Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
@Calgary4life
All those things you said about Valimaki were also said about Anderson the year he was drafted. Remember how excited we were when he scored 64 points in 67 games and was 4th in team scoring. Seriously, go check it out for yourself.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/p...php?pid=165972
All of these kids have talent, but all of them have holes in their games. They all have things they have to work on to become professionals. Continuing down the Andersson example, his conditioning and dedication to the game were in question, and it took a couple years to turn that around. Only after that was addressed did we start to see a player that has actual NHL potential. Valimaki will fall in the same boat. There are things he will have to work on before the team thinks he's ready to challenge for a position, and that should always be remembered.
To put things into perspective, Valimaki was drafted three picks after Sven Baertschi was picked in his draft, and that was a better draft. I caution people to not get too excited about players just selected, especially outside of the top 10. Patience to see what you have is required. Immediately slotting a just drafted kid into your top prospect slot is a clear display of flavor of the month behavior. That, or your development system is completely bereft of talent, which we know is not the case for the Flames, especially at defense. I think it is just stating the obvious that Valimaki, as gifted as he is, should have to perform to see what we've got. I would suspect the team believes he's a good prospect, but is behind several players at just his position, like Andersson, Kylington, and Fox. That doesn't include our other top prospects at other positions, like Jankowski, Gillies, Parsons, etc. I encourage you to select who you like, but I just want to remind people that the year after being drafted is usually the one that you see what you have and what kind of prospect you have. I think Valimaki's going to be good, but I gotta see him perform in context, and with some direction from the team, to get that full sense of who and what he is going to be. |
Andersson is a good comparison for Valimaki.
As Flames' fans, most of us are pretty high on Andersson, and rightfully so. He has been developing well and seemingly has addressed his biggest flaw - his conditioning. You will also have to remember that Rasmus was on some preliminary preseason draft lists as high as 5 (with Kylington at #3).
How does he compare to Valimaki? Am I rating him just because he is the 'flavor of the month'? Well, if you go by my last picks, outside of the obvious like Tkachuk, Monahan, etc., I have routinely been high on Jankowski and some other prospects that have been in the organization. Recency bias may play a bit into my ranking, but not much.
People may have vastly different opinions than mine on the same prospects, and that's fine. I see Valimaki as a larger and better skating defencemen than Rasmus was, and someone that is much more mature in their draft years (joker off the ice notwithstanding).
Tell me, what are Valimaki's holes? Aside from just the usual 'needs to get stronger' jargon that you expect for nearly all prospects not named Kanzig, and 'time to develop his game', he doesn't have many flaws. Even listening to Button talk about Rasmus after the draft, and then talk about Juuso, there was a difference. I have never really heard Button gush or fawn about any prospect other than Gaudreau. In fact, I have known him to almost stomp on a prospect when someone asks him (for instance, Feaster and Weisbrod went on and on about Sieloff, claiming that they would have been comfortable selecting Sieloff in the first round if Jankowski was off the board, but when Button was asked about it he quickly stated that there were a few other players they liked at that slot, and it seemed like they were higher on Matt Finn than Sieloff).
Will Valimaki be as good and develop as quickly as Rasmus seemed to do? Time will tell. That is for you to decide and vote accordingly. My point is that at the same age, I think Valimaki has the fewest holes in his game out of any of the defencemen that the Flames have drafted in the last 10 years, yet still has a very high upside second only to Kylington (and perhaps Fox). You can call recency bias on it if you like. That is just how I personally feel about him.
I am actually not even quite sure how I have the existing D ordered. I may even select Rasmus (he had an EXCELLENT first year pro season in the AHL) ahead of Valimaki at this point (or Kylington for that matter since I believe his upside to be huge). I guess we will see in the next few rounds, but Valimaki is (for me personally) right there with any of the other D prospects the Flames have.
However, merely shrugging off my thoughts about a prospect as being merely 'flavor of the month' is being quite condescending (not that I am implying that you are trying to come off that way). It is just like me telling someone else that voting for a very low ceiling (4th liner, #6 defencemen) prospect so high on the rankings is the wrong way. People vote how they wish to vote. Make your case about Rasmus (and whomever else you have ahead of Valimaki) being the superior prospect, rather than telling someone they are doing it wrong.
