Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw
guys from CHL were #7 and #9 overall The 2 from the NCAA had 2 years playing against older more mature players. Chabot #18 overall was the closest comparable..... but he was on Ottawa... a bad team with at most 5 NHL level d-men before injuries and trades. The NHL was a development league for Ottawa last year.
I have no problem with Valimaki getting a full year in the AHL.
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Oh I have nothing against him getting a full year in the AHL - I just don't think this team needs to block him with another veteran.
The way I look at it Stone and Bartkowski should be gone from last years team.
You have Giordano, Hamilton, Brodie, Hamonic as your top 4, and all our guys that have been proven as capable top 4 d-men in the past.
We'd then have 3 spots remaining. IMO Kulak is a lock for one of them. Then you have two spots left between Andersson, Valimaki, Kylington, Wotherspoon (if he's still in the org or a similar type).
My personal feeling is just that he will be so impressive in training camp that they he will outplay the other guys for that spot, and maybe even Kulak & Personally think his draft ranking means little now, he has outperformed his rank.
If you compare draft + 1 seasons (playoffs and regular season):
- Provorov: GP: 83 P:86 +/-: 64 (8 points in 7 WJC games)
- Sergachev GP: 57 P:46 +/-: 22 ( 1 point in 7 WJC games)
- Valimaki GP: 55 P:62 +/-: 15 (4 points in 5 WJC games - captain)
Provorov is probably a slight tier ahead of the other two but no reason IMO that Valimaki can't step in to be a contributor after ~40 AHL games or even right out of training camp.