that was just an idea since crazy things can happen in the draft.. But we could target a LHD..
EDIT: I mean, take your pick.. we would have a ton of possibilities.. maybe even Brock Boeser??
Speculation: 2019-20 News/Rumors,Roster thread Post Deadline
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EDIT: I mean, take your pick.. we would have a ton of possibilities.. maybe even Brock Boeser??
KopitarFAN
Reno Sucks!
Given the finite amount of cap dollars that will be available this off-season, a contender could conceivably give up a lot for a full season of him at just under $1.25M (retain 50%).
Possibly yes, but the arguments appear to be on re-signing him for how long and how much.
redcard
System Poster
- Mar 12, 2007
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I think its mostly because the roster is more or less frozen until October, I'll take what I can get when it comes to roster discussion.
The Tikkanen
Pest
Remove Iafallo from Kopitar's side and cut his minutes by about 8 a night, is that guy you want to re-sign for 4 years? The Kings need to get better at identifying players expiration date before it comes along rather than a year later. Right now they are the worst organization in the league when it comes to that.
kilowatt
the vibes are not immaculate
- Jan 1, 2009
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Are they? They traded Toffoli, Muzzin, Martinez, Campbell, Pearson, and a few more. Did they keep all of them for too long?
Nickster
Hockey is coming
Kopi had his first top 3 Hart finalist year with him as his winger. Brown had his post-Sutter "resurgence" with him as a line-mate. Iafallo might not be top-line talent, but he fits well enough that both his line-mates improved over previous years on the backside of their aging curves during an organizational recession.
ScoreZeGoals
Boooorrrrriiiinnnnng
- Jun 29, 2010
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Everyone hates losing, but being a rebuilding team with a good cap situation during the flat cap era isn't so bad. A lot of teams are going to be screwed the next two years
Mike Futa was on Craig Custance’s podcast and talked about all kinds of interesting things. He touches on how he was let go (says it was a “gut punch”), talks about how he and DL changed the culture, talks about drafting Clifford and Simmonds, etc. Apologies if this has already been posted somewhere.
The Full 60 with Craig Custance: Culture Changer Mike Futa on Apple Podcasts
The Full 60 with Craig Custance: Culture Changer Mike Futa on Apple Podcasts
let me correct the bolded for you Nick..
Kopitar carried that line and if not for both Iafallo and Brown’s inabilities to put the damn puck into wide open nets he likely blows past the 100pt mark and wins the MVP.. the audacity to even suggest that it was in any part do to with Iafallo being his wing shows you can’t comprehend how good Kopi was.. He carried that team into the playoffs, nothing more, nothing less..
I get the Iafallo love, the kid works his ass off and his production has improved but let’s not for a second even think that any of that would be possible without one Anze Kopitar.
Kopi's success that year did have something to do with Iafallo. Not so much his talent level, but his style of play. Kopitar needs that puck retrieval guy on his line, he's always been effective with those types of players. So while he's no JW, Iafallo is pretty damn effective at increasing offensive zone protection. A good amount of those chances where Kopitar set up Brown/Iafallo and they shot it wide might not have even happened without Iafallo, so as always the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Raccoon Jesus
We were right there
Almost hate to say it but Iafallo is the perfect 'type' of winger for Kopitar. Minus like 6 months of absolute magic with Gaborik Kopitar has been much more successful when not being deferential and guys like Brown and Iafallo just give the puck to Kopitar and funnel to the dirty areas so Kopitar HAS to shoot haha.
Make no mistake that year was the Kopitar-Doughty-Quick show but can't minimize Iafallo's emergence. The only time he's looked outmatched in the NHL was the playoffs vs VGK and that was a clear growth experience for him.
Make no mistake that year was the Kopitar-Doughty-Quick show but can't minimize Iafallo's emergence. The only time he's looked outmatched in the NHL was the playoffs vs VGK and that was a clear growth experience for him.
I think Iaffalo will crack 60 points next season, based on how he has steadily improved and starting ramping up there at the end. I don't think we've seen his ceiling.
Sol
Smile
- Jun 30, 2017
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They were the worst but that's changed.
I think it's weird to have a discussion about moving Iafallo. He's cheap and if he's taking a spit then they can do something. He's been showing some growth too and improvement. Kings won't move him unless they get a good offer they can't refuse
Sol
Smile
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Really? So the best season Kopitars had statistically could have been better if his linemates weren't bad?
Funny how you blame his linemates when Kopitar had an anomalous year.
Nickster
Hockey is coming
Whoa, I can't comprehend how good Kopitar was? Maybe. Sorry for even suggesting that Iafallo helped him. It was his fault for Kopitar not winning the Hart. I get it.
Raccoon Jesus
We were right there
Kopitar was robbed of that Hart, by the way.
Kingspiracy
Registered User
- Nov 13, 2006
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That was a great interview, thanks for posting.
I loved the story about futas mum taking down Blakes jersey, but Robitailles not getting touched.
Well worth a listen.
Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
Since you have all the answers, maybe you can explain why Kopitar wasn’t as productive in previous seasons playing with better wingers.
Iafallo sure held him back. If only the Kings had an unproven prospect playing with Kopitar.
KingLB
Registered User
- Oct 29, 2008
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Bingo. In my eyes Iafallo is JW lite. Kopi works great with a hustle players, that are willing to go in and cause havoc. These players also need to have decent puck skills (like JW did, and Iafallo and Brown have just at a lesser level). Its why Lewis is never a permanent solution on that line, because while he possesses 2 of the traits needed, his puck skills are non-existent.
Its why I don't think a player like Kaliyev will not work with Kopitar, but a player like Thomas or Fagemo would. (or Turcotte)
But I've digressed. While i do not think Iafallo is a "first line" player, does not mean he can't play on the first line. Most competitors do not have 6 top 6 players in their top 6 (does that make sense?). Teams have different combo's that work, and balance their line ups so they have 3 quality lines or 2 great ones. When doing that, you occasionally having a player play "above their role". Right now that is Iafallo. Ideally? When the Kings are competing again, he bounces between the second and third line. And he is a player that brings consistent numbers are a good contract. And separates cup winners from teams like the Oilers that have great players and AHL'ers.
KingsFan7824
Registered User
- Dec 4, 2003
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Yeah, probably. That, or we just got tired of them because they, or the team, were done living up to expectations. At that point, it was ok, just flush them all out. However, the hard cap world makes that a long process. As usual, term is the issue. The more years on a contract, the tougher it is to get rid of them, unless you're taking back an equally bad contract, which was Gaborik/Phaneuf, but it didn't do much, other than moving some stuff around to see if a different combo works, instead of actually changing anything.
Although I would disagree that the Kings, right now, are the worst team at identifying expiration dates on players. They're not that team anymore. Their last mistakes in that regard were in July 2018. They finally corrected one of them, can't do anything about the other one, but they haven't done anything like that since. And then relatively quickly saw that whatever it was they were trying to do wasn't working, and have done what the could realistically do over the course of 2 years to fix the problems. Or, they haven't fixed anything yet, but they've given themselves a cleaner slate to potentially work the problems out.
Everything with Iafallo comes down to his next contract. Unfortunately he's going to already be 27 in Dec. He's in that age range where players usually start turning the corner onto the downside of the production slope, but he's also in that age range where damn it, he's still young enough where it's temping to give him a 5/6 year deal, and please just give me 2 or 3 more years of what you've been doing.
Since he's probably not going to be part of the core that hopefully puts the Kings back in the conversation though, is he worth investing in? Are the Kings at the point yet where they should start doing that? Have they identified the core yet? We sort of have an idea, if Vilardi remains healthy, Turcotte, whoever they take #2, maybe Petersen, but there are very few NHL games in that group, so I'm not sure they can know for certain yet. If Iafallo is a placeholder on the top line, is a long term deal something to give someone who you ideally see somewhere in the maybe 5th-9th forward slots?
Iafallo will be tricky. He's sort of the first contract test in the real post-Lombardi era. Kovalchuk was in the they still think they can compete with the Cup core running the show category. I don't think it'll make or break the team if they give him a decent sized contract, but because he's going to be 27, and because he's not quite good enough, but looks like he could be a solid role player on a good team, you don't want to just hand him a deal because well, there's nobody else to pay around here for the next few years.
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