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Originally Posted by Oil Stain
None of these guys really seem like good comparables for Kylington.
They are mostly guys that were behind the curve coming up to the draft and then showed enormous growth afterwards.
Kylington was coming into his draft season touted as a potential top5 pick and then fell all the way to the end of the second round.
I'm curious if there are any defensemen out there that were very highly touted coming into their draft season, fell right out of the first round and then recovered to have a strong career.
Jiri Hudler is perhaps the biggest faller I can think of that had a good career. I think he was projected to go mid first round, and fell to the end of the second.
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Kylington's fall was mostly due to his attitude and the fact he battled with his coach. Yes, his defensive game did not improve, but he also was not given the proper methods to improve it. Because of those two things, he dropped off to 60th. He still has put up better numbers at each respective age than Erik Karlsson offensively, and has improved significantly defensively. Is he still a work in progress? Yes. Is Erik Karlsson an adventure in his own zone at times even today? Yes.
The difference between Kylington's attitude problems and most other prospects is that his attitude comes from being overly confident in his own abilities, but not his lack of willingness to learn. He worked extensively with the coaching staff in Stockton last season and has improved immensely in his own zone. Still likely a year away to work on his D some more, but if he made the team out of camp this year, I would not be shocked either. I think he will be the first call up of any D if he does get sent down. I think he'll end up being the #4 next year paired with Hamilton assuming Jokipakka gets picked off in the expansion draft.