Let's talk about: Oliver Kylington

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Didn't everyone praise Detroit for two decades for slowly bringing guys into the league after long AHL stints and low NHL minutes to start?

The Flames waiving the player and basically mothballing him last season has nothing to do with development or some sort of master plan by the franchise and GM - even at the start of this season Tre was needlessly critical of his game after a very solid pre-season when just about everyone else was gushing.

The arrival of this player is most certainly a case of the player forcing his way into the top 6 with sheer determination and will. There is no reason to think he couldn't be doing what he's doing now last season if he had at least played even semi-regularly. Finally encountering a coach that would give him an honest shake at playing ahead of other less deserving players doesn't hurt either.

It was very apparent the team was willing to cut ties. Let's not give credit to the franchise on this one when this is all on the player for doing everything he could to get here. About all you can say is this could serve to be a very solid draft pick and lucky for all that nobody else claimed him just a few months ago.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Matata

From the onset, Kylington was going to be a player that needed to be over-ripe and physically mature to be effective in the NHL, it's very hard to transition his highly dynamic style into NHL calibre. I think his development was particularly fragile because he was a physically weak player who needed to do a lot of growth, but also had a lot gifts, so he needed to be protected while given long enough of a leash to let his gifts flourish. I'm really impressed with how he's been handled.

Kylington showed feats of physical strength in the corners as far back as when Bill Peters was coach. Let's not revise history to suggest he's gotten demonstrably stronger this offseason.

[Gaskal]

Haha so far Oliver's making me look like a genius for making an outlandish declaration to my friends when he first got in the lineup that he was going to be better than Erik Karlsson.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Hot_Flatus

The Flames waiving the player and basically mothballing him last season has nothing to do with development or some sort of master plan by the franchise and GM - even at the start of this season Tre was needlessly critical of his game after a very solid pre-season when just about everyone else was gushing.

The arrival of this player is most certainly a case of the player forcing his way into the top 6 with sheer determination and will. There is no reason to think he couldn't be doing what he's doing now last season if he had at least played even semi-regularly. Finally encountering a coach that would give him an honest shake at playing ahead of other less deserving players doesn't hurt either.

It was very apparent the team was willing to cut ties. Let's not give credit to the franchise on this one when this is all on the player for doing everything he could to get here. About all you can say is this could serve to be a very solid draft pick and lucky for all that nobody else claimed him just a few months ago.

I would add that Chris Tanev wasn't some untouchable piece you "had" to protect. If Kylington had forced his way into a protection conversation a year ago, you expose Tanev and you live with the outcome, whether it's Gio or Tanev on the outs. Tanev's an awesome player, but his skillset is far easier to acquire. This idea pushed by Textcritic et al that it was in the team's best interest to:

i) Diminish Kylington's trade value
ii) Hold Kylington back from over 50 potential games of legitimate development towards his ceiling (artifically inflating the experience gap between him and guys like Hanifin and Andersson)
iii) Put a more plodding product on the ice last year, in a year they failed to make the playoffs

is... laughable at best.

[FusionX]

I thought he had a good game last night, his skating really stands out. His breakouts are at times high-risk but often lead to a better transition and speed game, especially against a team like Dallas.

There was one play in the 3rd(?) where he pinched a bit, had the puck chipped by him but his first few strides are so quick he recovered and prevented what could have been a 2 on 1. I'm not sure any other of our D could have done that.

Really nice to see him develop and come along, he should be out there more in OT IMO, it's all luck and bounces mainly anyways, he would change the dynamic.

[Mitch]

Originally Posted by Gaskal

Haha so far Oliver's making me look like a genius for making an outlandish declaration to my friends when he first got in the lineup that he was going to be better than Erik Karlsson.

Still an outlandish declaration

[Rick M.]

Originally Posted by Funkhouser

Up until last year it was regular development...
Being kept on the taxi squad last year without having a chance to play any meaningful games...not so much.

Perhaps, if we sit Valimaki for the rest of the season, he’ll be great next season.

[EVERLAST]

Cannot help but want to cheer for this guy. Getting healthy scratched for such a long time and just keep trying had to be hard for him.

Not anything like what Gio had to go thru ....deciding to go to Russia in 2008 when the Flames couldn't do anything with him in terms of finding an NHL roster spot he gambled and left because he didn't agree with being in the AHL for another year.

Gio came back and we all know the story from there but kinda cool that both of these players (Gio and Ky) have both faced similar adversity of sorts and now we are seeing potential that someone saw.....but these guys must have kept allot of belief within and just kept plugging away regardless of how early on the club treated them.

We need this guy now and I'm glad he didn't get picked up on waivers, didn't quit on the team or himself he just got better .

Feel good story so far.....I hope he continues this .

[Fan in Exile]

Some of you guys are insufferable. The Flames are lucky we didn't lose him, and the same contingent who now claim the Flames have brilliantly managed him would have been fine with losing him.

Just happy to see him break out into the player he always had the potential to be with the Flames instead of with another team like Bennett. As hard as he was on him last season, you have to give Sutter a lot of credit

[Scroopy Noopers]

More people who don’t understand how unlikely it was he was going to be claimed on waivers last year, despite the high likely hood that a lot of teams would have happily negotiated a trade for him.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

I would add that Chris Tanev wasn't some untouchable piece you "had" to protect. If Kylington had forced his way into a protection conversation a year ago, you expose Tanev and you live with the outcome, whether it's Gio or Tanev on the outs. Tanev's an awesome player, but his skillset is far easier to acquire. This idea pushed by Textcritic et al that it was in the team's best interest to:

i) Diminish Kylington's trade value
ii) Hold Kylington back from over 50 potential games of legitimate development towards his ceiling (artifically inflating the experience gap between him and guys like Hanifin and Andersson)
iii) Put a more plodding product on the ice last year, in a year they failed to make the playoffs

is... laughable at best.

Sure, when you construct a straw-man of another's position it is usually laughable. But this is really a poor representation of what I have said about this in the past:

Kylington didn't force his way into the protection conversation last year, and he was left unprotected. I don't believe for a second that this was by design, but I certainly do think that management was happy to keep him out of the lineup so long as he was not a positive contributor, and that they were aware of his potential which had not been met all along.

i) Not what I have suggested—rather, I have always maintained that Kylington was not playing at the level he needed to in order to stay in the lineup, and that it was easy for the team to keep him on the practice roster as a result. I have no doubt that for Treliving the expansion draft was always something that he reflected on and was able to navigate effectively, but at no point have I thought that this was the primary goal. If Kylington had played better last year when he did play, he would have been in the lineup more often. There was no intent to diminish his trade value (and no proof that it actually was), but by the same token management was probably also not terribly bothered by how easily Kylington was flying under the radar last year.

ii) No one was holding Kylington back except Kylington. I don't know how it is that so many posters cannot see the incredible difference in his quality of play this year compared to any other time in his entire professional career. But this is the NHL—in the coaches eyes last season (including those of Coach Sutter) he was probably playing at a similar level to Valimaki or Andersson, but it is always easier to keep young guys out of the lineup unless they give you no other choice. There was no concern about losing Valimaki to expansion, so it was easier to play him than Kylington. Kylington did not make that decision a difficult one last year, and there is no "artificial inflation of the experience gap" here.

iii) With the way that Kylington was playing last season, and—I assume—with how he appeared in practice, ALL the coaches (including Coach Sutter—the same coach who has added him as a regular to this year's lineup) seem to have thought that he didn't make nearly enough of a difference to keep him in the lineup.

Again, I remain bewildered by how petty and jaded some of you guys are about what looks to be a tremendous success story for both Kylington and the Flames. Smile. Be happy.

[Kipper_3434]

Every team needs a skilled puck mover on the backend. If we still had Brodie and/Gio I don't think Kylington gets his shot here. Opportunity is the most underrated aspect of development. Glad to see him playing top 4 minutes (sometimes) and showing off his valuable skills. We now have a player that cleared waivers but has value.

[Johnny Makarov]

I still think he is wayyy better than Andersson and totally deserves 1st unit PP time and 1st crack in OT.

Andersson is super overrated in here.

[Johnny Makarov]

Originally Posted by Kipper_3434

Every team needs a skilled puck mover on the backend. If we still had Brodie and/Gio I don't think Kylington gets his shot here. Opportunity is the most underrated aspect of development. Glad to see him playing top 4 minutes (sometimes) and showing off his valuable skills. We now have a player that cleared waivers but has value.

LOL. Kylington in the last week of last year and all the games this year has been 10 times better than Giold in the past 2 seasons.

It's not even close and thank god the Kraken are stupid.

He also changed TJ's last name to Who? .

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

I still think he is wayyy better than Andersson and totally deserves 1st unit PP time and 1st crack in OT.

I think he will get there, but I also like what he brings to PP2, especially considering how frequently Sutter has been playing them.

[FBI]

Next milestone: added to PP2

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

LOL. Kylington in the last week of last year and all the games this year has been 10 times better than Giold in the past 2 seasons.

It's not even close and thank god the Kraken are stupid.

He also changed TJ's last name to Who? .

Your unrelenting hatred of Mark Giordano is unhealthy. He's gone. You should probably also move on.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Johnny Makarov

I still think he is wayyy better than Andersson and totally deserves 1st unit PP time and 1st crack in OT.

Andersson is super overrated in here.

Ok, pump the brakes a little. Andersson does a lot of things right on the ice. Is he as offensively gifted as Kylington? Probably not. Doesn't take away from the fact that he's a bona-fide top pair d-man.

[Tkachukwagon]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1456658295121485830

Needs some power play time now!

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Ok, pump the brakes a little. Andersson does a lot of things right on the ice. Is he as offensively gifted as Kylington? Probably not. Doesn't take away from the fact that he's a bona-fide top pair d-man.

A lot of people only see Kylington’s great rushes and obvious offensive flair. They miss the stuff Sutter talked about just a couple pressers ago.

Rasmus’ issue is that when he makes a (fairly rare) mistake it’s harder for him to come back and cover it up. He’s not especially quick.