GDT: 2022-23 season game 10 LA Kings vs Toronto Maple Leafs @4:00pm 10/29/22

[Surf Nutz]

Blakes got a minefield full of decisions to make now into puck drop next season.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

Has Vilardi had a bad shift this year? Or even a 'meh' one?
He looks like Kopitar did at the same age of 23.
Except Gabe has a better shot and is showing more goal socring prowess at the same age.
I should reserve making that call...as it's only been 10 games.

If Gabe actually stays possessed and finshes with something like 40-40-80....he's going to get paid.
I hope if he has that kind of year, he will take a bridge deal....but not sure he will.
Mikey and Trevor Moore also need to be signed. Not a lot coming off the books...Quicks' 5.8.
If they sign him to a 1 yr deal, he's going to have to take a cut. Don't see how they could pay him 5
and sign the other 3.

 

[Fishhead]

Has Vilardi had a bad shift this year? Or even a 'meh' one?
He looks like Kopitar did at the same age of 23.
Except Gabe has a better shot and is showing more goal socring prowess at the same age.
I should reserve making that call...as it's only been 10 games.

If Gabe actually stays possessed and finshes with something like 40-40-80....he's going to get paid.
I hope if he has that kind of year, he will take a bridge deal....but not sure he will.
Mikey and Trevor Moore also need to be signed. Not a lot coming off the books...Quicks' 5.8.
If they sign him to a 1 yr deal, he's going to have to take a cut. Don't see how they could pay him 5
and sign the other 3.

We gain a little over a million next year when the Phaneuf buyout drops off. 200K less for Richards. Lemieux is UFA too, but it all depends on what his agent asks for. I wouldn't blame the guy if he gets a better offer and moves on.

One of Roy or Walker are the obvious candidates to be moved simply because they make more.

 

[Docgonzo]

If everyone keeps playing like they have been this season Blake’s got some rough decisions in the off-season. Moore UFA, Gabe and Anderson new contracts, Quick off the books but still might need a goaltender.

Easy options are of course trade Iaffalo and Walker, possibly Arvidsson. But everybody is where they should be line wise. Another possible expendable player is Durzi and that will get you an asset but not open up cap space.

So even if there is a LhD available, might be hard to fit them in cap wise.

 

[FeartheFur]

Has Vilardi had a bad shift this year? Or even a 'meh' one?
He looks like Kopitar did at the same age of 23.
Except Gabe has a better shot and is showing more goal socring prowess at the same age.
I should reserve making that call...as it's only been 10 games.

If Gabe actually stays possessed and finshes with something like 40-40-80....he's going to get paid.
I hope if he has that kind of year, he will take a bridge deal....but not sure he will.
Mikey and Trevor Moore also need to be signed. Not a lot coming off the books...Quicks' 5.8.
If they sign him to a 1 yr deal, he's going to have to take a cut. Don't see how they could pay him 5
and sign the other 3.

Well. They got Phaneuf coming off the books next year, Edler(c-ya) only $750000, Walker has over a $3 million cap hit. Got to play him and trade him. That gives us a little over 4 million. Is that enough to resign Vilardi and Anderson? Also Lias Anderson his time here is done. Not by his play but there is too many good young players. So maybe 5 million?

 

[johnjm22]

I never understood why people liked the Anderson contract. I thought it was terrible.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

Kupari looks good, but always just an inch or bounce away from execting a finnish. (pun somewhat intended)
He has the tools, skill, size, speed...ok hockey sense. I like Fiala with him, as Kupari has never had talent like Fiala
to play with. (Byfield, Kaliyev have talent, but not fully there yet, of course)

I think Kupari will now begin to elelvate, given that Fiala will get him chances and Kupari has the ability
to get Kevin chances as well. It's almost like Fiala will FORCE Kupari to be more offensive and I think he can...Grundstrom will dig and pucks and do some heavy lifting there.
So, what happens when Byfield is back? I suppose they could put him back at 3C. He was looking decent,
except for his last game. Maybe Fiala can do the same for QB and QB begins to elevate. He's made a few nice
plays with Gabe, but Gabe is forever off line 3.

Maybe Kupari can draw in for Grundstrom or Lemieux....but I like the idea of him elevating his game and not be a 4th liner.

Maybe Fiala Byfield Kupari??

 

[johnjm22]

Kings have plenty of cap space for next year. I don't see any issues re-signing anyone that needs a new contract.

 

[unicornpig]

Blake better hope the cap goes up by the rumored 4 million

 

[Peter James Bond II]

Blake better hope the cap goes up by the rumored 4 million

I am often baffled how teams pay out 80 million for hockey, 160? million for baseball, 198? million for football, etc. And that's just salaries! Operational costs are way expensive of course.

I wonder if the owners take money out of their players c'est que vie trusts. (this would be a deep dive into some crazy possible reality how everyone has a 'separate entity' and 'said entity' trust builds over their life to millions of dollars. David Straight proved this in a federal court) Maybe owners just pull funds out of their own players' c'est que vie trusts and pays them with their own trust money they don't know they have. Straight proved this, showing how everyone has a cusip number and that is the second entity of a person that the gov uses...and banks. 'Your' second entity is the one with YOUR ALL CAPS NAME that you see on court docs and IRS, etc...(intersting) He said the department of fiscal services keeps records of every transation everyone has ever made and these debits go to a credit and your trust builds this. And most people are worth several million in this trust and never even know about it. He even said when you buy a home and get a (i.e.) $400,000 mortgage, the martgage company / bank does not fund that money....the borrower's own c'est que vie trust had the $400,000 taken. This may seem looney and untrue, but he's proved it and knows people in the dept of fiscal serivces and knows how to access your cusip number(s) (many have more than one cusip number; you can have more created, if you get a degree, and othe rlife events) and knows a site you can find out how much your c'est que vie trust is worth. He teaches how to get rid of your mortgage and own your property / home, by accpeting the original grant deed with the metes and bounds (property boundaries) and going back to the original grant deed of your property and 'accepting it' as your property and rescinding the mortgage...and pay it off with your c'est que vie trust. He teaches not to own a condo or townhome, as you can't get the metes and bounds, etc.
He got a foreclosed man's house back for him, by doing this, AFTER his house was repod and auctioned to a new onwer! The new owner was moved in for 9 months and Straight got the man back into his foreclosed and sold home.

 

[Docgonzo]

It’ll all depend on what Moore and Vilardi do this season and their new contracts. Don’t think Anderson will get more than 3.5 kinda like Roy. Quick who knows what’ll happen.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Posting a pic of Vilardi smiling until he has a bad game.

 

[kilowatt]

If Vilardi goes 40-40, he deserves the cash. We haven't had a 40-goal scorer since Robitaille's first stint with the Kings in 93-94, and Kopitar's reached 80 points just twice in his career.

In Brandt Clarke's lifetime, the Kings have had four three 80+ point scorers: Palffy, Demitra, Cammalleri, and Kopitar.

 

[bouncesonly]

Fiala's 9 pts in 10 games is a slow start for the season?!

Kings defense has been "not good" to say the least, but wow, Kopi's line tonight on the 3rd goal got the Leafs puck watching pretty badly:

Vilardi about to cross seam the puck to Kopitar after Kempe's shot was blocked:

Kopi fanning on the seam pass:

Kopi about to ruin the Leafs shift with a streaming Vilardi:

Two Kings had the attention of all 6 Leafs for a solid 7 seconds, probably the refs too. I bet they could have cleared the bench and gotten away with too many men on the ice cause everyone was so distracted lol.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Vilardi working well with Kopitar is unforeseen and a huge perk for Anze, who typically hasn't been able to mesh well with creative wingers.

He's the best player on the team right now and works well with anyone though, which is a nice change from years past where the only plug-and-play guys have been what, Danault and...that's about it? Everyone else 'requires' so much for chemistry to exist. It's been tough to build Kopitar's line his entire career.

It might dent our depth but not sure yet, everyone sure looked like they were rolling tonight. And it gives us tons of winger options up and down the lineup.

This is an excellent development. I can have fun building all sorts of lines and most of them don't dent others. Some crazy depth, just have to mad scientist the right mix.

 

[johnjm22]

If Vilardi goes 40-40, he deserves the cash. We haven't had a 40-goal scorer since Robitaille's first stint with the Kings in 93-94, and Kopitar's reached 80 points just twice in his career.

In Brandt Clarke's lifetime, the Kings have had four 80+ point scorers: Palffy, Demitra, Cammalleri, and Kopitar.

Fiala's 9 pts in 10 games is a slow start for the season?!

Scoring is apparently way up across the league.

It seems like the officials are really cracking down on any kind of obstruction, hooking, holding etc.

So I think we're going to see a lot of high point totals this year.

Kempe has a chance at 40 this year. Vilardi will cool down eventually, but if he's really this good, he has a chance as well.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

 

[johnjm22]

What's driving the increase in NHL scoring?

Fighting has not completely left the NHL but having better players in the bottom six is leading to an increase in scoring.

theathletic.com

This author gives some theories on why scoring is up. He points out that goaltenders are struggling, which is interesting IMO.

He also points out that 3rd and 4th liners are more capable of scoring then they used to be. He brings up the Kings as an example, comparing the types of players they have in the bottom six like Lemieux, QB, Vilardi, to what they used to have (Nolan, Clifford types)

Currently the Kings have 10 players on pace for 40+ points.

 

[All The Kings Men]

Nice tie @All The Kings Men !

That's all you have to say to me?!


EDIT: I know I didn't say collywobbles but c'mon!

 

[Statto]

Here’s a cherry picked stat. 3-1-0 is now Petersen’s record. Obviously his form hasn’t been great but tonight he looked good. He was solid, made some big saves at big times and didn’t let in any awful ones. The first one if we are being picky wasn’t perfect goaltending but that’s the case from every goaltender game to game. One of those per game I’d live with. He now has to build on this.

As for Vilardi… just to cherry pick my own posts.


Posted July 24th 2020:

I wouldn’t say ‘Superstar’ (Yet) but Gabe Vilardi is going to make people sit up and take notice.

Posted Feb 6 2021:

….

People need to also think about how they judge Vilardi. Not only is he a Rookie but he’s missed a huge amount of hockey over the last few years. This season he needs to focus on finding his game again and it’s going to take time. They aren’t using him as the 2C and that’s probably the right thing, especially as he’s currently trying to get through his first injury free season in... who knows how long? The fact he’s doing as well as he is with the game time he has missed is testament to the skill and character he has. He will be fine... better than fine.

I‘d be untruthful if I said I thought he’d break out this suddenly and I was starting to think his time in LA may be short lived. However I always believed in his ability and have rooted for him after what he came back from. I’m not getting carried away with his red hot start but I am very happy for the lad.

 

[Statto]

What is encouraging for me is that there is still a lot of simple stuff to clean up and those things should be very achievable. Despite the obvious issues we are .500 which is actually a pretty good record considering some of the performances. It shows there is a lot more potential there.

 

[KingsCrunch]

Quit promoting ugly colors. Not you but THAT GUY. Know the difference.

 

[Cianide]

Kings really need an enforcer. 3rd or 4th line guy.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

I just can’t get over how Vilardi looks like the player we saw in juniors, just taking over games. His last season in juniors, he had 58 points in 32 games!

I would say 80 points in 48 games (playoffs included).

 

[Frolov 6'3]

We need to keep playing Durzi and let him keep getting points. He is trade bait. If he has 30 points at the all star break he’s gonna fetch a great return.

Only when LA does not make the playoffs.

You rarely see a team trading away a point producer on the backend while making the playoffs.