Quote:
Originally Posted by Enoch Root
How is this, in any way, a miss-handling?
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For me, the frustration isn't about the player, it's about the team.
The 2018-19 team was doing just fine with him him in the lineup, and Fantenberg was a liability in the playoffs. And Even if the result had been identical, we wouldn't have been down the draft picks.
I can begrudgingly live with the 2019-20 team not using him in the playoffs because the Forbort-Gustafsson pair was legitimately effective. But would they have been worse with Kylington-Stone? I'm not sure, and we gave up assets to acquire Gustafsson and Forbort.
Last year's team sorely needed Kylington's skillset. Period. With the departure of TJ Brodie, and the lack of a Sebastian Aho or Brayden Point sryle centreman, the team simply played slow. Part of it was certainly conditioning, but a huge part of it was personell. I know that it's easy to waive off our 6-1-1 record in 2020-21 with Kylington in the lineup as an anomaly - especially given his limited icetime and short leash late in game - but there was an impact that was felt by his unique skillset that was readily apparent in those games. In some ways it even trickled up the lineup as the team pace was better in those games.
Personally, I felt Kylington developed a ton in his two or three years spent in the AHL, and merely needed actual NHL reps and legitimate, regular icetime to build confidence and experience at this level. He's getting that now, but he could have got it sooner. The Flames' handling of him last year - when he could have helped the team - was a failure. Likewise Bennett. Both individuals were ready for expanded roles yet did not recieve them. The loser wasn't the individuals, but the team we cheered for.
The additions of Kylington as a regular, as well as Dube as a centre, have done more than quote-unquote develop individuals. They've changed the entire team completion, especially early in games when the score may be tied.
Was Kylington poor for a couple of weeks in 2018-19 just prior to the Fantenberg acquisition? Yes, but most rookies hit a rookie wall.
Was Kylington underwhelming in 2019-20? Yes, but his on-ice shooting percentage was unsustainably low. A better partner (like Forbort, by the way) would have helped his underlyings as well. There even started to be a narrative that Kylington was a poor possession player, when past pairings such as Kylington-Prout and Kylington-Andersson disproved that.