If they are good enough to play juniors now, I would think long and hard about sending them. It would depend on your kid (maturity, what type of player they are, etc). Players need to be pushed; in some cases players may develop bad habits by playing against inferior competition. In other cases they may continue to gain confidence by playing against inferior competition. Again, it really depends on the kid. It also could depend on where you live. If you’re in the lake conference in MN you may be able to keep them around and they’ll still be pushed. If your player plays against above avg competion only 4-5 times an entire season I may be inclined to moving them somewhere where they’ll continue to develop.
Ryder Donavan is one who I thought should have gone to juniors next year. But he isn’t for some reason. He’ll absolutely dominate against inferior competition next year. Kid sees the ice so well. But then again there are always those like Middelstadt that are so supremely talented that it doesn’t matter where they play. Those are the outliers though.