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Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
Well Kylington is somewhat unique in that he went to the AHL at 18 years old. Most of the players you reference started playing in the AHL at age 20 because CHL players cannot go there earlier than that. So definitely an apples to oranges comparison there if you are using games played.
I’d say the organization based on the way they’ve used Kylington and Andersson at the AHL and NHL level see Andersson as being more NHL ready. I’ve heard people say Andersson dominates the AHL. Haven’t heard that yet of Kylington. I think he has another step forward to take.
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Yeah Kylington is a weird case - most of the other guys mentioned started in the NHL at 21/22. And Kylington will only turn 21 in May.
But at 16 people talked about this kid in the same way they talk about Rasmus Dahlen now, and at 18 he was still talked about in the same group as Hanifin, Werenski, & Provorov. The skill is there, he just needed to mature.
So even with the young start I think that another 30-40 games max in the AHL for him before it becomes too much. he's already matured as much as he's going to mature in that league. After 200 games in that league there is nothing else the AHL is going to teach him about being an NHLer.
Valimaki is going to be an interesting case too...I doubt he thinks he will need much AHL time either. He played with Brandon Carlo in Tri-City and was pretty much his equal as a 17 year old, with Carlo in his draft + 1 year. Carlo went right to the NHL the next year. Also he is playing with Bean now, and my bet is Bean starts the year in Carolina. Does he really need to spend any more than 30-40 games in the AHL either...doubtful.
Either way an interesting off-season, and next season on the Flames back end and goes back to my original point. Giordano, Hamilton, Brodie, Hamonic, Stone, Kulak, Andersson, Valimaki, Kylington....something feels like it will have to give and it will be tough because you can't have 2+ rookies on your backend all at once without growing pains. They needed to work these guys in better this past year so they had at least a little more NHL experience.