GDT: 2020-21 season game 48 LA Kings vs Anaheim Ducks @7:00pm 4/30/21

[Herby]

Couldn't really replace Richards, although Carter slid over. Never replaced Fraser in terms of the kind of player he was. Never replaced Stoll. Couldn't replace Carter once that injury happened.

You look at d-zone faceoffs taken, Kopitar would take the top 5 spots on the team since 08-09, with this season projected over 82 games. And that's Kopitar in 15-16, 16-17, 17-18, 18-19, and 20-21. In 19-20 he falls 9th right now. Basically all the years where there hasn't been another C to take on any heavy tasks. Currently 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th on the list are Handzus and Stoll between 10-11 and 13-14.

Center depth, defensive depth, all eroded since June 2014. Richards breaking down was the first step, then Mitchell, then Voynov, and it never stopped.

Carter filled the Richards 2C void right away, they won the 2nd SC with Richards already cooked.
Mitchell was 37 in 2014, it was near the end of the line
The Voynov thing was obviously horrible luck

The Kings had 7 seasons from the time Richards collapsed to the time Carter was traded to either find a 2C and move Carter back to wing or find a goal-scoring wing to replace Carter's previous role. They couldn't find either. They instead tried to Weekend at Bernie's MR's career in 14-15, they traded both their 1st round picks in 15&16 for rentals (one of them being an alltime bad trade). The organization drafted four guys who are decent to good NHL'ers from 2013-2016, one of them was given away in another inexplicable trade for a backup goaltender rental and the other they couldn't sign and watched him score at a 36 goal pace as a rookie. The other two are Kempe and Roy.

The Kings biggest issue on the NHL roster are the lack of players from 22-26, which is where this horrific management from 2014-2017 is still hurting us. Hard to get next to nothing from so many drafts and be competitive, just imagine if they hadn't been able to sign AI, would be even uglier.

 

[Bandit]

Quick is 165-14-15 when allowing 1 goal or less. f***ing beast! My favorite King of all time, no apologies!

Another way to put that is that Quick has 29 1-0 losses. That’s an embarrassing stat for anyone he’s ever played with.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Carter filled the Richards 2C void right away, they won the 2nd SC with Richards already cooked.
Mitchell was 37 in 2014, it was near the end of the line
The Voynov thing was obviously horrible luck

The Kings had 7 seasons from the time Richards collapsed to the time Carter was traded to either find a 2C and move Carter back to wing or find a goal-scoring wing to replace Carter's previous role. They couldn't find either. They instead tried to Weekend at Bernie's MR's career in 14-15, they traded both their 1st round picks in 15&16 for rentals (one of them being an alltime bad trade). The organization drafted four guys who are decent to good NHL'ers from 2013-2016, one of them was given away in another inexplicable trade for a backup goaltender rental and the other they couldn't sign and watched him score at a 36 goal pace as a rookie. The other two are Kempe and Roy.

The Kings biggest issue on the NHL roster are the lack of players from 22-26, which is where this horrific management from 2014-2017 is still hurting us. Hard to get next to nothing from so many drafts and be competitive, just imagine if they hadn't been able to sign AI, would be even uglier.

Carter filled the spot because the Kings happened to already have him here. Toffoli was fine. Pearson was ok. The biggest problem was Brown stopped scoring. Whether that was on him, or Sutter, whatever, it was a big issue. Had he continued to score, there may have never been a Gaborik. Had they still gotten him, and since the price was so low they may have, maybe they don't re-sign him to that stupid contract, because Brown is still scoring 25 a year. However, DL did like bringing back a winning group. Which also goes back to his love affair with Richards.

As we can see from Richards though, it's not easy getting a real center in his mid 20's. That took a top prospect, and a solid roster player. How many young 1/2C's were moved in the time frame you're talking about? Zibanejad went to NY, but he went for Brassard, who at the time was coming off a 27g/58pt season, and two years in a row of 60ish points. So at the time, a real player. Ottawa didn't get a prospect. Not a move that helped the depth of either team, since it was veteran for slightly younger veteran.

And once the Kings won the Cup, DL didn't care about the future anymore. Maybe even when he got Richards to begin with, and certainly by the time Carter got here, because those contracts were so long, and DL was starting to feel the heat by Feb 2012. His idea wasn't working. He went all in on Richards, and it still wasn't enough. Even if Gagne had remained healthy. The team was still 3 or 4 moves away. Lucic made sense with what DL wanted by the time of that trade too. It was win as many as you can now. Nobody they might've taken in 2015 would've helped for 2 years, which was an eternity, and the "just get in Kings" success was still a little too recent.

 

[Herby]

Carter filled the spot because the Kings happened to already have him here. Toffoli was fine. Pearson was ok. The biggest problem was Brown stopped scoring. Whether that was on him, or Sutter, whatever, it was a big issue. Had he continued to score, there may have never been a Gaborik. Had they still gotten him, and since the price was so low they may have, maybe they don't re-sign him to that stupid contract, because Brown is still scoring 25 a year. However, DL did like bringing back a winning group. Which also goes back to his love affair with Richards.

As we can see from Richards though, it's not easy getting a real center in his mid 20's. That took a top prospect, and a solid roster player. How many young 1/2C's were moved in the time frame you're talking about? Zibanejad went to NY, but he went for Brassard, who at the time was coming off a 27g/58pt season, and two years in a row of 60ish points. So at the time, a real player. Ottawa didn't get a prospect. Not a move that helped the depth of either team, since it was veteran for slightly younger veteran.

And once the Kings won the Cup, DL didn't care about the future anymore. Maybe even when he got Richards to begin with, and certainly by the time Carter got here, because those contracts were so long, and DL was starting to feel the heat by Feb 2012. His idea wasn't working. He went all in on Richards, and it still wasn't enough. Even if Gagne had remained healthy. The team was still 3 or 4 moves away. Lucic made sense with what DL wanted by the time of that trade too. It was win as many as you can now. Nobody they might've taken in 2015 would've helped for 2 years, which was an eternity, and the "just get in Kings" success was still a little too recent.

You can defend the reasons for the Lucic trade at the time it happened, I still think it was extremely shortsighted and overpayment but everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'm just dealing with the reality of the situation as to why the Kings have such a massive gulf in the 22-26 range. 2013-2016 drafts produced a 2nd/3rd line tweener, a 2nd pairing defenseman, a 4th line winger and a couple of AAAA players. The Lucic trade doesn't happen and you add a 1C to that group and it's not nearly as bad. I give Blake credit for a couple of nice hits so far with college free agents, he has 3 NHL regulars in four total off-seasons, that is remarkable but they are tapped out of bottom six and and bottom pair defenseman, need to add higher skilled spots and that is tough to do with NCAA FA's (Iafallo is one of the best in recent memory)

 

[lumbergh]

How about that pass by Vilardi and the celebration by Andersson last night? Spunk. Need more of that in this team.

 

[Matt13]

I always get annoyed when people say Kopitar needs a winger. What he needs is another center.

A differing opinion of another center or wing is what get you riled up? Maybe you should get some fresh air, put down the keyboard, as armchair GMing is too much for you.

The money allocated to Kopitar makes him your number 1 center. Could he use a better wing, absolutely. Do the Kings need better #1 or 2 center to support him absolutely.