Perfect example of right or wrong place and circumstances and timing.
No injury, he didn’t miss the year until March of Covid and he’s probably still a top 6 guy or better with those reps and experience.
But the worst possible timing to miss that amount of hockey at a critical time of development and all those skills you developed to get drafted in top 20 diminishes, and other players in the organization also get a chance to prove their worth and improve their ability and standing and pass you on the depth chart, and or are given the benefit of the doubt compared to a guy that hadn’t played a league game in 16+ months.
But, it also means other thing happened as a result and other players got their chances.Does Tanev come here if Valimaki was a top pairing guy? Kylington more likely not to have been in the lineup. All sorts of other opportunities for players came because Valimaki was simply not around.
The St.Louis references are always grasping at straws. He wouldn’t have even been in the NHL if the Flames didn’t give him a chance in St John after no one else wanted him for their farm team, he was going nowhere. Then a call up to a poor Flames team to get some other eyes on him.
For every St Louis that barely hangs on in the minors, gets a shot, and a break and a team that has a spot for him and he just incredibly turns it around, there are a lot of the 200 or so just as talented hockey players each year picked in an entry draft, that, through timing, team situations, personal teenage situations and don’t get a sniff or proper look on a team in the league for years..not even years, a critical year or two of NHL developmental time missed, that once that tight window has passed and you don’t get your break, you’re just another player on the pile of decent players and you need some luck to get a break, nevermind having to keep your skills up.
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