Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
No reason to rush any of them. One or two will probably be used as a trade chip at some point.
Valimaki and Andersson are the closest IMO. Don't think Kylington is ready. Fox is still in school. I think one or both of Valimaki/Andersson see significant time up next season.
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I think part of the problem is that I feel like development needs to have natural progression - and I think that in the current NHL "No such thing as over-seasoning a prospect in the AHL" is actually false.
Guys can be set back in their development by spending too much time in that league & really I don't see very many d-men who become actual impact d-men in the NHL that spend a ton of time in the AHL anymore. At some point in order to learn how the be an NHLer, you need to actually be given time and patience to learn to play IN the NHL.
Look at Anaheim, Boston, & Nashville who do great at drafting and developing D.
Anaheim:
- Manson: 45 AHL Games
- Theodore: 98 AHL Games
- Montour: 118 AHL Games
- Lindholm: 44 AHL Games
- Vatanen: 70 AHL Games
Nashville:
- Ekholm: 59 AHL Games
- Josi: 74 AHL Games
- Ellis: 61 AHL Games
Boston:
- Carlo: 7 AHL Games
- Krug 63 AHL Games
- McAvoy: 4 AHL Games
- Grzelcyk: 84 AHL Games
Those teams all had good NHL level d-men, but they always made moves and made space to let those young guys come up to the NHL and get experience.
Plus some other notables that weren't first round picks, and didn't play on teams as stacked as the four above, and the number of AHL games they played:
Gostisberhere: 21 AHL Games
Parayko: 17 AHL Games
Slavin: 14 AHL Games
Severson: 5 AHL Games
Dunn: 72 AHL Games
Girard: 6 AHL Games
Pesce: 7 AHL Games
Edmundson: 100 AHL Games
Faulk: 43 AHL Games
Dermott: 87 AHL Games
Bowey: 113 AHL Games
N.Schmidt: 65 AHL Games
Guys that have NHL talent don't need to spend years in the AHL. Seems to be that really between 70-100 games is enough.
Even just on our own roster. Giordano spent 144 AHL games as an undrafted free agent, Brodie had 115 AHL Games, Kulak had 117 AHL Games.
At this point Andersson has 110 AHL Games, & Kylington has 170 AHL games. Any more AHL time for them and IMO you are holding back their development, time to let them sink or swim at the NHL level.
I don't think Kylington is any worse defensively than guys like Krug, Gostisbehere, or Vatanen were at 21/22 but their teams let them grow and be sheltered to develop on the 3rd pairing in the NHL. This organization has always been hesitant to let their young guys figure it out in the NHL, unless they were elite first line talent or early draft picks (Even Gaudreau almost got sent down after he had a rough 5 games to start his career).