Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
Except that he showed no sign of it. I repeat: Kylington was not the player a year ago that he is today. From the little I've heard, he put in a great deal of work over the summer to improve in specific areas that Sutter told him to work on, and it has paid off.
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You and I must have watched a different player, because he absolutely showed more than a sign of it.
This is the NHL. A league where a guy like Gustav Forsling gets waived, and then finds himself on a playoff team's top pair the same season. A league where a guy like Shea Theodore is given with an add to a team like Vegas, because the Ducks didn't want to risk losing Josh Manson.
The idea that Kylington did all these things this offseason that he never did in past offseasons because only Sutter was capable of telling him is a tad ridiculous. Unless you're suggesting Ryan Huska is incompetent at his job, in which case he should not be employed.
The things you can work on during the offseason - fitness, puck skills, strength, were not the issue for Kylington a year ago.
The things you can work on with regular ice time might have been? Reads, decision-making, pace? They might STILL be considering he didn't even make the top 6D out of training camp.
The fact is, no coach prior to this year played him with Tanev or even Hamonic. He looks better this year when paired with Tanev, because Giordano isn't here to take that spot.
Valimaki isn't getting better sitting out of games. Kylington wasn't either. But Valimaki sitting out of a few games while competing for a roster spot is a totally different story from sitting out 80%+ of the season for no reason.
But I guess we protected Kylington from expansion lol. While waiving him to 30 other teams the same season.