Confirmed with Link: Gabriel Vilardi signs 3-year ELC

[AzKing]

Getting Vilardi back into the mix is like a bonus because most had written him off. If he can comeback to full strength and develop, it makes the prospect list look that much stronger. Even with him on the shelf, it was a Top 5 ranked group.

 

[Lt Dan]

Getting Vilardi back into the mix is like a bonus because most had written him off. If he can comeback to full strength and develop,

This all sounds familiar

 

[kilowatt]

Getting Vilardi back into the mix is like a bonus because most had written him off. If he can comeback to full strength and develop, it makes the prospect list look that much stronger. Even with him on the shelf, it was a Top 5 ranked group.

We have three legit first-line talents in Turcotte, Vilardi, and Kaliyev. We have five potential second-line talents in Kupari, JAD, Fagemo, Thomas, and Grundstrom. That's not even including guys that have already showed some competence at the NHL level - Kempe, Luff, Wagner, Lizotte, Amadio, Prokhorkin - and some guys that could still jump up in the rankings - Eyssimont, Sodergran, and Dudas.

We have a lot of really good players in the system. There's no way we're not the number one prospect pool next summer.

 

[Statto]

Getting Vilardi back into the mix is like a bonus because most had written him off. If he can comeback to full strength and develop, it makes the prospect list look that much stronger. Even with him on the shelf, it was a Top 5 ranked group.

He's not back properly yet, but it does make a mockery of writing him off without knowing what his actual diagnosis is/was.

 

[BigKing]

The act of "writing him off" on here was generally more of a "don't pencil him in to future lineups as an abundance of caution" v. "he'll never skate again".

When assessing the prospect pool, it was prudent to not count on him while stating that he would be an insanely huge bonus if he was able to fully recover.

You're right to say he isn't properly back yet. We also still don't know what is wrong with him. We also got four games from him this time last year in which he looked good, only to have him get shut down shortly thereafter.

Fingers crossed as he is probably my favorite Kings prospect, but we are not even close to being out of the woods yet. I'd include him in a prospect ranking at this point since he's actually played a game again, but it would still be further down the list than his actual talent deserves.

 

[The Tikkanen]

I think the Kings doctors finally got it right this time. The Kings being so bad helped him not being pushed or rushed back into hockey like long time King fans have seen countless times before.

 

[Lt Dan]

He's not back properly yet, but it does make a mockery of writing him off without knowing what his actual diagnosis is/was.

Mockery of him? No
Twas a mockery of how these types of things have been handed in the past


Like here

I think the Kings doctors finally got it right this time. The Kings being so bad helped him not being pushed or rushed back into hockey like long time King fans have seen countless times before.

 

[Statto]

Mockery of him? No
Twas a mockery of how these types of things have been handed in the past


Like here

read it again... a mockery of the people writing off Vilardi, not Vilardi himself.

On the other point, I'm not arguing its a genuine question. How many top prospects have we lost to injury in the recent past? The last major mismanagement of injury that jumps to mind is Alison and Deadmarsh. There must be others?

Blake deserves some credit here though as, people are correct it is much easier to get this type of thing wrong than right.

 

[Lt Dan]

read it again... a mockery of the people writing off Vilardi, not Vilardi himself.

Read my post again that was what I said

On the other point, I'm not arguing its a genuine question. How many top prospects have we lost to injury in the recent past? The last major mismanagement of injury that jumps to mind is Alison and Deadmarsh. There must be others?

Blake deserves some credit here though as, people are correct it is much easier to get this type of thing wrong than right.

Scott Barney comes to mind not to mention how many injured players they forced to play who were hurt like Anson Carter, Martin Straka, etc


Skepticism on the fan's part is still well warranted

 

[Statto]

Read my post again that was what I said



Scott Barney comes to mind not to mention how many injured players they forced to play who were hurt like Anson Carter, Martin Straka, etc


Skepticism on the fan's part is still well warranted

Sorry, I'm having a bad day. lol

 

[Lt Dan]

Sorry, I'm having a bad day. lol

all good bro. I hope it gets better

 

[regulate]

Looking forward to seeing Gabe live again on Wednesday evening.

 

[BigKing]

Read my post again that was what I said



Scott Barney comes to mind not to mention how many injured players they forced to play who were hurt like Anson Carter, Martin Straka, etc


Skepticism on the fan's part is still well warranted

Yep. It is well-warranted without bringing up any potential mishandling of injuries by the Kings medical staff. Bottom line is that he has played five full games in a year and has had extremely long spells where he couldn't even go for a leisurely skate.

If someone wanted to write him off completely, the odds of them being right are probably just as good as those that are ready to pencil him in to a 1-2-3 center punch with Turcotte and Kopitar next season. It is way too early to try and victory lap on anyone that said he'd never make it due to injuries because his road to being an NHL player is still in its infancy stages.

Extremely cautious optimism should be the name of the game. I have zero worries about his development because I think his skill set is top-notch so the lost time isn't going to ruin him; however, I don't know how many games played it will take me to stop worrying about his health. He finished out his OHL career and went through the playoffs, then he was shelved. He's really a day-by-day case.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

read it again... a mockery of the people writing off Vilardi, not Vilardi himself.

On the other point, I'm not arguing its a genuine question. How many top prospects have we lost to injury in the recent past? The last major mismanagement of injury that jumps to mind is Alison and Deadmarsh. There must be others?

Blake deserves some credit here though as, people are correct it is much easier to get this type of thing wrong than right.

Parse, maybe?

My issues with the Kings medical staff as well as strength/conditioning coaches have been going on for years. I'm not surprised it's not addressed as it's surprisingly not talked about more. Hopefully they've at least done right with Vilardi. Hell I remember Stoll ended up going outside the org and doing yoga since the internal staff were doing shit all with him.

 

[TruKingFan]

The act of "writing him off" on here was generally more of a "don't pencil him in to future lineups as an abundance of caution v. "he'll never skate again"

Yeah right. How convenient after it's painfully obvious to you folks now that Vilardi will be back in hockey. The kid has a legitimate chance to have a career. Don't need any "cautious optimism". LOL. just admit you folks were wayyyyyy off.

Understand that a big part of the "write off" around here was because of the lack of information that time but based on how quickly Vilardi is progressing it's obvious it was just a temporary setback all along.

You and others like you just decided it's easier to "write him off" rather than wait for more information. Glass being half empty and all.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I agree with @BigKing that the general sentiment was cautious optimism.

However, you're also right that there were a non-insignificant number of people saying his career is over and he's toast and basically hoping for failure and "I told you so"s so I'm glad that's tapered off. We'll see if they can hatewatch him enough to finally just be happy and enjoy the kid fighting for his career.

 

[jfont]

I agree with @BigKing that the general sentiment was cautious optimism.

I disagree RJ..

There were lots of posters arguing not to count on GV coming back.

but it doesn't matter now that he's back. we're all in a good place now.

 

[Choralone]

I disagree RJ..

There were lots of posters arguing not to count on GV coming back.

but it doesn't matter now that he's back. we're all in a good place now.

Yeah. Spinal fluid under the bridge.

 

[BigKing]

Yeah right. How convenient after it's painfully obvious to you folks now that Vilardi will be back in hockey. The kid has a legitimate chance to have a career. Don't need any "cautious optimism". LOL. just admit you folks were wayyyyyy off.

Understand that a big part of the "write off" around here was because of the lack of information that time but based on how quickly Vilardi is progressing it's obvious it was just a temporary setback all along.

You and others like you just decided it's easier to "write him off" rather than wait for more information. Glass being half empty and all.

How is it convenient to say everyone should be cautiously optimistic? Why would those that "wrote him off" be "wayyyyyy off" after he has played one game? He played 400% more than that last season.

I don't believe I wrote him off but you can check my posting history. I know I've posted negatively on the situation because there wasn't anything positive to speak to but, really, the biggest part of any "write off" wasn't due to lack of information but because he's barely played since his draft year, something that is extremely unusual.

Pretty sure everyone wants him to succeed; there isn't a single person on here that is rooting for him to fail so they can say "I told you so". That being said, victory lapping after the kid has played on AHL game after a full year off is ridiculous. The glass has water in it: it is both half-full and half-empty. It was probably a quarter-full in the off-season.

As for the argument that some on here were saying not to count on him coming back: yeah, that was the prudent move when discussing the prospect pool and future lineups. Pretty sure that most of the posters that said that also said that they would have him ranked right at the top of the class if he recovers and that he would be a giant shot-in-the-arm to the rebuild timeline. There is a difference between shitting on the kid and tempering expectations since he's barely played since being drafted.

 

[MBH]

Gabe Vilardi on getting back into the lineup tonight, nearly a year after last playing
Yeah, it was fun. It felt good honestly, it’s good to get the first one over with and I’ve got to keep moving forward.

On his two big chances, including a breakaway in the third period, and what he saw on that breakaway look
I was just talking about it, that’s where I’ve got to get my head back in the game. That’s not me, I don’t go five-hole, I don’t make that play. It’s just that’s where it’s going to take some time for me to really think the game like I normally do instead of, I don’t want to use the word “panicking” but feeling rushed almost. I knew I had a lot of time and I came in I tried to go five hole and that’s just not me, I don’t go five hole, I make a play. That’s where it’s going to take some time. A lot of other times out there, like on that 6-on-4, just feeling rushed again, coming in down the wall and dumping it in, it’s just little things. I dump it and I don’t put it in hard enough and the goalie stops it, so they get an easier breakout. It’s just little things like that. Obviously I want to watch the video, see what I can improve on, but it’s tough. It was my first game in over a year and I mean I’m trying to be realistic, that’s very hard. I’m going to have to, like I said watch video and really see. I feel like I had more time with the puck than I thought I did out there, but I feel like that’s normal, to feel panicky out there a little bit.

On his comfort level tonight, as compared to his four games last season
I mean, I’ve just got a different mindset. I understand what I need to do with my body. Looking back at last year, I was just, I don’t want to say I had pressure, but I feel like I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to perform, where as this year, I’ve got no pressure, I’ve got the support of everybody. Everybody’s been so supportive. I’m here, I’m doing the right things I think. I’m spending long days at the rink, I’m putting in the work, so hopefully it will pay off and like I said, I’ve got to keep on improving. This is just step one for me.

On how his legs felt as the game went along and if he felt he had more jump in the first than the third
Not even that, it’s just longer shifts. If you start in the d-zone and you get caught in the d-zone for the first 20 seconds, obviously I’m an offensive guy and I want to get some sort of offense on every shift if I can. I’m trying to really temple myself…if I’m in the defensive zone for 30 seconds, that’s my shift, I can’t try to go get offense, because if we get caught on the rush back, we’ll be dogging it for the rest of the shift and we can’t have that. It happened a few times out there where, a lot of miscommunications in the d-zone on my part, it’s because of me and I’m putting pressure on Luffer and Sutts, just because I don’t always know where to be and I’m not thinking straight because I’ve been out there for a minute. I’ve got to really bear down on that, but like I said, that’s going to come with time.

Mike Stothers on what he saw from Gabriel Vilardi’s season debut
I think it was a real good, solid start for Gabe. I went into the game not really expecting miracles out of him, the guy has been through a lot and he’s been off for an awful long time, but you can see there’s some hockey sense and some awareness, in all zones actually. He was pretty responsible defensively, he created things, had a good stick, positionally he’s good, won some big draws for us. As far as a debut goes, I thought it was very solid.

On the process of Vilardi’s timing coming back, as he plays in more games
Well, I would expect so, yeah. Again, there’s a lot of timing involved. You can practice all you want, but it’s not the same as game situations and he was playing against a good team. It was really encouraging and it was solid.

This kid has hockey IQ.
if his body holds up... you're gonna be so thrilled.

 

[Lt Dan]

This kid has hockey IQ.
if his body holds up... you're gonna be so thrilled.

How thrilled?

This kinda thrilled

or this kind of thrilled?

 

[Bandit]

Those of you waiving your dicks around with the i told you so's after the kid has played one game in a year and saying that cautious optimism isn't warranted... how many magic beans do you want for your cow? I have an unlimited supply right here for you.

Also the idea that anyone WANTED him to never play again is patently absurd.

 

[Lt Dan]

Those of you waiving your dicks around with the i told you so's after the kid has played one game in a year and saying that cautious optimism isn't warranted... how many magic beans do you want for your cow? I have an unlimited supply right here for you.

Also the idea that anyone WANTED him to never play again is patently absurd.

LOL. Exactly. It is a shame that there is no in the middle in the internet anymore.

I think everyone is happy he practiced and played a game.
Now let's see how he fares playing most of a season.

 

[kings11]

LOL. Exactly. It is a shame that there is no in the middle in the internet anymore.

I think everyone is happy he practiced and played a game.
Now let's see how he fares playing most of a season.

I'll tell you what.. we better not see him on the Kings this season... If he starts dominating in Onatrio he needs to stay there and build up chemistry with the guys there.. Oh and I told you so.. dick waiving everywhere

 

[Lt Dan]

I'll tell you what.. we better not see him on the Kings this season... If he starts dominating in Onatrio he needs to stay there and build up chemistry with the guys there.. Oh and I told you so.. dick waiving everywhere

What is the first rule of Christmas? It is better to give than recieve, so I am waving my dick at everyone that walks by my office window .