2022 Draft Discussion (after the trade)

[King'sPawn]

Kings use long-term approach at 2022 draft with eye on prospect development - LA Kings Insider

Playing the hand they were dealt, the LA Kings took a different approach to the 2022 NHL Draft than what fans have seen from the team in previous seasons. During a four-year span from 2017-2020, the Kings focused on ‘restocking the cupboard’ so to speak, drafting early and often with at least...

lakingsinsider.com

“I assumed based on central scouting and the other lists that Jack would go between 26 and 33,” Yannetti said. “So when you get a player like that at 51, you’re pretty happy. And then you look at the development situation, for me, that’s a high confidence pick. Northeastern’s as good as it gets developing guys. They’ve moved themselves into that North Dakota, Minnesota level of developing among colleges.”

It seems Yannetti was trying to trade up with Hughes as one of the players in mind. Again, not to say he was THE guy, but they didn't just settle on him, either.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Love this kid and what he brought last season.

 

[Trash Panda]

Love this kid and what he brought last season.

His balls & character carry him further than his talent or brain ever could.

Gotta love the kid.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

This draft lacked top end talent. The Kings would have gotten a good prospect at #19.
But I will only look at it this way:

The Kings just got Keven Fiala at the age of 26 (turns 26 July 22) for that pick AND for the
a player that they did trade up to get in 2020 - Brock Faber. So, they utilized the draft
to get the best producing player on the Kings - I believe he will lead the team in scoring for the
next few years - and who knows if the Kaprizov things blows up and cannot play - and the Wild
get a cap break there - they may have then signed Fiala.

Without Fiala, the Kings are still probably chasing Calgary and Edmonton and Anaheim may be closing
the gap, but I think the Kings will now have a shot at beating out Vegas, Anaheim, Calagary and if the Wild
do not have Kaprizov, can even top them in the Western Conference.

The draft? If Hughes can get stronger, add some size, improve his skating and shot...he may well be a middle 6 player and a good one. It's possible. So many players can have NHL skating and size, but lack hockey sense and
have ability to see high end plays, know how to use space and make top end plays. He apparently has those traits, that cannot be taught. Size, strength and skating and shot can be improved.

16 pts a the second youngest college hockey player is not bad....Turcotte had 26 pts at Wisconsin AFTER his draft. Hughes could top 30 pts next season. AND, if he played 1 more yr with the National Dev Team, maybe he outscores some of the Nazar's, McGroarty's, etc. I'm fine with the pick.

If the Kings did not trade up to get Faber, maybe the deal for Fiala does not happen...maybe Guerin would ask for 2 #1 picks, or deal Fiala to another team. People wonder if Fiala will not score 85 pts again...and I say, if he scored 85 pts on the Wilds second line and only had 17 PP pts and played with Guadreau? He certainly can score 85 pts with Kopitar as his center and playing #1 PP. Fiala has not even peaked yet. Ever thought about that?

Kevin Fiala will be thee best acquisition in the entire NHL this offseason. Period.
Get over this 2022 draft. The Kings have over 15 good NHL prospects...most will keep
getting better. Some will make it and some will not. Some will be traded for other needed pieces.

It's a damn good time to be a King fan!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Exactly, you are mad because you wanted a different player and did not want/like the Hughes selection. Hey me too buddy...we agree there. But THEY obviously do not agree with the two of us as to what player was the better selection for them (including trade down). They felt he was BPA and were happy with the selection. But you were making the point that they were not happy and he wasn't their guy and it was not even close. That's way off base. Now it likely is what YOUR opinion of the player is at 51 and who else was available, but clearly not their opinion. You are putting words in their mouth which is simply not true.
To summarize: You don't like the pick -- heck, i don't like the pick either. But they do.

No, and frankly this is my last response because you're telling me what I'm thinking and feeling instead of evey trying to understand.

It's. not. just. hughes.

Do you need another example of something that pissed me off? TBL trading for our pick only to watch them snag a high upside guy in Edmonds for a low skill two way guy (Connors) and a freaking re-entry (wright).

I'm sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth, but you seem more frustrated because there's a lot less "sexiness" and projectability to these picks. Nobody is saying "all Hughes needs to do is improve his consistency, and you have a top-6 player."

There has been a lot of high skill, or high-floor players: Vilardi, JAD, Thomas, Kupari, Turcotte, Grans, Clarke, Pinelli, etc. All have some traits where even if they don't hone their skills, you could find a place for them.

It has deviated from the players they normally get, which I think is leaving people underwhelmed.

I can honestly say as I prepared for the draft, reading the names and scouting reports, I felt very tepid on all these players. Not to say I hate them. They just weren't my preferences.

With what I know and can share, while mixing in some of my own assumptions, they liked Hughes. He may not have been the top pick, but he was liked well enough. Hughes was one of 3 players whose article I prepared the evening after the first round was completed, which is why the article was up so quickly after the pick was made.

Knowing that they were possibly targeting Hughes while trying to trade up soothes me a little.

You're probably right that part of it was simply a function of a weird draft, between lack of intel due to covid as well as just possibly a not-so-great draft. But many other teams I'm looking at--particularly our closest rivals--had pretty f***ing awesome drafts. At least in my eyes. And again, my beef is with preaching 'quality over quantity' and then trading for quantity. 1 pick in the top 100 and 6 after flies against that. And I trust the org to draft and develop JAGs but if there's one thing we are absolutely not suffering for it's that. We are already short on roster spots and drafting a bunch of C prospects does nothing to help this org.

I mean maybe I'm coming off as more negative than I mean to, I just don't see why it's so controversial to say I'm disappointed and support it with several reasons, especially since i'm not even trying to drag down anyone that feels otherwise, I can see why people are ok or happy with this one, I just disagree. I wouldn't say this draft actively hurts us. But I Don't think it helps us in any way. No one has really elaborated on why this was actually a decent or good draft or how it helps the org, they're just attacking me for being grumpy.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

If Hughes can get stronger, add some size, improve his skating and shot...he may well be a middle 6 player and a good one. It's possible. So many players can have NHL skating and size, but lack hockey sense and
have ability to see high end plays, know how to use space and make top end plays. He apparently has those traits, that cannot be taught. Size, strength and skating and shot can be improved.

So just needs to get NHL level with 3 of 5 tools to be a middle sixer. Sweet pick.

This is Nick Shore's scouting report.

 

[All The Kings Men]

I swear if Nick Shore hadn't existed you guys would have had to invent him.

 

[King'sPawn]

Knowing that they were possibly targeting Hughes while trying to trade up soothes me a little.

You're probably right that part of it was simply a function of a weird draft, between lack of intel due to covid as well as just possibly a not-so-great draft. But many other teams I'm looking at--particularly our closest rivals--had pretty f***ing awesome drafts. At least in my eyes. And again, my beef is with preaching 'quality over quantity' and then trading for quantity. 1 pick in the top 100 and 6 after flies against that. And I trust the org to draft and develop JAGs but if there's one thing we are absolutely not suffering for it's that. We are already short on roster spots and drafting a bunch of C prospects does nothing to help this org.

I mean maybe I'm coming off as more negative than I mean to, I just don't see why it's so controversial to say I'm disappointed and support it with several reasons, especially since i'm not even trying to drag down anyone that feels otherwise, I can see why people are ok or happy with this one, I just disagree. I wouldn't say this draft actively hurts us. But I Don't think it helps us in any way. No one has really elaborated on why this was actually a decent or good draft or how it helps the org, they're just attacking me for being grumpy.

Trust me. I get it, at least as far as feeling underwhelmed. I'm not taking your disappointment as anything but discussing a talking point, since this is the most recent Kings news. I did all my vocalizing of concern last week with the Fiala trade

I'm in the middle of the pack. I'm honestly not excited about the picks. But I'm also deferring to the scouting staff that, with these more middling type of players, it actually plays to the organizational strength of churning out NHL players at some capacity. They aren't high-end, but as the Kings are unproven in developing high-end forwards, I'm giving it a wait-and-see approach.

I DO caution comparing the Kings drafts with rivals. Mostly because drafting, as we've discussed, is only the first step. Plus, even if the Kings draft several superstars, they wouldn't be able to stop the rivals from having solid drafts.

All that can be done is be concerned with how and what the Kings are doing. If you want to compare it to rivals for a frame of reference, sure... but I think it's worth at least waiting to see how the players are on the ice before having any feelings stronger than disappointment.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Trust me. I get it, at least as far as feeling underwhelmed. I'm not taking your disappointment as anything but discussing a talking point, since this is the most recent Kings news. I did all my vocalizing of concern last week with the Fiala trade

I'm in the middle of the pack. I'm honestly not excited about the picks. But I'm also deferring to the scouting staff that, with these more middling type of players, it actually plays to the organizational strength of churning out NHL players at some capacity. They aren't high-end, but as the Kings are unproven in developing high-end forwards, I'm giving it a wait-and-see approach.

I DO caution comparing the Kings drafts with rivals. Mostly because drafting, as we've discussed, is only the first step. Plus, even if the Kings draft several superstars, they wouldn't be able to stop the rivals from having solid drafts.

All that can be done is be concerned with how and what the Kings are doing. If you want to compare it to rivals for a frame of reference, sure... but I think it's worth at least waiting to see how the players are on the ice before having any feelings stronger than disappointment.

I SHOULD probably defer on the JAGs because there were some interesting picks, that's for sure. I don't dispute that at all. Especially the really deep guys. Those ones definitely feel like they got 'their guy' and if there's a team that nails late picks its the Kings. I guess my disappointment is just reconciling the actual picks with the stated philosophy and vs. what we already have in stock. I do realize it has to play out too though, I'm not saying they're all certain to suck, just that at first glance this is how I feel. And i'll restate that I'm still really eager to see what Yanetti has to say about especially the late picks.

My comparison to rivals is less their actual picks--I mean, obviously the Ducks were going to 'do more' with 4 picks in front of us--and more just that they seem to be sticking to their rebuilds a lot harder than we are. And sure they're in different years-of-rebuild than we are, but it's hard not to get miffed watching rivals stick needs left and right while our best pick is a question mark (yet another) center with limited upside.

I want to be wrong and I'd love to see one of these kids take the ice at dev camp and make me want to frantically delete everything I've said since the draft, there's a lot of really good stories and interesting kids here.

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

No, and frankly this is my last response because you're telling me what I'm thinking and feeling instead of evey trying to understand.

It's. not. just. hughes.

Do you need another example of something that pissed me off? TBL trading for our pick only to watch them snag a high upside guy in Edmonds for a low skill two way guy (Connors) and a freaking re-entry (wright).



Knowing that they were possibly targeting Hughes while trying to trade up soothes me a little.

You're probably right that part of it was simply a function of a weird draft, between lack of intel due to covid as well as just possibly a not-so-great draft. But many other teams I'm looking at--particularly our closest rivals--had pretty f***ing awesome drafts. At least in my eyes. And again, my beef is with preaching 'quality over quantity' and then trading for quantity. 1 pick in the top 100 and 6 after flies against that. And I trust the org to draft and develop JAGs but if there's one thing we are absolutely not suffering for it's that. We are already short on roster spots and drafting a bunch of C prospects does nothing to help this org.

I mean maybe I'm coming off as more negative than I mean to, I just don't see why it's so controversial to say I'm disappointed and support it with several reasons, especially since i'm not even trying to drag down anyone that feels otherwise, I can see why people are ok or happy with this one, I just disagree. I wouldn't say this draft actively hurts us. But I Don't think it helps us in any way. No one has really elaborated on why this was actually a decent or good draft or how it helps the org, they're just attacking me for being grumpy.

I've seen you say some iteration of this several places now. I'm wondering where you got the impression that they'd be taking a targeted approach like last draft. I listened to the Yannetti interview with Jesse Cohen and Zach Dooley before the draft happened. I walked away from it with the impression that they would do exactly what they did in trying to come away with ~6-7 players and potentially trading down to accumulate picks.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

So just needs to get NHL level with 3 of 5 tools to be a middle sixer. Sweet pick.

This is Nick Shore's scouting report.

I saw Nick Shore at U of Denver live several times...and Trevor Moore too...Shore never looked to have high hockey IQ and never saw him make elite plays. I saw him play against Dowd and Kevin Gravel and Dowd seemed like the better player. Moore looked better, when I saw him. I've never seen Jack Hughes play. He still may have been the BPA, as far as the Kings were concerned. I would not have wanted another smallish, playmaking center, though.

 

[LAKings88]

I trust the Kings' ability to turn these picks into NHL just-a-guys. They have no problems churning out regulars.

They DO have a problem turning out blue chip and they picked up a ton of low-upside redundancies and made mostly uninspiring moves.

Like I said earlier, doesn't sound like they at all did what they set out to do, at least as described before the draft. Based on organizational needs (high end talent, goaltending, NOT AS MANY f***ING DEPTH CENTERS), honestly, this draft is the polar opposite of the last two. You'd have to convince me to not give it an F as the worst Kings draft in the last decade. I'll be shocked if any of these guys turn out as players beyond the 4th line or bottom pairing, though they'll probably get one automatically since they're money in the 7th round.

I love this team's drafting outside the 1st round but this felt like a bunch of really uninspiring "well, we have to take SOMEONE" stuff.

Team got closer to the 2nd round and further from a Cup this offseason while all the rebuilding teams around us got better. Get your shit together, LA.

I like how Yannetti called top five picks can’t misses. I’m over here wondering about top five picks that were misses.

 

[kings11]

Well, Blake painted himself into the goaltending situation. I was a Petersen believer too, but not at 5 million AAV for 3 years. There needs to be a huge bounce back by Cal or this is going to be Blake's worst contract decision to date. Time to start trading a prospect or two for a young goaltender or find a good reclamation project to rehabilitate.

It’ll be the latter, I have full confidence in the Kings ability to find another Keumper or Campbell

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

As I kind of expected reading Yanetti's thoughts on the back end, between Dooley and Gann, makes me feel a bit better that there was a lot of a focus here. Interesting philosophy, drafting guys who are much longer term for the most part, either entering college, are late bloomers, or have had development stalled by injury and are 'behind', or all of the above, since "“Now we have an age distribution gap, linear, with a couple of those guys who are four and five and six years out,” Yannetti said. “We can take these guys and move them to the back because there’s going to be four or five guys on our team now that aren’t with us in the next six years. We don’t need to fill the holes year one, year two, we want to fill them four and five years from now.”"

Kings use long-term approach at 2022 draft with eye on prospect development - LA Kings Insider

Playing the hand they were dealt, the LA Kings took a different approach to the 2022 NHL Draft than what fans have seen from the team in previous seasons. During a four-year span from 2017-2020, the Kings focused on ‘restocking the cupboard’ so to speak, drafting early and often with at least...

lakingsinsider.com

Frozen Royalty Exclusive: LA Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti On the 2022 NHL Draft – Part 2

2022 NHL DRAFT COVERAGE: Los Angeles Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti discussed the Kings picks in rounds 3-7, and offered some insight into their process. Part 2 of a series. LOS A…

frozenroyalty.net

The Hughes pick can still kick rocks, Connors seems to be one a lot of people see as a sleeper, and of course the rest fit the bill of the above perfectly. Very, very different strategy from last year, and a very different pursuit. Their positions don't matter as much since a lot of them are in college or other leagues for at least a couple of years so my concerns about overloaded rosters don't apply.

 

[All The Kings Men]

between Dooley

and Jared Shafran!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

and Jared Shafran!

Thank you, didn't read the byline, made an assumption. Definitely cheers to Shafran too!

 

[Jason Squirties]

This is what I will be leaving this draft with, tyvm.

 

[Brock]

I would guess that info on Kaleb Lawrence is pretty hard to come by for you.

In a nut shell, he was a fairly highly touted prospect. But shoulder injuries (and the pandemic shutdown) have destroyed his development. Massive kid. Controls the wall well. Is a natural center. Very difficult to separate from the puck. Skating needs to continue to improve. Just hasn't played all that much. The pick really shocked me...lol. Would have wanted to make sure that the shoulder was still attached first. Really, the projection is probably similar to another big guy you take a chance on previously: Justin Auger. Only difference is Lawrence is a natural center and is a little more physical.

 

[Sol]

I like how people have such a massive issue with others criticizing the draft picks and the way the Kings are drafting. The lack of tolerance is truly amazing.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I like how people have such a massive issue with others criticizing the draft picks and the way the Kings are drafting. The lack of tolerance is truly amazing.

The constant whining is also truly amazing when no suggestions are offered as to how this draft could've played out differently that would've made things better. I guess it doesn't take much thought to say, "they should have drafted a goalie."

You don't even know shit about any of the players selected and you'll find something to complain about.

 

[Sol]

The constant whining is also truly amazing when no suggestions are offered as to how this draft could've played out differently that would've made things better. I guess it doesn't take much thought to say, "they should have drafted a goalie."

You don't even know shit about any of the players selected and you'll find something to complain about.

I’m not talking about this draft alone, I’m talking about the scouts bombing top picks so far and people still having the utmost confidence in their say and opinion. Those who question it seem to get attacked for it for some stupid reason. People are bootlicking hard on this board and those who don’t dick-ride the staffs choices and question the lack of high end talent get attacked for it even though their opinion is founded and the opinion of those who unrelentingly dick-ride isn’t based on precedent.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I’m not talking about this draft alone, I’m talking about the scouts bombing top picks so far and people still having the utmost confidence in their say and opinion. Those who question it seem to get attacked for it for some stupid reason. People are bootlicking hard on this board and those who don’t dick-ride the staffs choices and question the lack of high end talent get attacked for it even though their opinion is founded and the opinion of those who unrelentingly dick-ride isn’t based on precedent.

I’m not seeing this effusive praise for the selections either. Can’t it just be that they selected guys who have a long path ahead and not every selection is a home run or a terrible pick?

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

I’m not talking about this draft alone, I’m talking about the scouts bombing top picks so far and people still having the utmost confidence in their say and opinion. Those who question it seem to get attacked for it for some stupid reason. People are bootlicking hard on this board and those who don’t dick-ride the staffs choices and question the lack of high end talent get attacked for it even though their opinion is founded and the opinion of those who unrelentingly dick-ride isn’t based on precedent.

Which top picks are bombs? What you see as boot licking is typically called having some goddamn patience.....OMG our top pick 2 years ago who is 19 didn't win the Hart....he's a bomb....right? OMG our top 5 pick from 3 years ago, omg he didn't win a Selke....he's a bomb...21 years old......19 years old....and already failures, I mean f***....do people actually read what they are typing?

Good thing Anaheim didn't jettison Troy Terry right? f*** on this board he would have been strung up by his balls and quartered......5 years to develop.....that's f***ing horrible....right? Is that how it's supposed to go? Let's go down history lane...right? Brett Hull.....bet CGY kicked themselves over that one......Martin St. Louis, shit...CGY strikes again.....

Point is simple, have some goddamn patience before you try and say 19 and 21 year olds are bombs....busts, whatever you want to call them

 

[King'sPawn]

I’m not talking about this draft alone, I’m talking about the scouts bombing top picks so far and people still having the utmost confidence in their say and opinion. Those who question it seem to get attacked for it for some stupid reason. People are bootlicking hard on this board and those who don’t dick-ride the staffs choices and question the lack of high end talent get attacked for it even though their opinion is founded and the opinion of those who unrelentingly dick-ride isn’t based on precedent.

Give an example of the boldfaced.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Kings will draft Dwayne Smetzky next year.