2019-20 Kings News/Rumors

[Raccoon Jesus]

Amadio-Grundstrom sounds deadly even if you just put a bush next to them.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Lizotte stole Grundstrom's spot on the roster. Even Wagner is still last in TOI for forwards.

 

[KingsFan7824]

10 games in, and not only is Doughty 22nd in minutes per game for defenseman, only a few seconds ahead of the league leading forward, but also 33rd in shifts per game. Listed behind 2 forwards, one of them being Connor Brown for some reason.

 

[crassbonanza]

Lizotte stole Grundstrom's spot on the roster. Even Wagner is still last in TOI for forwards.

You have to respect Lizotte for fighting so hard in training camp/preseason and the Kings organization for rewarding his hard work. I think it was Carter who had a quote about how Blake basically forced his way onto the team, pushing some others out of the way.

 

[Schmooley]

Carter should be buyin lizotte some steaks after the games. His play has picked up and a lot of it is because of lizottes hard work

 

[KingsOfCali25]

After the first 11 games of the season, the players are starting to show how they will be playing this season and there are a lot of holes in the team still. I think the guys that aren't showing up and playing with little effort every other game, have until game 30 to show or get moved. The Kings need to remove everyone from the PP and just play the bottom 6 guys because the normal PP guys are total shit!

XXX--Kopitar--Brown
Grundstrum--Prokhorkin--Kovalchuck
(Kempe)/XXX--Amadio--XXX/(Toffoli)
Clifford--Lizotte--Wagner

XXX--Doughty
Hutton--XXX
Martinez--Walker
MacDermid

Campbell
Petersen

The rest...Quick, Carter, Toffoli, Kempe can be moved for help or just to change the attitude. I think Kempe and Toffoli still have what it takes and are just snake bitten. But they are the only guys that could bring something decent back in a trade.

 

[Johnny Utah]

I am completely bored with this Kings team and have been for years. Stale.

The Reign are the most exciting they have ever been - I would rather watch them now.

The only players that excite me are Hutton, Lizotte, Amadio and MacDermid. Everyone else is boring and old or been here for years.

 

[kingbrath]

I am completely bored with this Kong’s team and have been for years. Stale.

The Reign are the most exciting they have ever been - I would rather watch them now.

The only players that excite me are Hutton, Lizotte, Amadio and MacDermid. Everyone else is boring and old or been here for years.

I would have to agree with you here. This team is yawn inducing. Needs a major shake up.

 

[Fishhead]

The Kovy experiment can't end soon enough for me. I was excited about the guy and was interested to see what he could do, but he's never going to fit in.

He completely struggles when he plays under a coach that requires responsibility and two-way play. All those years in Atlanta there was little structure and players could float, cherry picks, and what not. There's a reason they only made the playoffs once in their existence and got swept. Then he goes to NJ, where there are defensive expectations, and he only lasts 3 years. He's never going to play the style that winning teams play. The one time he did buy in, his team was successful and made the SCF.

I don't know if it was all those years without expectation in Atlanta that did it, or whether it's just his personality. It doesn't really matter really, he's a terrible fit for any team that plays with systems and structure.

 

[Bandit]

The Kovy experiment can't end soon enough for me. I was excited about the guy and was interested to see what he could do, but he's never going to fit in.

He completely struggles when he plays under a coach that requires responsibility and two-way play. All those years in Atlanta there was little structure and players could float, cherry picks, and what not. There's a reason they only made the playoffs once in their existence and got swept. Then he goes to NJ, where there are defensive expectations, and he only lasts 3 years. He's never going to play the style that winning teams play. The one time he did buy in, his team was successful and made the SCF.

I don't know if it was all those years without expectation in Atlanta that did it, or whether it's just his personality. It doesn't really matter really, he's a terrible fit for any team that plays with systems and structure.

Yeah, add to that that he's slowed down and all his cute little offensive plays usually just end in turnovers and it's not a pretty sight. Maybe we get lucky and someone takes him at the deadline but I doubt it. I will never understand though why they've barely used him in the one thing he's still potentially good at which is the one-timer on the powerplay. Mind boggling really, but what can you do. The dude is finished.

But the whole team sucks too.

 

[Fat Elvis]

It's bad, but we knew it was going to be. Time to think about who should stick around and move everyone else. This pig needs to be gutted and roasted already. Make space for Grundstrom and Luff by moving Carter, TT and Kovy.

There's some better talent in the incubator that's a season or 2 away from being ready. Another solid draft would really ease the sting of the suck.

 

[YP44]

whatever happens with Kovalchuk that one time PP goal against Calgary got me out of my seat like no other kings shot in a long while. So you know we will always have that

 

[BringTheReign]

whatever happens with Kovalchuk that one time PP goal against Calgary got me out of my seat like no other kings shot in a long while. So you know we will always have that

Given how trash our PP is now, I'd rather just park Kovalchuk at that spot the rest of the season even if it doesn't pan out. At least there's the possibility of a spectacular one-timer. What other configuration on this roster could even come close?

 

[Fishhead]

We all know we will have to ride it out, there is something encouraging though. At the end of 21-22, the Kings will have only Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick's (final year) contract on the books. We will have an influx of young talent that will be learning together and we can supplement them at this time, right about when they'll be on the rise again. The key is going to be RFA evaluations: who is retained and what to pay them. The defense will be completely rebuilt, Doughty is the only one under contract after next season. Nothing would accelerate things more than hitting on a top D in the next draft. That would potentially give us two top young guys, Doughty, and Walker (which will be retained as an RFA if he keeps it up.) Add a couple vets and they'll be in business.

 

[kilowatt]

We all know we will have to ride it out, there is something encouraging though. At the end of 21-22, the Kings will have only Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick's (final year) contract on the books. We will have an influx of young talent that will be learning together and we can supplement them at this time, right about when they'll be on the rise again. The key is going to be RFA evaluations: who is retained and what to pay them. The defense will be completely rebuilt, Doughty is the only one under contract after next season. Nothing would accelerate things more than hitting on a top D in the next draft. That would potentially give us two top young guys, Doughty, and Walker (which will be retained as an RFA if he keeps it up.) Add a couple vets and they'll be in business.

I wonder if guys like Clifford and Brown will still be on the team by then.

Kaliyev - Turcotte - Vilardi
Fagemo - Kopitar - Kupari
Wagner - Anderson-Dolan - Brown
Clifford - Thomas - Sodergran

Bjornfot - Doughty
Anderson - Drysdale (perhaps)
Clague - Walker

Petersen

Obviously, the odds of all of these players making it to the NHL is very low. But still, the fact that there are at least six guys in our prospect pool that are almost certain to make the NHL - Turcotte, Kaliyev, Fagemo, Anderson-Dolan, Bjornfot, and Anderson - is a really good sign. Who knows what will happen between now and then. It's clear that we need a high-profile right-handed defenseman, though. Walker has certainly impressed, but he's kind of like Martinez. If he's playing third-pairing and second-power play minutes, we've got a pretty good team.

 

[Fishhead]

I wonder if guys like Clifford and Brown will still be on the team by then.

Kaliyev - Turcotte - Vilardi
Fagemo - Kopitar - Kupari
Wagner - Anderson-Dolan - Brown
Clifford - Thomas - Sodergran

Bjornfot - Doughty
Anderson - Drysdale (perhaps)
Clague - Walker

Petersen

Obviously, the odds of all of these players making it to the NHL is very low. But still, the fact that there are at least six guys in our prospect pool that are almost certain to make the NHL - Turcotte, Kaliyev, Fagemo, Anderson-Dolan, Bjornfot, and Anderson - is a really good sign. Who knows what will happen between now and then. It's clear that we need a high-profile right-handed defenseman, though. Walker has certainly impressed, but he's kind of like Martinez. If he's playing third-pairing and second-power play minutes, we've got a pretty good team.

A lot of that depends on their salary. Brown could stick around at the end for a couple million a year, but is it worth it for him to do so? Clifford I could easily see here. Not many others though.

I mean look at your lineup - no Iafallo, no Amadio, no Lizotte, etc., and those are the youngest guys on the roster. I think Amadio sticks around for a while, he keeps improving and has many facets to his game. Wagner, I'm not so sure about. Same with Kempe and Lizotte, who knows. Provided the team keeps drafting well, they are going to have quite a bit of trade chips when the time comes. Those top 5 young guys are a solid bet though. Maybe throw JAD in there as well, even though his ceiling is lower.

 

[Bandit]

Clifford is currently tied or ahead in points of the following "top six" forwards on the Kings with a fraction of the ice time:

Carter
Iafallo
Lizotte
Kempe

Should probably shitcan that guy ASAP.

 

[kilowatt]

A lot of that depends on their salary. Brown could stick around at the end for a couple million a year, but is it worth it for him to do so? Clifford I could easily see here. Not many others though.

I mean look at your lineup - no Iafallo, no Amadio, no Lizotte, etc., and those are the youngest guys on the roster. I think Amadio sticks around for a while, he keeps improving and has many facets to his game. Wagner, I'm not so sure about. Same with Kempe and Lizotte, who knows. Provided the team keeps drafting well, they are going to have quite a bit of trade chips when the time comes. Those top 5 young guys are a solid bet though. Maybe throw JAD in there as well, even though his ceiling is lower.

I can't help but feel that, on a Stanley Cup caliber team, guys like Amadio, Lizotte, and even Kempe just aren't good enough. Wagner probably isn't either, and he probably could be swapped with any one of them. I just like his speed.

These guys feel an awful lot like Andrei Loktionov, Oscar Moller, and Scott Parse. I'm a big fan of Amadio and Lizotte, but I was a huge fan of Moller as well. Sometimes the players I like best aren't the guys that contribute the most. I was so bummed when the Kings traded O'Sullivan for Williams, and lo and behold, Williams is one of my all-time favorite Kings. It's likely that more than half the names I mentioned get traded for better, more established players to help some of our better young guys contribute as best they can.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I can't help but feel that, on a Stanley Cup caliber team, guys like Amadio, Lizotte, and even Kempe just aren't good enough. Wagner probably isn't either, and he probably could be swapped with any one of them. I just like his speed.

These guys feel an awful lot like Andrei Loktionov, Oscar Moller, and Scott Parse. I'm a big fan of Amadio and Lizotte, but I was a huge fan of Moller as well. Sometimes the players I like best aren't the guys that contribute the most. I was so bummed when the Kings traded O'Sullivan for Williams, and lo and behold, Williams is one of my all-time favorite Kings. It's likely that more than half the names I mentioned get traded for better, more established players to help some of our better young guys contribute as best they can.

It depends.

There's really not much more Amadio can do as the 4C. Scoring at a 30 point pace. Defense, picking the puck, driving play the other way. Our depth has been fine. It's been the middle six that's iffy and we knew that coming in (and last few games even the Kopitar line has been trash). The jury is certainly out on some of the others--especially Kempe (at C--needs to really be tried at wing), Lizotte (needs to start putting the puck in or play down the lineup like Amadio). Wagner is a liability at times but he at least brings a different element. In an ideal world, these are bottom sixers on a Cup contender. The real wave of offensive help hasn't arrived yet, right now is basically role tryouts for the future. Same thing as someone was saying about Walker earlier, or like Martinez in yesteryear--they can hold their own in x role, but ideally, they'd be third pairing specialists.

 

[Herby]

There are some things that concern me now vs. where they were in 07-09.

Obviously the contracts. Once DL traded Lubo and Cammalleri the Kings had a ton of cap space, in addition they were able to trade those two players for significant assets. They botched the pick from the MC trade but it was still a 1st round pick in a loaded draft. The Lubo trade brought the Kings two guys who were pretty solid contributors playing various roles for 7-8 years. They aren't going to get squat for any of the veterans on this roster they plan to move So that hurts you in two ways, you aren't able to unload veteran players for assets and you aren't able to unload them period. If Carter and Quick plan to play out their contracts what do you do, sure you can buy-out but that is pushing the problems down the road. Having the contracts we have also prevents the Kings from making a Ryan Smyth like trade, now the Smyth trade ended up not really working out as expected but DL had the cap space to take on a short term bloated contract for a solid veteran player to insert into the lineup when the Kings were ready to contend for a lower playoff seed. Blake is probably not going to have that option in two years even if he wanted to because of the awful contract situations of Carter and Quick.

The other concern is the lack of really high end talent. The Kings last dynasty was built on the backs of three elite players, guys who in their primes were Top 10 type players (Doughty and Kopitar) or very close to that (Quick). Are there any players like that in the Kings system? No. And don't get me wrong the system looks great right now and part of the issue was not having lottery balls fall our way, but the Kings need to try and find a superstar or two along the way here, hopefully this draft.

And I still think 2017-2018 will go down as one of the most damaging seasons in the history of the franchise. It gave ridiculous false hope to the people in charge and prevented the moves that should have been made from being made.

 

[YP44]

There are some things that concern me now vs. where they were in 07-09.

Obviously the contracts. Once DL traded Lubo and Cammalleri the Kings had a ton of cap space, in addition they were able to trade those two players for significant assets. They botched the pick from the MC trade but it was still a 1st round pick in a loaded draft. The Lubo trade brought the Kings two guys who were pretty solid contributors playing various roles for 7-8 years. They aren't going to get squat for any of the veterans on this roster they plan to move So that hurts you in two ways, you aren't able to unload veteran players for assets and you aren't able to unload them period. If Carter and Quick plan to play out their contracts what do you do, sure you can buy-out but that is pushing the problems down the road. Having the contracts we have also prevents the Kings from making a Ryan Smyth like trade, now the Smyth trade ended up not really working out as expected but DL had the cap space to take on a short term bloated contract for a solid veteran player to insert into the lineup when the Kings were ready to contend for a lower playoff seed. Blake is probably not going to have that option in two years even if he wanted to because of the awful contract situations of Carter and Quick.

The other concern is the lack of really high end talent. The Kings last dynasty was built on the backs of three elite players, guys who in their primes were Top 10 type players (Doughty and Kopitar) or very close to that (Quick). Are there any players like that in the Kings system? No. And don't get me wrong the system looks great right now and part of the issue was not having lottery balls fall our way, but the Kings need to try and find a superstar or two along the way here, hopefully this draft.

And I still think 2017-2018 will go down as one of the most damaging seasons in the history of the franchise. It gave ridiculous false hope to the people in charge and prevented the moves that should have been made from being made.

Time will tell on the bolded but Turcotte has a decent chance to be this and a couple others could be. Plus hopefully LA can add one via draft this year.

Not pointing to you but overall there is a lot of doom and gloom on here, but I do no think what LA has done this season so far should be unexpected.

 

[kings11]

There are some things that concern me now vs. where they were in 07-09.

Obviously the contracts. Once DL traded Lubo and Cammalleri the Kings had a ton of cap space, in addition they were able to trade those two players for significant assets. They botched the pick from the MC trade but it was still a 1st round pick in a loaded draft. The Lubo trade brought the Kings two guys who were pretty solid contributors playing various roles for 7-8 years. They aren't going to get squat for any of the veterans on this roster they plan to move So that hurts you in two ways, you aren't able to unload veteran players for assets and you aren't able to unload them period. If Carter and Quick plan to play out their contracts what do you do, sure you can buy-out but that is pushing the problems down the road. Having the contracts we have also prevents the Kings from making a Ryan Smyth like trade, now the Smyth trade ended up not really working out as expected but DL had the cap space to take on a short term bloated contract for a solid veteran player to insert into the lineup when the Kings were ready to contend for a lower playoff seed. Blake is probably not going to have that option in two years even if he wanted to because of the awful contract situations of Carter and Quick.

The other concern is the lack of really high end talent. The Kings last dynasty was built on the backs of three elite players, guys who in their primes were Top 10 type players (Doughty and Kopitar) or very close to that (Quick). Are there any players like that in the Kings system? No. And don't get me wrong the system looks great right now and part of the issue was not having lottery balls fall our way, but the Kings need to try and find a superstar or two along the way here, hopefully this draft.

And I still think 2017-2018 will go down as one of the most damaging seasons in the history of the franchise. It gave ridiculous false hope to the people in charge and prevented the moves that should have been made from being made.

Adding to what YP44 said, Turcotee has the look of a franchise type player as does a healthy Vilardi, Kaliyev looks like the type of sniper we havent had since Luc. Bjornfot and Anderson look like VV/Marty 2.0, We had a plethora of middle 6'ers like Kupari, JAD, Grundy, Amadio, Thomas, Fagemo. On top of that, we'll have some nice cap space in 2-3 years when these gfuys will be trickling in on cheap ELC contracts and allow us to add 1-2 high talents should we be lucky enough to land them or a bunch of vets that allow us to win again and still let the kids grow...

Also, the worst year for the Kings was pre-expansion draft.. I favored Forbort over McNabb and still do, but the thing that would have gotten me stoned by some on here was when i suggested we trade Carter and Muzzin/Marty... I said, we could reload really quickly and i was called an idiot, plus other things but as we can see... It would have been the right thing to do and likely would have extended our cup window.. if ever so slightly

 

[SettlementRichie10]

There are some things that concern me now vs. where they were in 07-09.

Obviously the contracts. Once DL traded Lubo and Cammalleri the Kings had a ton of cap space, in addition they were able to trade those two players for significant assets. They botched the pick from the MC trade but it was still a 1st round pick in a loaded draft. The Lubo trade brought the Kings two guys who were pretty solid contributors playing various roles for 7-8 years. They aren't going to get squat for any of the veterans on this roster they plan to move So that hurts you in two ways, you aren't able to unload veteran players for assets and you aren't able to unload them period. If Carter and Quick plan to play out their contracts what do you do, sure you can buy-out but that is pushing the problems down the road. Having the contracts we have also prevents the Kings from making a Ryan Smyth like trade, now the Smyth trade ended up not really working out as expected but DL had the cap space to take on a short term bloated contract for a solid veteran player to insert into the lineup when the Kings were ready to contend for a lower playoff seed. Blake is probably not going to have that option in two years even if he wanted to because of the awful contract situations of Carter and Quick.

The other concern is the lack of really high end talent. The Kings last dynasty was built on the backs of three elite players, guys who in their primes were Top 10 type players (Doughty and Kopitar) or very close to that (Quick). Are there any players like that in the Kings system? No. And don't get me wrong the system looks great right now and part of the issue was not having lottery balls fall our way, but the Kings need to try and find a superstar or two along the way here, hopefully this draft.

And I still think 2017-2018 will go down as one of the most damaging seasons in the history of the franchise. It gave ridiculous false hope to the people in charge and prevented the moves that should have been made from being made.

Couldn't agree with this more.

I think Turcotte has very real top line talent, but he's not quite a Kopitar-tier prospect. Kaliyev also has unbelievable raw skill, and if developed correctly could be the best of the entire bunch.

We have no one resembling Doughty in our defensive pipeline. That will be an extremely difficult hole to fill.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Based on Coach Todd’s post game comments, we’ll see some combination of AHL recalls and healthy scratch action before Wednesday’s game.

It’s obvious Kovalchuk is going to get scratched first. Dude must really need his paycheck to not be booking his first class seats on the Aeroflot website right now. Zero surprise if he is scratched 5 games in a row and put on waivers.

My guess is that they recall Frk because who cares if he gets claimed and he’s scored some goals in the AHL. I think they also recall LaDue and send down Roy. Time to swap junk for crap.

Management will expect those moves to placate the few restless natives who bother to watch / tweet. A Kovalchuk distraction / not playing in the AHL might be a good distraction / scapegoat while the team sucks every 4 / 5 games.

 

[YP44]

Couldn't agree with this more.

I think Turcotte has very real top line talent, but he's not quite a Kopitar-tier prospect. Kaliyev also has unbelievable raw skill, and if developed correctly could be the best of the entire bunch.

We have no one resembling Doughty in our defensive pipeline. That will be an extremely difficult hole to fill.

agree on the defense. That needs to get sorted for LA to have any hope