I don’t see how Valimaki playing poorly in the AHL is “on the team.”
Sometimes to be able to play well in pressure situations, you have to learn in no-pressure situations. When you go through waivers and get claimed you’re no longer “1st round pick” you’re just another guy, and going to a team competing for absolutely nothing to play on the third pair is probably the lowest pressure situation possible, and it allowed him to figure it out. He didn’t have to earn a call up, he’s not on a team pushing for playoffs, his injuries are behind him, he can just play his game without added pressure.
He’s doing well. I don’t see why it always has to be more complicated than that, or the two groups of people here seem to be “this is somehow the Flames’ fault” or “Valimaki isn’t actually good at all.”
Not everyone works out on every team in every situation. That doesn’t mean there is something wrong, it’s just reality.
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