Sorry, I made my post and then was gone for a few days. I thought it was more common knowledge from reading these forums and others that there was speculation about Kaliyev's age and potential mental development issues. As KP said, no credible source is going to come out and say this, this isn't Hughes and Caufield being smaller than usual or Kopitar being from a non-hockey country, it's clearly a more delicate subject that teams and scouting services won't discuss openly . But it also doesn't mean it's some wack job starting these rumors online, it is very likely at least one of those things was considered by NHL teams, and with how far Kaliyev fell it seems that many teams were concerned about it, enough to let a really good player fall way further than he should have.
At this point even if both things were to be true (I think unlikely), the autism has not had any effect on him seamlessly transitioning the two biggest hurdles any player faces, #1 becoming a pro and the big one becoming an NHL'er. Even the age thing were also true, Kaliyev would have showed a lot last year as a 22 year old (same age as Vilardi and JAD), including a shot that is probably 90th percentile in the NHL, not many guys are capable of shooting like he did in the Dallas gam, it's not like that is going away. If he is 22, it might slightly limit the ceiling but Kaliyev is going to be in the league because of his shot, it would have more of an effect in a dozen years than it does right now.
Just to add with the age thing, assuming he were a 99, it would be quite extraordinary for a player who played AAA in Detroit at 17, to jump to the OHL at 18, be an OHL star at 19-20, a really good AHL'er at 21 and an NHL regular at 22. If a 17 year old future OHL star and NHL player were competing in AAA (even in the best AAA league in America) they would dominate way more than even Kaliyev did. His progression looks much more like an 01 than a 99, especially for a kid who has played his whole life.
As far as Clarke, no weird conspiracies here (let's not be ridiculous). They just don't like him, just like a lot of you didn't like Erik Karlsson's game and would let us all know in the "Around the League Thread" anytime a mistake happened. To many hockey staffs and hockey fans a defenseman should above all else be defensive, even if it limits his offensive ceiling. Team Canada's coaches are probably worried about a key error Clarke may make going for an offensive chance and not even consider that his offensive chances might be the difference in them winning or losing.
It gets back to the post I made a couple days ago, there are a lot of people in powerful positions throughout hockey who don't want unique players who might come with issues and prefer the low ceiling and safer players. It happens at the draft and it happens in these selections. I don't get it, and never will. But oh well, it's no big deal at all for Clarke's development, this greatly mirrors Kyle Connor who despite being a 1st round pick and leading the NCAA in goals and points as a 19 year old freshman at the time of selection was left off the 2016 team. Safe to say it had no effect on the player he became.
