Right, but who knew that a soon to be 28 year old recently injury prone winger was going to help lead the team to a championship? He even missed 30 games in his first full season here.
I'm not defending the now, I'm attacking the past like everyone else, just further back. Why stop at 2014? I'm half kidding/half serious in doing it. Just saying we don't know.
If they don't win in 2012, with the way things went, the Richards trade goes down as one of the worst in team history. That's as big a risk as the Lucic trade. Probably bigger. Did we know the Carter trade would work out that well? What would've happened if a defenseman actually got hurt or missed a game in the 2012 playoffs? They weren't as deep as they were when they had both Johnson and Voynov. Penner was garbage that year until the unknown results in the playoffs.
The now is...it is what it is. If Kopitar was having a normal average season, maybe we're not all complaining about last summer, or going back and looking at every move made up to whatever year we choose, and lamenting at what could've been. Everything is what could've been. What if the Kings take Karlsson in 2008? What if Williams misses 30 games every year? What if they keep their 1st rounders in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2016? For all we know the Kings are better than they were with how it all actually unfolded. Maybe they're better than an 8th seed, or don't have to come back from down 0-3, or win three Game 7's on the road.
