Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
He is doing really well for a guy that was miss-handled.
Kylington has blossomed this year, and is being rewarded with ice time and opportunity as a commensurate result. He was not that player last year. No matter how much some people want to believe that he was, he simply wasn't.
Has he shown signs, from the beginning, that he could be this player? Yes of course. The signs were there. But until this year, his on-ice performance was that of a #6-7 replacement player. He showed enough to keep getting some ice time, and dressing 80 times, but he never seized the opportunity and ran with it.
Until this year. He has performed at a completely different level this year. And as a result, his ice-time, and his role implementation have ratcheted up significantly.
Kylington is not a failure for this organization. He is a success story. Despite possessing tremendous tools, he dropped in the draft from top-5 in his class, to being selected 60th. The Flames nurtured him and developed him, and now - at 24, still young for a defenseman - he is turning into a good, and potentially great player.
How is this, in any way, a miss-handling?
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I would love to have been a fly on the wall for the year end discussions with Kylington and Sutter/Treliving last year.
Because whatever they told him worked.
He came in and was ready for the season. Finished 3rd in the fitness testing, looked sharp from the first pre-season game, and really did look just more serious and committed to becoming an NHLer than he ever had before.