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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I think it should be noted that Kylington's numbers were bad with Andersson, as Andersson's were with Kylington. Kylington had strong numbers with Prout, as Andersson had strong numbers with Giordano and Fantenberg. Naturally Andersson saw more icetime than the Kylington away from each other, but biased as I may be, I'm reticent to read too much into the numbers for this reason. If Kylington had dragged Prout down it may have been another story.
No doubt the rookie pair had some issues (though there's something to be said about how they, at the very least, performed a Kris Russell-esque job of rarely allowing visibly eggregious chances) but I think that they did a lot well, both to the eye test and in terms of offensive production. Kylington in particular had very respectable point rates, which no doubt contributed to offsetting their underlying numbers.
Another factor in this is that in sheltered usage, you can probably afford to give up some zone time as the offensive skill isn't as dangerous. That allows the offensive performance to really be a positive.
No doubt Kylington needs to get better and physically stronger in some areas, particularly in the corners and in front of the net in the defensive zone, and find an even better balance of poised play on the breakout, but we saw that when he had a partner who could offset some of his weaknesses, the aggregate results were strong.
Even an Erik Karlsson benefitted strongly from a Marc Methot during his best years. Having weaknesses shouldn't negate having strengths. As much as we'd love everyone to be a Giordano, let's not be remiss to praise what a young player does usefully.