Quote:
Originally Posted by heep223
But those guys are good. Our guys aren't. Wotherspoon doesn't look like he's going to be an NHLer. Kulak isn't ready. Younger prospects like Kyllington and Andersson have high end potential and look fantastic but not ready. Hickey not ready. Morrison doesn't look very good/not ready.
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I think Kulak will be fine with an opportunity in the NHL. Growing pains, sure, but nothing totally disasterous like you appear to be worried about. Chicago had growing pains with those guys you say are good.
There's a difference between throwing a not-ready player to the wolves in a top 3 role and sheltering them in a bottom 3 role. Especially when we're still stuck with vets to pair them with. We've already seen a Wotherspoon-Smid pairing be more competent two years ago than a Smid-Engelland bottom pair and we've already seen a Kulak-Engelland pairing be better than a Wideman-Engelland pairing. At some point you have to throw the kid into the deep-end of the pool and see how they respond before you draw conclusions of whether they are ready.
And Hamilton can more than carry a middle pairing, you could pair him with Smid, Wideman, Kulak and you'll see the same results you see with Russell. If anything a Kulak-Hamilton pairing has potential to be much, much better than Russell-Hamilton and take this team a step forward.