OvermanKingGainer
#BennettFreed #CurseofTheSpulll #FreeOliver
Chances are Valimaki will be the captain of a team looking to make a big playoff push. Provorov had 40 WHL playoff games under his belt before turning pro. Valimaki has... 4. Adding 12-15 more playoff games as his team's leader and first defenseman, while working without development guys and getting 25-30+ minutes a night... I don't see the harm. Pro in Europe should be a nonstarter since the minutes are not controllable. Stockton would be nice but with Kylington and co needing their minutes on PK, PP, 5v5, 3v3, it makes sense to send Valimaki down to a league where he can get the most reps in.
p.s. Kylington is not a forward playing defense. He does some things better defensively than some of our other prospects (for instance only Kulak has better gap control, and not one of our D prospects is more dominant on the PK, and he probably has the best stretch pass out of all of them) and some things worse than our other prospects (knowing when to chip/when to carry, sealing the front of the net, breaking up the cycle) but it is absurd to say he is anything other than a defense prospect who is right around where most just-turned-20 guys are.
p.s. Kylington is not a forward playing defense. He does some things better defensively than some of our other prospects (for instance only Kulak has better gap control, and not one of our D prospects is more dominant on the PK, and he probably has the best stretch pass out of all of them) and some things worse than our other prospects (knowing when to chip/when to carry, sealing the front of the net, breaking up the cycle) but it is absurd to say he is anything other than a defense prospect who is right around where most just-turned-20 guys are.