Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
I love his skillset and he has a solid upside, but lets not romanticize young players.
Kylington had the second lowest zone starts last year (Valimaki 1st), was the most sheltered of any defenseman and finished last in CF%, 2nd last in xGF%.
This isn't a kid getting held back. It's a kid learning the league.
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Of course a 21 year old defender playing his first batch of NHL games will be sheltered by any competent coaching staff.
I also did not say anywhere in that post that I felt he was being held back. I just stated that I felt he played well on the bottom pair compared to my expectations of a green injury fill-in. I preferred his performance despite having to be sheltered much more than some of the Bartkowski & Jokipakka's the Flames have played there in previous years.
This season I like that he was forced to compete for a bottom pairing role with a veteran (Stone, MacDonald) and appears to at least have won a time share of the spot for the time being. In my post I simply indicated that I expect he will continue to grow and eventually pass Stone as the preferred guy on the bottom pair, mostly due to his superior skating and puck moving, on a team that has indicated throughout preseason that they intend to play fast.