Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
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.
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Agreed. Training camp this year will be extremely competitive for our defenseman. Kylington, Andersson and to a lesser extent Valimaki should all be pushing real hard for a full time spot.
With that said, I always felt the Stone signing was a signal that management implied a longer development time for our D prospects. When his contract is up in 2 years, Valimaki will be 21, Kylington 22 and Andersson 23. By that time, at least one of those players should have surpassed Stone.
But in the mean time, the glut of NHL level defenseman we have means that there will be missed NHL playing time for a number of our prospects, even if they deserve to be called up.
Gio - Hamilton
Brodie - Hamonic
Kulak - Stone
Unless injured or traded, it'll be hard for our prospects to supplant any of those guys.