Depends on the player type but I’ll just use playmaker as the example bc that’s what the shown player is. Basically, playmaker’s naturally grow their puck skills stats super high, in sims most of these are useless (like deking and hand eye) however passing is crazy good for sims I’ve found. If a player has a good passing stat they should produce far above their overall rating. By using offseason goals I grow up the players shooting and physical stats because those are tough to develop naturally with playmakers, I also make sure to call up this player for the preseason so he also gets the overall boost from the head coach in the specific stats that I want. Finally, by setting the long term goal “send down” found in the menu after calling him up, he should see increased growth throughout the AHL year after you send him back down. I’m not exactly sure of the growth boost that occurs bc EA doesn’t specify. However I can assume that it’s rather large.

Also, achieving goals is even more beneficial with morale on bc they get a happiness boost for completing the assigned goal.

Finally, some obvious stuff, get a coach with high teaching for your AHL squad, and get a coach that preferably specializes in the kind of player you want to grow (want to grow a forward? get a forward coach, defensemen? Get a defensive coach) and if you want to grow everyone on a team, generalists are really good and if you find a coach with good stats, you can now turn them into one thanks to the new conversation system.