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Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
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.
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On a more face-value level, I also suspect that perhaps the relationship between Huska and Kylington has run its course - a different voice might jump-start some progression. You look at a guy like Brodie and from 18 to 22 he played for:
Todd Watson and his staff at Saginaw
Marty Williamson and his staff at Barrie
Jim Playfair and Troy Ward and their staffs in Abbotsford
Brent Sutter and his staff in Calgary
Bob Hartley and his staff in Calgary
But overall I think he must have picked up different things from those different staffs in the development process. That's only natural. The same for Kulak, who had his junior coaches and then even as a minor pro spent time in the ECHL (Unlike the less successful Wotherspoon and Culkin) before establishing a rapport with Huska.
Kylington has only heard one voice in the last three years and maybe it's time for him to hear a different one. Sometimes coaches like and dislike different parts of a player's game, or have different wrinkles that affect players differently. For established veterans, maybe it doesn't matter, but I think prospects have to take in every bit of every different coach. Jankowski took major strides in his Huska year - so I'm not saying Huska is a bad coach - but at some point Kylington (and for that matter the now forgotten Klimchuk and Poirier) could probably use a reset of sorts. A graduation to 3rd pairing duties could be that.