I'll give you the first two. Utica is doing something for goalies.
JV ... Okay. I guess he lost the excess weight there and is now giving more effort.
Palmu is doing fine in a stronger league where clutching and grabbing is allowed (Im assuming AHL mirrors NHL more closely in this regard?)
I agree with this to a certain extent but I would like to have a farm team where you can send players to actually play, learn from mistakes and get better. Utica, at the moment, does not develop NHL skaters. (I give you that they definitely do develop NHL goalies.)
I think not only do you underrate the AHL as a league, but I think you underrate how bad Virtanen looked before his stint in Utica. He was bordering on lost cause, I understand a lot of his game is tools and no tool box. But since he’s been there and now here his ability to at least look competent defensively is a huge stride in his game IMHO. If you had simply said they don’t develop NHL scoring players I’d agree but I do feel Virtanen has taken a necessary step from the nothing player he was to mostly competent 3/4 line guy.
I think others have pointed out Liiga isn’t a stronger league, which should be pretty universally accepted as it should be.
Like I said, the need for oodles of bodies would make the development system more likely to produce an NHL body simply through trail by numbers. Say we started with 4 extra prospects, by development year 2 that might be cut down by 50%, but you’re also more likely to have a clearer idea of who’s gonna make it.
Instead we have only 4 guys we are discussing now and 2 rather moved on or are playing in different leagues, while the other two are your 50% maybes.
This shouldn’t be rocket surgery here, more prospects means more likelihood of one or two of them turning out, possibly even snagging a later round gem.
