Quote:
Originally Posted by SeanCharles
Why is everyone giving up on Valimaki?
Every summer I read this about someone else.
Oddly enough alot of people were ready to move on from Tkachuk and Gaudreau last summer.
We shouldn't be moving guys we have invested so heavily in. Valimaki is still young for an NHL dman.
Mackey is 26 years old next fall and everyone is ready to call him an NHLer but are wanting to punt Valimaki to the curb.
Have a bit of patience and see what he does this coming training camp.
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Very true. I think people are just quick to give up on him because he was a 1st round pick and with that comes bigger expectations that he'd have already jumped into the line-up.
I think the Flames are dealing with a position of strength here having improved their depth in defence. This will place them in an advantageous spot in pre-season / early season when teams will be looking to fill up holes in their line-ups. Flames could leverage that depth on defence to trade whomever is on the bottom of their depth charts, and use it to bolster their forward depth.
Also it's worth noting that Weegar didn't break into the NHL as a regular defenceman until he was 23, and didn't really evolve into the defenceman he is today until the past 2 years. So let's see how Valimaki performs this pre-season and in training camp before we trade him / expose him to waivers. Perhaps he will surprise us.
Otherwise it's likely that this will be his last contract with the Flames.