Quote:
Originally Posted by CsInMyBlood
You obviously are not talking about last years Kulak, he had a great year.
57 games played, 6 goals, 11 assists, 17 points, +12. He averaged 18 mins a night with 25 mins total PK, and 2:41 total PP on the season.
In only 57 games played he had more hits (107) than any of our defensemen and three game winners, again more than any defensemen on the Calgary Flames.
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Game-winning goals aren't a reliable stat on which to judge players, they fluctuate heavily from year-to-year. Same with plus-minus.
And it's great that Kulak is performing well, but I venture that, given a similar opportunity, Hanifin, Valimaki, and even Kylington would perform just as well, especially playing with a defenseman as good as Shea Weber (as Kulak did). Heck, look at what Rasmus Andersson did playing with Giordano this year. That's essentially what Kulak did, to a lesser extent, playing with Weber.
The point is, there is very little room at the NHL level in Calgary for a player like Brett Kulak. Who would he play with, and where? Would he be mediocre on the third pairing again? He certainly wouldn't have the benefit of playing with an All-Star partner. All he'd be doing is sucking up ice-time from better bets like Kylington and Valimaki, players with much more runway and potential for the future.
It's like saying the Flames should have kept Hathaway instead of giving more opportunity to Mangiapane and Dube. Sure, it might have been preferable not to lose Hathaway for nothing, but at the end of the day, it clears out a logjam and allows the Flames to promote guys who have higher upside.