Speculation: 2020-21 LA Kings News/Rumors/Roster Discussion Part V

[FrozenKing18]

Gabriel Landeskog will be a UFA this summer...

Doubtful we land him. I think he stays in Colorado. A big fan of him and his type of play. I got excited when those rumors of him getting traded to LA back in ‘17 but nothing happened.

 

[KingsFan7824]

I guess if you consider just building for the future and never really improving the current team on the ice a plan then there's that. There is no balance and no identity. That method is flawed because of the high bust factor with just going youth all the way. This is a team of aging vets and high ceiling kids with nothing much in between.

I can understand not trading for Eichel or Laine. They do have to try and position this team better though and create an identity. Right now it looks just like the vets are riding off into the sunset and they have some good young talent. That's about it.

But most of the high ceiling kids aren't here yet. It's a team with aging vets, a lot of roster filler, and a couple young guys that might be around a while.

Blake just started cleaning stuff out from Oct 2018. It doesn't happen quickly with the cap. Nobody wants old guys with term.

Then Blake made a huge massive mistake in not trading any of the key vets when he had the chance. The goal should be either contending for SC's or building for SC's. If Kopitar, Quick and Doughty aren't in the plans for for either than why wasn't atleast one of them traded along the way to fill the building part. I understand you probably need one to put on billboards to sell tickets, but why both, and certainly why wasn't Carter moved when he had the chance?

Lombardi traded the Kings best player weeks after he arrived for an elite prospect and a 1st round pick. Even though POS and Lewis never set the world on fire it atleast sent the message that we were committed to the building part.

In hindsight, the 2018 season was one of the worst in the history of the franchise, even worse than 2015. Blake pulled fools gold out of his pan and set the rebuild back years.

The cap.

Demitra was 31, with 2 years left when traded. He was traded well before the cap had over a decade to weave its way into every crack, to the point where there's rarely much fun in trades anywhere around the league. Carter was 31 in 2016, with 6 years left. He had 2 years left starting this year, when he was heading toward 36. When was there a chance to trade Carter? When he had half a dozen years left, or when he was old? The very thing that's happened with him the last couple years is why it would be unlikely anyone would've traded for him 4 or 5 years ago. Certainly not for anything of value. There's no legit prospect/pick coming back.

Kessel had 3 years left when he went to Arizona, and wasn't quite 32 yet. He's still only 33. Carter turned 33 during the 17-18 season, when he was hurt. Freak injury, but he's never recovered from it. After 17-18, Carter still had 4 years left.

Term, term, term. It's a killer.

 

[KopitarFAN]

Doubtful we land him. I think he stays in Colorado. A big fan of him and his type of play. I got excited when those rumors of him getting traded to LA back in ‘17 but nothing happened.

Can they afford him? They'll have to give Makar a crap ton and they still have to fill out a roster, maybe without having Erik Johnson on LTIR.

 

[Cook24]

Trade Iafallo for a first. If we don’t grab a top 3 at the lottery, trade our pick along with the pick we got for Iafallo to move up a few spots and draft Luke Hughes. Sign Landeskog at free agency...

Landeskog-Kopitar-Brown
Kempe-Byfield-Vilardi
Athanasiou-AndersonDolan-Kupari
Lemieux-Moore-Grundstrom
Wagner (Turcotte/Kaliyev call ups)

Hughes-Doughty
Anderson-Roy
Bjorntfot-Walker
Clague

not sure what to do with Carter or quick lol

 

[KingsFan7824]

Gabriel Landeskog will be a UFA this summer...

2 years/$22m.

 

[tbrown33]

Kings are 10-2-3 when MacD doesnt play

 

[Herby]

Kings are 10-2-3 when MacD doesnt play

I think those numbers slightly exaggerate what a liability he is but it’s hard to ignore, he has clearly cost the team multiple points in the standings vs even a replacement level guy like Maata.

He should not be playing defense in the NHL. It makes you question the decision making of both management and the coaching staff. If they need his toughness he should be playing 4th line LW where his impact on the game is significantly less than playing defense.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

I think those numbers slightly exaggerate what a liability he is but it’s hard to ignore, he has clearly cost the team multiple points in the standings vs even a replacement level guy like Maata.

He should not be playing in the NHL. It makes you question the decision making of both management and the coaching staff.

If they need his toughness he should be playing 4th line LW where his impact on the game is significantly less than playing defense.

Very true....but I would rather roll with Lemiux there for now....he's been....fine, reminds me of a less agitating Sean Avery.....has that smug arrogant look.....but doesn't pull the same stupid shit etc.

Wolanin looked good last night....be interesting to see what they do with him.

 

[LAKings88]

I see nothing in Lemieux honestly.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Remember when the Kings had a productive second line?


We got to witness the legend of Mike Richards in the playoffs in that first game against Vancouver.

 

[tny760]

I think those numbers slightly exaggerate what a liability he is but it’s hard to ignore, he has clearly cost the team multiple points in the standings vs even a replacement level guy like Maata.

He should not be playing defense in the NHL. It makes you question the decision making of both management and the coaching staff. If they need his toughness he should be playing 4th line LW where his impact on the game is significantly less than playing defense.

what's cost the team points is the regular inability to score more than 2 goals

when the kings score 3 or more their record is totally fine regardless as to who's in the lineup.. as they say it's a 3-2 league

 

[Herby]

Very true....but I would rather roll with Lemiux there for now....he's been....fine, reminds me of a less agitating Sean Avery.....has that smug arrogant look.....but doesn't pull the same stupid shit etc.

Wolanin looked good last night....be interesting to see what they do with him.

I don’t get the Lemieux hype on this board, although this board has always loved the agitator types, if the Kings had a Pat Verbeek like player some here wouldn’t need their viagra prescriptions

But if he fills the toughness void and keeps MacD in the press box he doesn’t have to really do much to improve the team, but as a player I just don’t get it.

Wolanin is just another guy auditioning for a bottom pair/7th dman for next season. He has shown flashes but also clearly has leaks. He could take Clague’s spot in the organization if he is taken by Seattle.

what's cost the team points is the regular inability to score more than 2 goals

when the kings score 3 or more their record is totally fine regardless as to who's in the lineup.. as they say it's a 3-2 league

Your statement is true, but it doesn’t mean mine isn’t. . I’m not defending the offense, trust me. The lack of scoring has clearly cost the team more points than MacD.

But teams do win a few 2-1 & 1-0 games each season, with MacD’s frequent goal costing mistakes it just makes it tougher for a team to win those games. He has zero business playing defense in the NHL.

 

[MBH]

what's cost the team points is the regular inability to score more than 2 goals

when the kings score 3 or more their record is totally fine regardless as to who's in the lineup.. as they say it's a 3-2 league

Outside of Doughty, you don't really have a good transition D. The other guys are passable at best.
The other thing glaring weakness is center.
Anderson-Dolan is still unproven. Vilardi is unproven. Lizotte probably shouldn't be playing this high in the lineup at all.

The Kings, in their own zone, fail way to often to clear their zone with the puck on their stick.

 

[MBH]

what's cost the team points is the regular inability to score more than 2 goals

when the kings score 3 or more their record is totally fine regardless as to who's in the lineup.. as they say it's a 3-2 league

Outside of Doughty, you don't really have a good transition D. The other guys are passable at best.
The other thing glaring weakness is center.
Anderson-Dolan is still unproven. Vilardi is unproven. Lizotte probably shouldn't be playing this high in the lineup at all.

The Kings, in their own zone, fail way to often to clear their zone with the puck on their stick.

 

[AlphaBravo]

I see nothing in Lemieux honestly.

I agree. Don’t get the hype. Hasn’t brought any toughness and is a waste of a roster spot. I would rather have Gundstrom play.

 

[tny760]

Your statement is true, but it doesn’t mean mine isn’t. . I’m not defending the offense, trust me. The lack of scoring has clearly cost the team more points than MacD.

But teams do win a few 2-1 & 1-0 games each season, with MacD’s frequent goal costing mistakes it just makes it tougher for a team to win those games. He has zero business playing defense in the NHL.

nah i mean, i'm not like attacking you, we're seeing the same thing. i just don't think that "f***ing macdermid" is fair here in general. offense isn't even giving the team a chance.. like MBH just said, the team ain't scoring on transition, that's for damn sure, so it's not like these 3+GF games are being propped up by austin strand or olli maatta. it's the top guys showing up. these last 2 games kopi's line has been utterly dominant against couture's and that's the difference, that's what drives a win for this team

the better teams in this league right now have roughly 10 "less than" 2GF games to this point and most of them scrape out 3, 4, 5 wins from those games. the kings have 19 of them with 2 wins.. they can't win 2-1, 1-0 games. the D certainly can't win a low scoring game but if the offense can't even give the team a chance.. "f***ing macdermid"?

 

[MBH]

I agree. Don’t get the hype. Hasn’t brought any toughness and is a waste of a roster spot. I would rather have Gundstrom play.

Grundy hits hard. It seems to come and go, though.
Lemieux seems like a poor man's Avery. But Avery had better speed, delivered hard hits and had underrated hockey sense.

 

[MBH]

nah i mean, i'm not like attacking you, we're seeing the same thing. i just don't think that "f***ing macdermid" is fair here in general. offense isn't even giving the team a chance.. like MBH just said, the team ain't scoring on transition, that's for damn sure, so it's not like these 3+GF games are being propped up by austin strand or olli maatta. it's the top guys showing up. these last 2 games kopi's line has been utterly dominant against couture's and that's the difference, that's what drives a win for this team

the better teams in this league right now have roughly 10 "less than" 2GF games to this point and most of them scrape out 3, 4, 5 wins from those games. the kings have 19 of them with 2 wins.. they can't win 2-1, 1-0 games. the D certainly can't win a low scoring game but if the offense can't even give the team a chance.. "f***ing macdermid"?

But MacDermid is part of the problem on defense. Too many broken passes that waste 30 seconds of a shift, unnecessarily wasting the forwards' time and energy chasing the puck around the Dzone.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Outside of Doughty, you don't really have a good transition D. The other guys are passable at best.
The other thing glaring weakness is center.
Anderson-Dolan is still unproven. Vilardi is unproven. Lizotte probably shouldn't be playing this high in the lineup at all.

The Kings, in their own zone, fail way to often to clear their zone with the puck on their stick.

Clague's awesome, though I can understand if/why you wouldn't count him as a regular.

Part of my major frustration with management this year is the 'we can't complete a breakout pass, we need a dynamic LHD' followed by *sends Clague to AHL*

 

[MBH]

Clague's awesome, though I can understand if/why you wouldn't count him as a regular.

Haven't seen enough of him yet for me to know. I know I liked that pick when the Kings drafted him, though.
I liked something about Wolanin's game yesterday.

 

[KingsFan7824]

I think those numbers slightly exaggerate what a liability he is but it’s hard to ignore, he has clearly cost the team multiple points in the standings vs even a replacement level guy like Maata.

He should not be playing defense in the NHL. It makes you question the decision making of both management and the coaching staff. If they need his toughness he should be playing 4th line LW where his impact on the game is significantly less than playing defense.

Except most players can't switch vastly different positions at the drop of a hat. MacD very likely isn't going to be an exception. Never drafted, played in juniors as a 20 year old, probably put on defense in his younger days for a reason, etc.

I agree. Don’t get the hype. Hasn’t brought any toughness and is a waste of a roster spot. I would rather have Gundstrom play.

Lias Andersson 2.0. Just a team trying to turn some excess picks into players. The Kings still have more picks this year than there are rounds, and might even add more. Even Grundstrom is becoming one of "those guys" on the roster.

 

[tny760]

macdermid with a short stick standing in front of the opponent's crease though? yes f***in please.

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

nah i mean, i'm not like attacking you, we're seeing the same thing. i just don't think that "f***ing macdermid" is fair here in general. offense isn't even giving the team a chance.. like MBH just said, the team ain't scoring on transition, that's for damn sure, so it's not like these 3+GF games are being propped up by austin strand or olli maatta. it's the top guys showing up. these last 2 games kopi's line has been utterly dominant against couture's and that's the difference, that's what drives a win for this team

the better teams in this league right now have roughly 10 "less than" 2GF games to this point and most of them scrape out 3, 4, 5 wins from those games. the kings have 19 of them with 2 wins.. they can't win 2-1, 1-0 games. the D certainly can't win a low scoring game but if the offense can't even give the team a chance.. "f***ing macdermid"?

Interestingly, the Kings are 7th in the league in percentage of goals scored off the rush:

They're also surprisingly good at limiting goals against off the rush:

It's the cycle and maintaining sustained pressure where the Kings struggle the most:

And they're not particularly great at limiting cycle/sustained pressure goals against:

Which Teams are Relying on the Rush?

 

[MBH]

Regarding Iafallo, you have to ask yourself this.

How much does it cost to keep him
vs
How much would it cost to replace him + what do you get in return.

Remember, in a flat cap market, good wingers can be signed cheaply as UFAs.

I'd say the same applies to AA or any winger who might be available at the deadline.

Defense/centers are a bit of a different story, I think.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

macdermid with a short stick standing in front of the opponent's crease though? yes f***in please.

At least that way people will get mad at him and physically engage instead of people avoiding making him mad.

He's this dude.