My issue is why Quick is still considered the undisputed starter. Second stringers have played better than him and he's been bad. I don't understand why they don't make it clear that Quicks position as starter is up for grabs. Because it should be.
It's the $7m he's making this year. He is still tied for the 4th highest paid goalie in the league. The team isn't good, from top to bottom they know they aren't good, and if they have to pay out $7m to a guy, he's going to get to play. There is still more than enough time for another goalie to take Quick's job, because he's not going anywhere. Unless he retires, or they buy him out. Those are the only options.
matt roy is not an nhl defenseman
He's a cheap warm body. This year was written off before it started, and guys like Roy are there simply to buy time. If any of them, Roy, Walker, MacD, etc, end up becoming a legit player, that's only a plus. If they're going to be bad anyway, Matt Roy is the right option, because nobody cares about him. He's not a real prospect. If he burns out, throw him out with the rest of the garbage over the next few years.
13 goals allowed in two starts for Quick. Going to be tough to find a team that will be interested in giving up assets for him.
If he had 2 GA right now, that would still be the case. He was just signed for too many years. It made sense to try and cheat the cap at the time, but now is when it hurts. The 10 years basically locked him in as a King for life. Good or bad.
Assets for Quick?! Only hope is to trade bad contract for bad contract type deal. That's why I had suggested Cory Schneider.
What does that do for either team? Gaborik for Phaneuf made sense, because Gaborik was never expected to play much in Ottawa, and the Kings could never buy him out, since he was always hurt. The Kings would save a couple million overall by getting Schneider, but he also has a NTC of some kind. Why would he up his life, only to come here and be on a bad team, and be challenged by other goalies for playing time? Blake might even have to add something because of the extra year for Quick. It might be easier to buy Schnieder out than it would be to do so with Quick. What are the Devils getting out of the deal?
If it's just about getting rid of Quick, buy him out in June.
More importantly, you can't tolerate his BS when you are trying to change a losing culture with impressionable kids breaking into the league. It was a terrible, terrible signing for a variety of reasons.
They weren't trying to change a culture when they signed him. I would actually doubt that he's any sort of bad influence. The guy does work his ass off, he's just his own thing. Tell the kids to watch him work out, but not do what he does on the ice, because nobody else is Ilya Kovalchuk. Not that he can do what he did when he was 25, but none of the young guys on the team are nearly as talented as IK, even today.
17 goals against in three games is a little tough to swallow when the Kings over the past decade have been such a strong defense team. It's a transition I understand that, but I am not happy with the pond hockey movement. It's going to be ugly for years.
They don't have the players they used to have, and they can't do what they used to do. The Kings used to get away with a lot of interference. Those plays actually get called now at a much higher rate. It's been a while since they were really strong defensively. Giving up few goals, and being solid defensively, aren't necessarily always the same thing. They sort outscored their problems going back to the 2014 playoffs.
The Kovalchuk signing was utter desperation by Robitaille and Blake.
If they were dead set on doing something at the time, at least it ended up as this signing, and not the trade with Montreal. Sometimes things do work out for the better.
One frustrating thing about the Kings is they are not emotionally involved in the games anymore. I hope TM finds a way to bring that out in them.
I'm sure the last 5 years have worn down many on the team. It's been tough enough for us fans, they're the ones actually going through all this. Plus when management has pretty clearly said that the core of this team can no longer compete, or at least be the driving force behind competing, how much can old guys that used to win really be into it? If you put yourself in their shoes, or skates, imagine having to come to work every day with that hanging over everything? I would say that's one of the major reasons why teams don't tend to voluntarily rebuild. The games are coming, you have to play them, and you'd like to have that winning mentality. If circumstances force you to rebuild, which is when most if not all teams start the process, then there's not much to be done. That tanking mindset though, where the present isn't important, chips away at a team. It has to. They're human beings.
