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Old 08-13-2019, 10:31 PM   #101
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Joke is going to be on everyone when Valiev gets a shot out of camp (a combination of Valimaki injury and playing really well).
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Old 08-13-2019, 10:36 PM   #102
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A lot of little miscalculations from the guys up top.

Don't understand why they had to have that pissing match with a guy that wouldve negated the need to get fantenberg, made brodie/hamonic even more expendable and made the valkmaki injury a non issue now. A bit of hockey karma if you will.

Also can we not give the Habs any more freebie fringe prospects on the cusp of breaking out going forward? Please and thanks.
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Old 08-13-2019, 10:53 PM   #103
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Kulak also spent 19 games in the AHL with Laval Rocket this past season. Glad he's finding a modicum of success, but that wasn't necessarily a bad trade from a Flames viewpoint.
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Old 08-13-2019, 11:04 PM   #104
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Kulak was on the verge of becoming Wotherspoon 2.0 - a quad-A guy that you probably don't want taking time away from younger guys. If they thought Hanifin and Valimaki were both better, the bet basically became "Why not turn Wotherspoon 2.0 into improved AHL depth?"
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Old 08-14-2019, 07:18 AM   #105
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Meh. don't really care about him. Do wish we still had Byron. He would be perfect for our 3rd line.
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Old 08-14-2019, 07:45 AM   #106
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The article gets written regardless of what happened to Valimaki because Kent was all over twitter last week talking about it and suggesting he would be writing an article about it.


Almost every analytics guy has a pet player that they want to tell the world they were right about but the experts missed. Kulak is they guy Kent will be putting on his resume this summer.
Fair enough. Though as far as "telling the world they were right" goes, the farthest that Kent appeared willing to go at the time was to call it "strange" that they moved Kulak out. He also called him "not irreplaceable" before the deal. He, of course, wanted Stone gone, but that was hardly uncommon opinion.

He's leaning heavily on hindsight bias.
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Old 08-14-2019, 08:18 AM   #107
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Kulak was on the verge of becoming Wotherspoon 2.0 - a quad-A guy that you probably don't want taking time away from younger guys. If they thought Hanifin and Valimaki were both better, the bet basically became "Why not turn Wotherspoon 2.0 into improved AHL depth?"
Kulak played 71 games with the Flames in 2017-18 and averaged 12:59 over all 71 games.

To say he was on the verge of being Wotherspoon is ridiculous to say at the start of last season and even worse when Kulak actually made the nominal step up last year.

The guy that beat him out (on paper) for the #5 spot was Stone and Prout for the #7 spot because the Flames had no other physical d-men.

With Kulak as a Flame Andersson starts last season as #7
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Old 08-14-2019, 09:25 AM   #108
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Kulak played 71 games with the Flames in 2017-18 and averaged 12:59 over all 71 games.

To say he was on the verge of being Wotherspoon is ridiculous to say at the start of last season and even worse when Kulak actually made the nominal step up last year.

The guy that beat him out (on paper) for the #5 spot was Stone and Prout for the #7 spot because the Flames had no other physical d-men.

With Kulak as a Flame Andersson starts last season as #7
IIRC Andersson started last season in the AHL
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Old 08-14-2019, 09:33 AM   #109
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Originally Posted by ricardodw View Post
Kulak played 71 games with the Flames in 2017-18 and averaged 12:59 over all 71 games.

To say he was on the verge of being Wotherspoon is ridiculous to say at the start of last season and even worse when Kulak actually made the nominal step up last year.

The guy that beat him out (on paper) for the #5 spot was Stone and Prout for the #7 spot because the Flames had no other physical d-men.

With Kulak as a Flame Andersson starts last season as #7
He was Stone's partner for almost all of 17-18. I don't think Stone beat him out. Valimaki beat him out.

Kulak seems to be a guy who has played as well as his partner lets him. he was a horrible fit with Engelland. Much better with Stone. And he upgraded partners in Montreal. Of course, some of that might just be progression in his own play, but he was never going to get above 3rd pairing here. And with Anderson and Valimaki there, with Kylington close behind, he was dropping through the depth chart. The only real issue is whether you could get something better for him. It seems like you couldn't. And playing him in Stockton wasn't going to increase his trade value.
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Old 08-14-2019, 09:59 AM   #110
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ricardodw View Post
Kulak played 71 games with the Flames in 2017-18 and averaged 12:59 over all 71 games.

To say he was on the verge of being Wotherspoon is ridiculous to say at the start of last season and even worse when Kulak actually made the nominal step up last year.

The guy that beat him out (on paper) for the #5 spot was Stone and Prout for the #7 spot because the Flames had no other physical d-men.

With Kulak as a Flame Andersson starts last season as #7
For once, I agree with you. Kulak was already far ahead of Wotherspoon.

However, your final statement is wrong. There is no way the Flames were going to have one of the kids riding the pine. It would either have been Kulak-Andersson as the third pair with Stone as the 7, or Kulak-Stone as the third pair with both Andersson and Valimaki blocked at the AHL.
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Old 08-14-2019, 10:05 AM   #111
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For once, I agree with you. Kulak was already far ahead of Wotherspoon.

However, your final statement is wrong. There is no way the Flames were going to have one of the kids riding the pine. It would either have been Kulak-Andersson as the third pair with Stone as the 7, or Kulak-Stone as the third pair with both Andersson and Valimaki blocked at the AHL.
This seems like a roundabout conversation to say that Stone was a the one blocking them and not Kulak.

Maybe carrying a 3.5 million dollar 7th defender was the issue here and not Kulak.
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Old 08-14-2019, 10:14 AM   #112
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Herein lies the problem with Kent Wilson’s schtick. Who cares? Kulak was a bottom pair defenceman, dime a dozen, who was easily replaced by better players that we are happier to see playing in the NHL in Andersson, Valimaki, and Kylington.

Why not find something positive to write about? This is pointless summer click bait.
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Old 08-14-2019, 11:43 AM   #113
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Gio-Brodie
Hanifin-Hamonic
Valimaki-Andersson
Kylington-Stone
Kulak-Prout

I don't see how we could have kept him..

Every other left side dman is much more important to the longterm success of the organization.

This article is trying to fit a narrative of mismanagement but with Gio, Hanifin, Valimaki and Kylington it didnt make sense to retain him.
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Old 08-14-2019, 11:53 AM   #114
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IIRC Andersson started last season in the AHL
Last season no games with Stockton and 79 w/ the Flames.
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Old 08-14-2019, 11:58 AM   #115
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Last season no games with Stockton and 79 w/ the Flames.
Yes, but he didn't make the Flames off the bat and was only recalled after Hamonic broke his jaw in game 1 against the Canucks.

The Flames started with this:

Giordano - Brodie
Hanifin - Hamonic
Valimaki - Stone
Prout
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Old 08-14-2019, 12:37 PM   #116
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This seems like a roundabout conversation to say that Stone was a the one blocking them and not Kulak.

Maybe carrying a 3.5 million dollar 7th defender was the issue here and not Kulak.
It was both, actually. Stone was blocking Andersson, and Kulak was blocking Valimaki. Hamonic breaking his face in the season opener is what opened up space for Andersson. But Kulak would have remained in Valimaki's way.

Assuming that Valimaki were to outplay Kulak in training camp, what do you do then? You don't really want to bury $900k in the minors, and you don't really want Kulak to be the 7D - especially if the organization wanted Prout there to provide 'toughness' when needed. So the most likely result in this scenario is the Flames trade Kulak anyway.
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Old 08-14-2019, 12:52 PM   #117
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Should rename this article:

MEDIOCRE DEFENSEMEN LEAVES TEAM WITH DEFENSIVE DEPTH AND FINDS SUCCESS ON TEAM WITH LESS DEFENSIVE DEPTH

Wowsers!
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Old 08-14-2019, 12:59 PM   #118
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Should rename this article:

MEDIOCRE DEFENSEMEN LEAVES TEAM WITH DEFENSIVE DEPTH AND FINDS SUCCESS ON TEAM WITH LESS DEFENSIVE DEPTH

Wowsers!
I think an important part of the article is that Kulak is proving to not be mediocre.

Did he look mediocre playing under Gulutzan paired with Michael Stone? Honestly I think he was slightly better than mediocre even under those bad circumstances, and he played well in a top 4 role (limited sample size) in Montreal. So I would like to see him under Peters.

Plus he is still 25, if he takes another step forward this year this “miscalculation” can keep looking worse and worse.
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Old 08-14-2019, 01:06 PM   #119
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I think an important part of the article is that Kulak is proving to not be mediocre.

Did he look mediocre playing under Gulutzan paired with Michael Stone? Honestly I think he was slightly better than mediocre even under those bad circumstances, and he played well in a top 4 role (limited sample size) in Montreal. So I would like to see him under Peters.

Plus he is still 25, if he takes another step forward this year this “miscalculation” can keep looking worse and worse.
Sorry -- are you suggesting that Kulak should play left wing or something? Backup goalie? Because there is an absolutely miniscule chance that Kulak would have a job in Calgary as a defenseman. He is pitifully mediocre compared to the talent the Flames already have, and keeping him would be the definition of pointless.
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Old 08-14-2019, 01:12 PM   #120
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Sorry -- are you suggesting that Kulak should play left wing or something? Backup goalie? Because there is an absolutely miniscule chance that Kulak would have a job in Calgary as a defenseman. He is pitifully mediocre compared to the talent the Flames already have, and keeping him would be the definition of pointless.
He would have played every game last year that Fantenberg and Kylington played as he is better than both at this time. So we would have used him then

He would also be the odds on favorite to start with the team now that Valimaki is hurt long term. So again he would be useful to have here

We also wouldn’t have needed to trade a fourth round pick to replace his role, and picks are always valuable, so again he would have been useful to have at that point.

Also go ahead and backup this claim that he is pittifully mediocre compared to Valimaki, Kylington, Davidson, Valiev etc because underlying numbers from last season directly contradict that claim.

If it was pointless to keep him why did the team make him contract offers?
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