Herby
Now I can die in peace
I don't think any of those guys were NHL ready, the Kings under Blake would have had 100% had Hughes and Barkov in the AHL and probably Thornton in junior. Thornton and Hughes were lost at the NHL level, but the experience of playing in the league ultimately benefitted them, I think the same would have been true with QB and unfortunately he missed out on that. With were we are in year 3 with QB, is it fair to say in hindsight you would have done things differently? It sure seems like the unorthodox AHL usage has not made him into the player they expected. There is no way it would have been any worse had he been in the NHL.
The Turcotte thing wasn't even an after the fact thing. By 2020 it was well known that two years in college is the best route for players not ready to immediately jump into the NHL. Every other team has realized this, but the Kings didn't. And it caused harm to the development of a player they used a high pick on. Again I'm not saying Turcotte would be Beniers, Caufield or Boldy had he returned for a 2nd year, I think he was clearly a step behind, but whats it say that those teams left better players in the college for 2 years and the Kings didn't. I understand you have conceded in hindsight this was a big mistake, but it's not like this couldn't be seen a mile away, and they deserve a lot of blame for it, it wasn't bad luck or unforeseen, or Covid. It was just a management team that made another bad decision involving the AHL.
The Canucks in Hughes rookie year made the 3rd round of the playoffs, they were not a bad team by any stretch. And Hughes is a great player, he is no more to blame for the teams struggles than Doughty and Kopitar were for struggles early or later in their careers, Hughes is one of the best offensive defenseman in the league, and has been from the moment he stepped into the league. Same thing with Makar and McAvoy, I think Clarke has a chance to be that type of player, and that type of player does not need AHL time, not when you have guys like Edler and Walker playing regularly.
Nemec is a defenseman who played pro hockey the year before in Europe, guys like him and Seider have shown that you can enhance development by having those guys in the AHL learning to be better defenseman. Just like having 18 year old high pick forwards in the NHL it has shown it has decent results for defenseman coming over from Europe. That is why I said Bjornfot was a 50/50 type decision, not nearly as awful as Turcotte and Byfield in that league. Its an apples to oranges comparison, for forwards the best place has been the NHL.
I don't completely hate the AHL, it has a place for developing lesser players, but for a forward who dominated the CHL who you invested a #2 pick in, or for guys who are having historically great age 19 seasons in junior it's just not a place that many teams choose to send those types of players.
Again, we've had this debate now for three seasons, when is he going to really show that he benefitted at all from the AHL? Byfield and Turcotte both end up in the AHL as teenagers and both lag behind players who took more traditional paths, can you blame people for having concerns the same thing will happen with Clarke?
Cliffs: Is it to much to ask for the Kings to just develop their top picks the same way the rest of the league does? Why do the Kings have to be different? Has different worked out for the Kings?
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