Quote:
Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina
Those are weak examples.
- Valimaki's career was de-railed by a serious knee injury that altered his mobility. He had ample opportunity to re-establish a career in Arizona, and after a single good season, is a fringe NHLer at best.
- Oliver Kylington was developed by the team into a good dman, though with some flaws. Lots of other factors on this one in terms of why he's now out of the NHL
- Rory Kerins may simply not play at the NHL required pace
- Connor Zary remains a WIP. To early to tell. Injuries a factor here as well.
None of these are compelling examples of the Flames screwing up development. I'm looking for other examples where a player has flourished once away from the Flames. I don't see those.
|
Agreed with everything except:
Kylington: I do think his development was messed up a bit. A combination of Treliving buying depth defencemen and making Kylington sit as the 7th, plus that whole covid Taxi squad where he didn't play at all, and just practiced. However, I am not sure he had what it took to become a defencemen anyway. However, that's a tough call still - that covid year screwed up a lot prospects I bet, and he also took his personal time as well, so there were contributing factors that were out of Calgary's hands.
Zary - you are right that it is too early to tell, but I would also say that "Look at how he has been playing!" Short sample size, but he has been fantastic. It is a real stretch to point him as the Flames bungling his development. As you stated - injuries - but also he seems to be doing really well now.