Quote:
Originally Posted by Vedder
Valimaki’s big shot was last training camp. He’s in the lineup on opening night and then simply got outplayed by his competition. He had a bad camp this year and the rest is history (although I probably would have kept him over Mackey simply due to age and upside).
The irony in using Valimaki as an example of the topic at hand is that his roster spot was taken by Oliver Kylington, a promoted young player with similar NHL experience at the start of last season. He had a lot qualities that wouldn’t make him the most prototypical Sutter player either, but he had a great season with increasing responsibility.
Ultimately he might turn into something, but outside of an Arizona team with zero expectations I don’t think he will find a lot of coaches in the league that use long leashes and positive reinforcement as their main motivating techniques.
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I suspect the Flames may have felt the same way from a pure hockey viewpoint. But the way they run their cap situation, no way they keep a 7th defenseman making much more than league minimum. Valimaki is at $1.55 million.
His fate was sealed once Zadorov was re-signed. Sounds like they couldn't find any trade partners.