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Originally Posted by GranteedEV
Teams put prospects in positions to succeed immediately all the time. Cole Caufield. Alex DeBrincat. Hell, Cale Makar was right out of College when he immediately replaced Tyson Barrie on the Avs. We do not lose the Avs series if the Avs had a double standard for prospects.
The way the Flames have handled Ruzicka, Kylington, Bennett, Phillips, etc is pretty isolated to the Flames. Just double standards applied for their mediocre favourites versus guys stuck in an endless cycle of "can't prove it until you prove it but not allowed to prove it because you have not proven it"
And don't give me that BS about Phillips being an older prospect. He's been deserving better since his initial callup back in spring 2021. And that's only because he had a major injury in 2020 just as he was earning a callup.
The Flames refused to play Phillips and Kylington in meaningless games because the Flames did what the Flames do, which is value Nikita Nesterov types for no justifiable reason and write books on players who have never had a chance to even fail.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus
I don't remember saying to insert him directly on the 1st line, all I said was why call him up just to sit in the press box? it's ridiculous.
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A whole bunch of ridiculous in this post. Comparing a 6th round pick to a 4th overall pick who dominated at every level he was at is just flat out ridiculous. Every team in the NHL would have inserted Makar directly into the NHL, no questions asked. Phillips? Evey team in the NHL would pass on him and let him play in the AHL. Every. Single. One. Phillips is not an NHL player by any stretch of the imagination. He needs to blow people's minds to get over the hump of being a sideshow act. He needs to dominate every time he's on the ice. Every practice, he has to be the best player on the ice at everything the coach throws at the team. Every shift he has to stand out in a good way. Until he does that, he's an AHL player and will be until he proves otherwise.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boogerz
Even in his rookie AHL season, Phillips took 2-3 dozen games to figure how to be effective at the pro-game before he exploded. If the Flames are going to give him a legit chance (even if it's only 7-10 games), he absolutely needs to be on the ice and getting game action in the NHL instead of sitting in the press box or being stapled to the bench.
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Phillips did not take 2-3 dozen games to figure anything out and EXPLODE. He took three-four SEASONS before he exploded into a one way scoring forward at the AHL level. That's three to four YEARS of play. This wasn't something where he figured things out quickly, this was a player that needed to develop his game. He went from 148th, to 106th, to 70th, to 9th, then to the leading scorer in the first 20 games of his 5th season. This was not exploding on the scene. This was a long development path and it took a lot of time for him to find his way to being a scorer in the AHL.
Like it or not Phillips is a player that has a very short leash. Sutter knows what he has in him and can only play him in certain situations. His size makes him easy to dominate in a physical game and his mediocre positional play (and that is being generous) means he is not going to help out in his own zone. His gap control is terrible which is why he is being force fed offensive zone starts and 2nd unit PP time. He is a player that needs to prove value as a PP specialist before he'll be given any chance elsewhere in the lineup. He needs to score, or he doesn't play. And getting a chance is happening each and every practice. If he doesn't impress, then he's not getting an opportunity to play a regular shift.