I think Valimaki needs to put together one more exceptional season to be considered a blue chip. At this point I wouldn't even put him in the top five in our prospect pool given the success some of our draftees have shown at a higher level.
I'd really like to see what he could do in Finland because that would be a hell of a lot harder than just eating 17 year olds alive in the WHL, might force him to actually build his game instead of just progressing naturally via being bigger, stronger and more experienced than the other kids. I'm not really sure what Treliving wants out of him playing for the Americans again; there's little for him to accomplish outside of the responsibilities of being a #1 d-man, which is a marginal step up from what he was doing last year.
Guy has a lot of talent and the size and frame to play against adults. Overall, next year is going to be easier for him in the Tri-Cities than last, regardless of whether he's playing a few more minutes a night, and it will not really force him to improve the parts of his game that need improvement/would make one consider him a real blue chip prospect.