's stopping Curt Styres from terminating the agreement? More than that, what would stop him from taking the initiative before it gets too far?

As that parent club now, the Panthers should be obligated to help turn this slow start around. The Amerks are facing a start much worse than the current 0-5, and if we don't treat them right here, why would any team want to take on the Panthers as a parent club in the future?

Frolik might benefit here. He might benefit in Rochester, but Rochester could also benefit from Frolik, so why not change this? Why not show that commitment and trust by sending our bench-warming, yet top prospect, and trying to get things going. Matthias is off to a poor start, and Repik's not doing much better.

I know Rochester fans have been reading this, and we really haven't overvalued our prospects - Matthias, Repik.. these guys will be good players. But I agree with you; Rochester needs a spark NOW to show some promise, and if Frolik is going to benefit from 10 games played out of 20 possible with the Panthers, he's going to benefit from a top line in the AHL -- and if he can get it going right away, he's going to get his linemates going because we're clearly relying on guys like Matthias and Repik to be significant contributors and they're taking time.

He's dressed for tonight's game in Montreal. Wade Belak and Anthony Stewart (again) are scratches, which does mean that George Laraque is out for the Canadiens as well. As are -- I believe -- Andrei Kostitsyn and Chris Higgins. The game will be on VS and RDS.