Hard to say. There are some who chalk it up to being horribly mishandled in his development by the previous regime which .. is kind of hard to argue with.
Season 1 - They put him right on roster at 18 years old, he played 28 games (scored 1 goal) and was a healthy scratch for 12 when they finaly sent him down to the AHL to finish out the year, where he scored 12 goals and 28 points in 39 games.
Season 2 - started in the AHL for just 10 games, scored 1 goal, 4 assists, and they recalled him. he played 60 games with Edmonton scoring 12 goals and 8 assists. 19 years old.
Season 3 - started on the 3rd line with edmonton, sucked, got healthy scratched for a few games then sent down. Cored 4 points in 4 games and they recalls him yet again ( will point out there was a coach firing at this time, McLelland was let go and Hitchcock came in). He scored 8 points in the remainig 35 games, and was getting like 10 minutes of ice time per night. 20 years old.
Hard to argue with the mishandling narrative. They never let him develop in the AHL and only played him on average of 12 minutes a night at the NHL level from ages 18-20. They healthy scratched their #4 overall pick for 12 games in his rookie season rather than send him to the AHL to play consistent minutes.