Speculation: 2020-21 News/Rumors/Roster Thread Part II

[Ziggy Stardust]

Boko is back.

 

[KingsFan7824]

I wish Petersen was a couple years younger.

At least he's cheap.

Him and Iafallo are in weird spots. They're too old to be part of the young core, but too young to be grouped in with the old heads. The Kings might not even be sure they'll pay either guy.

 

[regulate]

Boko is back.

That's the last guy now signed. We'll see if Blake adds another contract via UFA.

 

[Cook24]

Wondering where Laine gets moved too...

 

[Token]

CF shows the Kings at 45 contracts with this signing.

QB will make that 46.

Possibly sign Grans to deal with that “development agreement” with SHL so we have a superseding NHL contract.

Past that it’s Meehan and Chromiak as CHL prospects on a 2-year window, everyone else is 2023 (2019 draft) or 2024 (2020 draft).

Smart management by the brass.

 

[Fat Elvis]

Boko is back.

He'll be needed in Ontario with all the prospects on the roster.

 

[AlphaBravo]

Laine is appealing. None of our prospects will likely be pure goal scorers like him. He will demand a high payment, but he is young and fits in our long-term plans. If the price was right, I would trade for him. I would be comfortable with one of Turcotte or Vilardi, plus next year's 1st. I would consider tossing in a secondary prospect like JAD if needed to make the deal competitive.

 

[Ollie Weeks]

He’s an awesome player, but I don’t want to pay Laine 10+.

If I’m Blake I stay patient and see what develops in Buffalo.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Ontario will be a bit, young, small and soft, but at least they have Boko and Doty.

 

[Telos]

I like Laine, it is tempting, but I am wary of getting him right before his payday. Sure, the Kings are a little protected by his RFA status, but the price to get him and the price to keep him will be enormous. Again, it is a decision I don't covet, but if I were in the GM chair, I would likely stay the course, but I could see the appeal of adding a talent like his to our centers.

I have a feeling, given Blake's recent maneuvers, that we are going to stay the course anyway. It is clear that we are frugally picking up a lot of middle-tier wingers hoping to hit on one or two developing into impact, top-6, players.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Kings assistant coach Trent Yawney, who runs the defense, would like to pair Maatta with Doughty. That, in turn, would help slot the Kings’ younger prospects, at the start, and shelter them from the type of tough assignments typically faced by the top pair. He could also be moved up and down the lineup depending on matchups.

“That’d be awesome,” said Maatta, of the possibility of playing with Doughty. “He’s a great player. Guys like (Doughty) and Anze Kopitar and (Jeff) Carter have won a lot. There’s a lot of good players coming up so I’m really excited about it.”

Arizona Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet, who overlapped with Maatta for three seasons in Pittsburgh when he was an assistant with the Penguins, called it a great pickup by the Kings. Tocchet watched Maatta more closely this past summer when the Coyotes and Blackhawks were in the playoff bubble in Edmonton.

The bubble was an extension of how Maatta’s game was trending in the latter part of the regular season before the pause in mid-March. In nine postseason games, he had six points (three goals, three assists) and was a plus-7.

“I kept getting better and better near the end of the season,” he said. “In the second half I felt really good and in the bubble, it was the same. I felt like we were a different team.”
Said Tocchet: “I thought he played his best hockey in a couple of years in the playoffs. He was out against (Connor) McDavid. He played heavy minutes against Vegas’ top players. He was a guy I noticed and it reminded me of the Pittsburgh days.”

 

[Token]

Evolving Hockey on Laine ...

“
When using Evolving Hockey’s RAPM model, which attempts to isolate a player’s game by filtering out teammate effects, we find that Laine has been well-below replacement level every year of his career defensively, and also doesn’t do much to drive team offense, either. The efficacy of his world-class shot appears to be waning as well, as his finishing rate has declined over the last two seasons. To boot, there’s evidence that part of his ability to out-perform his expected goal rates might have more to do with the excellent playmakers he’s gotten to play with, and less so with the sheer power and accuracy of his shot.
If these worrisome trends hold, Laine looks like he’ll become more of a powerplay specialist, well below the kind of franchise-altering superstar the Jets surely hoped they were getting with the second-overall pick in 2016”

One trick pony + a major Diva. we forget he held out of training camp expecting Eichel money ...

Just say NO!

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Trading for Laine now is the equivalent of Lombardi trading for Rick Nash in 2008.

Aka, a really stupid f***ing trade.

 

[kilowatt]

Laine is appealing. None of our prospects will likely be pure goal scorers like him. He will demand a high payment, but he is young and fits in our long-term plans. If the price was right, I would trade for him. I would be comfortable with one of Turcotte or Vilardi, plus next year's 1st. I would consider tossing in a secondary prospect like JAD if needed to make the deal competitive.

We have a player kind of like him in Kaliyev, minus a few inches. Here's Scott Wheeler's take on Laine:

Wheeler’s take: If Madden is singular, I don’t know what that makes Kaliyev. A unicorn, maybe? There isn’t any active NHLer whose skill as a shooter resembles Kaliyev’s. If there is, they’re in the superstar echelon and I’m not going to put that on Kaliyev. His shot is better than any second-line forward in the league today. So you can imagine it’s hard to find a comparable, particularly the low-end ones. If I’m being completely honest, Laine is the only player who resembles Kaliyev. Laine has the shot, the one that just blows by goalies, and the one-timer that does too. Laine has the spotty defensive play when he doesn’t have the puck. Laine isn’t the fastest player in the world. It’s not a crazy comparison, even though Laine has a couple inches on Kaliyev. That Laine is the only player in the league with parallels really speaks to the problem some evaluators have had in projecting Kaliyev.

 

[SFKingshomer]

I want nothing to do with Laine...don't need that attitude and selfishness around.

 

[kilowatt]

Wasn't Laine also the one who had issues with Fortnite?

 

[Stimpythecat]

I absolutely would not trade for Laine.

1) that would absolutely destroy the kings locker room. No way do I want that.

2) Laine's salary demands are going to be insane. We already have kopitar and doughty. Even if we signed him we'd be top heavy like the leafs only older.

3) Laine would not be the diference between the kings and a contender. there are too many holes. By the time the prospects really develop to fill those holes, Laine walks as a UFA.

No way.

 

[Anguyen92]

I agree. We got to put these kinds of trade ideas to rest until we are in a better position to contend in the playoffs and we're not there yet now. We could be there in a few years and when that time comes, then we consider making the big trades like we did with Richards, Carter, and Gaborik, etc. We did those trades, because we were in a good position to win playoff series. We didn't do any of those kinds of trades around 2006-2008 while rebuilding to my recollection.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Regardless of how I feel about Laine, the timing is off. Need to see what we have first. Plus having Kaliyev at a few more RFA years should he pan out should be nice. Laine is a finishing piece and we're not even close to chasing one-dimensional wingers at this point.

We were able to do Schenn and Simmonds for Richards because we knew what we had and Richards both filled a hole and came with cost certainty.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I guess I didn't realize what a pro Maatta was. All the glowing reviews from his Pens cohort are pretty crazy. One more reason we picked him up I guess, at worst he's a good dude with a good story setting a great example.

"Retired NHL defenseman Brooks Orpik chuckled when he remembered Maatta’s rookie season and legendary postgame workouts in Pittsburgh when they played together in 2013-14.
“He’s as nice as they come,” said Orpik, who is working with the Washington Capitals in player development.

“My wife wanted to adopt him. After playing a hard game, Olli is in there for two hours. The staff wanted to go home because they had to be back there at 7 in the morning.

“You love his work ethic and he’s doing everything he possibly can. On the flip side, it’s finding that balance where you aren’t overdoing it and recovering properly. I remember a couple of us laughing. But I’ll take a guy like that 100 hundred times over a guy who is cutting corners and not putting the work in."

 

[kilowatt]

I think it's in LA's best interest to just do nothing. They've got a really good mix of veterans (Kopitar, Brown, Carter, Doughty, Quick), mid-range guys (Iafallo, Kempe, Wagner, Lizotte, Roy, Walker, Maatta, Petersen), and prospects (Vilardi, Byfield, Anderson, and all the other kids) and should use this year as talent evaluation and system improvement. Making a big splash doesn't do us much good this year, the Kings aren't winning until four or five good prospects graduate and contribute. Rushing those prospects will only hurt them.

 

[TruKingFan]

Regardless of how I feel about Laine, the timing is off. Need to see what we have first. Plus having Kaliyev at a few more RFA years should he pan out should be nice. Laine is a finishing piece and we're not even close to chasing one-dimensional wingers at this point.

We were able to do Schenn and Simmonds for Richards because we knew what we had and Richards both filled a hole and came with cost certainty.

I begrudgingly agree that timing is off with the Laine deal. I was all for it before I was against it. Hopefully AK can make me forget about that one trick pony the Kings can really use.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I begrudgingly agree that timing is off with the Laine deal. I was all for it before I was against it. Hopefully AK can make me forget about that one trick pony the Kings can really use.

Believe me, it's definitely begrudgingly. The guy has a legit chance to outscore Ovy.

 

[tny760]

Believe me, it's definitely begrudgingly. The guy has a legit chance to outscore Ovy.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Last part of Athletic article on Maata:

“Olli Maatta will come in and be the hardest working guy in that room,” Lovejoy said. “He will be the first guy to enter the Kings dressing room in the morning. He’ll be the first guy on the ice and the last guy off the ice. The Kings are a rebuilding team with some young very high-end talent. For them to come and see a guy Olli Maatta with his two Stanley Cups, he’s a young role model and will do everything right on and off the ice."

With how good his play was in the bubble post-season, I'm thinking this was a really good trade (along with Chicago taking on part of cap hit) for this team and where they are at now.

I think Blake has learned well from DL.