2019-20 Kings News/Rumors

[Ziggy Stardust]

 

[kingsfan28]

I’m not saying Pearson and Kovy should be on the team - but we traded Pearson for Hagelin? And turned that into only a 3rd. We should have never signed Kovy.

We let Keumper go for nothing, Kubalik for a 5th...Blake’s moves are starting to add up.

Also, the Gaborik trade isn’t looking good either - we could have put Gabby on LTIR or bought him out now we are stuck with Phaneuf buy out - which is even more money and term. Shore or Thompson was a wash - all we did is upgrade a 5th from a 4th round pick.

We took another reclamation FA goalie and turned him into two assets. He played a whooping 19 games with the Kings and did well, but was gone the next year. You really think Blake was going to sign him to a 2 year, 3.7 mil contract the next season? As for Kubalik, do we really have to go down this road again?

 

[Steve Zissou]

Not even the excitement of getting to play in the 2020 Navy Federal Credit Union Stadium Series game against the Colorado Avalanche at Air Force Academy on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, SN360, TVAS2) can change feelings about what will happen before the deadline passes.

"The sooner we get past the 24th, the better off we are," McLellan said.

Meanwhile The Aves won again tonight and have won 4 in a row. Kings - lost 5 in a row and showing no signs of stopping the bleeding.

I'm calling a 5-1 loss at the outdoor game.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

"The Kings are 4-15-1 in 20 games since Dec. 21."

Ah yeah must be the trade deadline

""It's easy for people outside of the game to say, 'Hey, they get paid a lot of money, they should be prepared for that,' but they are human beings, there are families involved and there's guys that have been here for a long, long time," McLellan said. "When Cliffy walked out of the room the other day and jumped on the plane the next morning, not that it was unexpected, but it happened, and it was a solemn day for us. You win two Cups with a guy, spend 10 years with him, your kids are going to the playground, your wives are friends. Manhattan Beach, or the South Bay, where we live, it's a pretty tight group and a lot of guys stay there in the summer, so they're year-round teammates and year-round families. A lot of that gets uprooted.""

If only there were some way to stop that...like, not being bottom-5 in the league repeatedly or something.

I get the human element and feel for the dudes that have built their legacies and families here to a degree but come on

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

I'm calling a 5-1 loss at the outdoor game.

How bold of you...would be cooler if you predicted like 10-0.

 

[KINGS17]

"The Kings are 4-15-1 in 20 games since Dec. 21."

Ah yeah must be the trade deadline

""It's easy for people outside of the game to say, 'Hey, they get paid a lot of money, they should be prepared for that,' but they are human beings, there are families involved and there's guys that have been here for a long, long time," McLellan said. "When Cliffy walked out of the room the other day and jumped on the plane the next morning, not that it was unexpected, but it happened, and it was a solemn day for us. You win two Cups with a guy, spend 10 years with him, your kids are going to the playground, your wives are friends. Manhattan Beach, or the South Bay, where we live, it's a pretty tight group and a lot of guys stay there in the summer, so they're year-round teammates and year-round families. A lot of that gets uprooted.""

If only there were some way to stop that...like, not being bottom-5 in the league repeatedly or something.

I get the human element and feel for the dudes that have built their legacies and families here to a degree but come on

Hmmm, are the fans who spend their hard-earned money to attend games human as well? I think that would be an excellent question in response to McLellan's comment.

I get it, it's hard to see friends leave the workplace, but 10 years is a pretty good run to work with most of the same people every day. Does that happen for most of us?

 

[Steve Zissou]

How bold of you...would be cooler if you predicted like 10-0.

 

[Papa Mocha 15]

Player have to be accountable at every level, and just can't freewheel all over the ice. Look at all the scorers, they are taught at the pro level to play defense, even Ovi had to learn to back check. Imagine that young scorer who has the option of making the safe play or padding his stats. he decides to pad his stats, turns it over and cost the team the game. You really want to ignore that and not punish him for being selfish?

Of course, I respect your thought, but I'm not necessarily thinking in terms of selfishness and disregarding playing any defense. This team kills offensive creativity and drags players capability down. Kovy leaves and scores a point a game. Here he was benched. What kind of message does that send? So :A punishes players for not shooting or developing a play unless it's the safe play on the board which has placed LA in last place. It's no way to run a team. I would rather LA stop ignoring that they got in their own way and refused to change and their current style of play has led them to miss the playoffs the last few seasons. That trend is likely to run a few young players future unless they make some changes.

 

[kilowatt]

"The Kings are 4-15-1 in 20 games since Dec. 21."

It’s even worse if you look at it since January 1st. The Kings are 2-11-1. The Kings finished 2019 with two wins in six games. So far in 2020, the Kings have two wins in fourteen games. In those fourteen games, the Kings have scored 27 goals and given up 47 goals. In 2020, the Kings have losing streaks of three, four, and (currently) five games.

It doesn’t help when your $11,000,000 and $10,000,000 men score 2 and 10 points over fourteen games, respectively, combining for a very cool -11 over that time.

In fact, when you combine Doughty, Kopitar, Brown, Carter, and Martinez (our top three forwards and top two defensemen in terms of cap hit), they’ve scored a combined 9 goals and 25 points while taking up approximately $36,000,000 in cap space.

Oh, and while we’re at it, we just traded the only goalie on the roster with a win in 2020. Quick is 0-6-1 this calendar year, posting a very cool 3.00 GAA and a .894 SV% in that time. At $5,800,000. Awesome.

To be fair, I’m not expecting much from Brown, Carter, or Quick at this point in their careers. They’re clearly on the tail end of their contracts and provided a lot more value in prior years that we’re now paying for with their current performances. Kopitar is playing pretty well, although it’s frustrating knowing how much more he could give. I think I’m most upset with Drew.

But... that’s not great guys, I’m going to be honest.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Of course, I respect your thought, but I'm not necessarily thinking in terms of selfishness and disregarding playing any defense. This team kills offensive creativity and drags players capability down. Kovy leaves and scores a point a game. Here he was benched. What kind of message does that send? So :A punishes players for not shooting or developing a play unless it's the safe play on the board which has placed LA in last place. It's no way to run a team. I would rather LA stop ignoring that they got in their own way and refused to change and their current style of play has led them to miss the playoffs the last few seasons. That trend is likely to run a few young players future unless they make some changes.

What changes do they need to make specifically? People beat around the bush too much around here.

 

[KingsHockey24]

It’s even worse if you look at it since January 1st. The Kings are 2-11-1. The Kings finished 2019 with two wins in six games. So far in 2020, the Kings have two wins in fourteen games. In those fourteen games, the Kings have scored 27 goals and given up 47 goals. In 2020, the Kings have losing streaks of three, four, and (currently) five games.

It doesn’t help when your $11,000,000 and $10,000,000 men score 2 and 10 points over fourteen games, respectively, combining for a very cool -11 over that time.

In fact, when you combine Doughty, Kopitar, Brown, Carter, and Martinez (our top three forwards and top two defensemen in terms of cap hit), they’ve scored a combined 9 goals and 25 points while taking up approximately $36,000,000 in cap space.

Oh, and while we’re at it, we just traded the only goalie on the roster with a win in 2020. Quick is 0-6-1 this calendar year, posting a very cool 3.00 GAA and a .894 SV% in that time. At $5,800,000. Awesome.

To be fair, I’m not expecting much from Brown, Carter, or Quick at this point in their careers. They’re clearly on the tail end of their contracts and provided a lot more value in prior years that we’re now paying for with their current performances. Kopitar is playing pretty well, although it’s frustrating knowing how much more he could give. I think I’m most upset with Drew.

But... that’s not great guys, I’m going to be honest.

We've won two games all 2020?

Jesus Christ it's worse than I thought.

 

[Randy Butternubs]

I'm assuming Iafallo is not available, expect for an over payment by a team?

 

[KingsHockey24]

I'm assuming Iafallo is not available, expect for an over payment by a team?

Blake will trade him for a 4th and a AHL/NHL tweener.

 

[verbalkint47]

Iafallo should be on the market imo. Signed for 1 more year and cheap. He should get a good return.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Iafallo is just Alex Killorn on an offensively bereft team. He'd be scraping 50 points elsewhere already just by osmosis. He'd better be an overpayment if we're going to trade him.

 

[Fat Elvis]

Imagine how many points Iafallo and Kopit would have if they had a true 1st line RW? At least 5 more points, at least 5.......

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

You think we're mad about Tanner Pearson killing it this year, just wait till Iafallo is regularly getting 50 points elsewhere for the next 5 years.

 

[TruKingFan]

Sincerest condolences PJB II.

 

[DoktorJeep]

On a lottery team with a roster full of unmovable contracts, no players should be considered untouchable, especially Iafallo. He or anyone productive at the nhl level could be had in a hockey trade.

That said, he’s not one of the players you would love to get rid up just to open up a roster spot and ice time. Given the state of the franchise and with the amount of dead weight to get rid of before the TDL, I just don’t see management making a hockey trade for at least another two seasons.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

For years, most of us have been expressing these exact concerns that Todd McLellan shared with The Athletic.

“Indifferent, really, to tell you the truth,” McLellan said. “A little too much vanilla from a lot of guys and, obviously, the lack of offense comes back to bite us. We’re desperately searching for some help offensively. A lot of players have played a lot of games here lately and they haven’t hit the score sheet or even the chance sheet.

“So, you can’t just play in the league. You’ve got to find a way to contribute and compete in the league. We need some guys like that. It can’t always be Kopitar. It can’t always be certain guys that do all the scoring. And we’re not a strong enough team to prevent goose eggs every night.”

 

[Little Psycho]

So to confirm what we all know; the team is trash.

 

[Bandit]

We don't prevent goose eggs every night, we supply them.

 

[Papa Mocha 15]

What changes do they need to make specifically? People beat around the bush too much around here.

First, we need to see where we settle post trade deadline. The players need to know who is staying and who isn't before they can gel. Looking over your shoulder until that passes creates and unsteady environment in which to work or play or build any cohesion with the rest of the roster. Blake has said we're going to rebuild the last year and a half and hasn't made too many moves for either lack of a good option or just made a few poor choices and I think it's left players stuck. But bottom line, the players need to know who is staying and who isn't. So he actually needs to make some moves before anything can be done or we're going to get more of the same which will be players waiting until the summer to be shipped off.

Second, bring up the young players and let them get some experience. We keep bringing players up and ship them down, up and down like a yoyo. We don't have a committed team or philosophy that players can buy into. TM is here and he has a system and it looks like the Reign are starting to mimic that system of play. When we rebuilt before, LA was playing some exciting hockey. They left it out on the ice and made some bone head plays in the process. This team was always a one goal game and it was competitive. LA stopped doing that after they won the first cup and they've played it safe since.

Third, stop punishing every player that is not a full on two way player. Clearly Kovy is a great example of this. Gifted score who could not score on this team. This team will never have an offensive upside until it is allowed to play offense. Kovy leaves and he is a point per game player. He is with us a year and a half he gets benched. I keep beating this into the ground because it's a valid argument. We destroy offense. That is this team's culture. If we stick to the current system of punishing offensive creativity, then our players will all turn into Dustin Brown, Trevor Lewis. Jordan Nolan, Dwight King, Jarret Stoll. Responsible and they have unique talents, each of them, but not competitive in today's NHL. We need more diversity in the roster.

Fourth, finish the rebuild and draft/trade intelligently. This is not going to be an overnight thing. Stop trying to placate vets like Doughty to keep them happy. If he wants out, send him off and get some picks or roster players that can and will develop this team.

Fifth, borrowing a page from DL's playbook, he asked the players what it meant to be an LA King during training camp. He developed a culture of defense here and was clear about building out from the back end. This team doesn't have an identity at this point except they have a farm team that is younger and faster. This team needs to decide on its culture, identity and translate it to the team that is playing on the ice in the NHL.

That's where I would start with this team and make adjustments as I go as an Arm Chair GM. But this team has very little sense of direction right now and not much more can be done until after the trade deadline. All that this team has done has posted a for sale sign on its players and then made very few moves which works over the morale in the locker room.

 

[BigKing]

There is still a need for good NHL players during the rebuild and as they transition out of it. Unfortunately, some of the prospects people are high on might never be as good as Iafallo. There will be busts: it is just the nature of the game.

What kind of "hockey trade" is there for Iafallo? Trading him for more lottery tickets is stupid. He's young enough where he still fits in and he shouldn't be too expensive to re-sign. If his contract is somehow going to be a problem, then there is next year's trade deadline.

 

[BallPointHammer]

Once the shock of the Toronto trade and the upcoming deadline trades wears off a bit the players, those coming, going and remaing will realize it's all for the best. They all want to play, do well, win and raise the Cup. Oh, and get paid.