Gio-Brodie
Kulak-Hamilton
Kylington-Hamonic
Not.
even.
once.
smh
A little overaggressive IMO... but the other issue was that Hamilton apparently didn't want to play without Gio and for whatever reason we catered to it.
Kulak Hamilton pairing.
19 year old Kylington - Dog shit Hamonic pairing.
That team would have been perfect, had we not traded our first for Hammer, we'd have been in line for Dahlin.
? No not really IMO.
I think we still pick around the same range but maybe 1-2 picks higher at best. We'd still have a similar confusion as to what to do with our roster right now, but just more in the pipeline to use as currency.
The team had done quite well the season before. That season was already a monumental collapse. I don't think we do much worse without Hamonic. A major issue was had was that we also retooled our entire system to cater to Mike Smith's puck moving abilities. The craziest part of the equation though, I don't think Rittich develops the same way at all without a swagger guy like Smith to mentor him. Rittich mentioned he sucked, then he caught fire at the worlds which gave him the confidence to play has he has in the last bit. We also had Eddie Lack in the fold and a refusal to play Brodie as RD.
2017-2018 was Kulak fighting for time against Bartkowski and often paired with a breaking down Stone. Hamonic in 2017-2018 wasn't bad at all. Andersson also wasn't mature yet and still more fat ras than the current ras hole.
A 2017-2018 season without Hamonic IMO looks more like:
Gio - Hamilton
Brodie - Stone
Bartkowski/Kulak - Andersson (on par with 2017-2018 or 2016-2017 Wideman version of Andersson)
Smith/Lack
Because of the pure picks trade, there's no NHL roster adjustment. IMO, that's still as bad as a the crater with Hamonic involved.
OKG is a homer on Kulak, that's for sure. But I do think I have to stand closer to him than you on this one. Kulak with more ice time is a bit more of a consistent dman. He just never strung together enough with less ice time to show he deserved time over Bartkowski. I think he could do as he was able to do in Montreal with more ice time here. But I recall he had stints in the top 4 and he'd show flashes, then wilt in the same way that Russell would if overused as a 3/4 vs 4/5... so I don't disagree with you either...
Kylington also has not shown the same poise and capabilities in previous seasons vs this season IMO, so I'll stand on your side vs OKG's side on that one. He was way too lost in his own zone back then. Though to consider OKG's opinion, I will consider that based on what I've seen so far, he might be the type to develop better learning how to tread water vs doing laps in the kiddie pool, so him playing on the bottom pairing might have worked?
I will assume our man games lost is similar, so it's OK to consider that being on the bottom pairing means meaningful development vs more pine riding and popcorn munching? Plus Kylington is the perfect type of dman for Gully's system with the stop and go style movement as his acceleration is fantastic...
We possibly also don't have the same type of Ferland/Dougie usage without that trade to do the Lindholm/Hanifin trade, but maybe we do... ??
In an alternate universe, I think everything up to today looks exactly the same sans Hamonic and more currency. I think essentially everything else plays out with similar end results every season since the Hamonic acquisition? I'd almost summarize it as more currency, a weaker roster, but more gel which mitigates less NHL talent?
. Teleport that post back a couple of days I guess
