Valimaki needs to badly work on his footwork and agility. In Finland, there’s so much room to operate that perhaps his lack of mobility is masked a bit; but in the NHL rinks, there’s no time or space to fumble about.
Until Valimaki improves this attribute, he will struggle to keep up at the pace required at the NHL level. I think that’s why Darryl prefers Kylington over Valimaki, because even though he plays smaller and gets manhandled seemingly every other game, he’s very nimble and can recover quickly whereas once you beat Valimaki, he’s done.
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