TBH - it all comes down to Byfield. There's other players that need to be better but the Kings desperately need him to be a star to have a chance of being a top 10 team this year. And I say that as a huge Byfield fan/believer.
Going into this season, myself and many others said this Kings team would go as far as Byfield would take them. So far, that's really not looking great. And as a result the Kings aren't looking great either.
If Byfield continues to struggle, yeah this team is going to be mid and that's super disappointing. If he can turn it around and start to look like the player we saw in preseason, this team starts to look really dangerous.
Byfield looked like a sure-fire PPG player in preseason. Let's just assume hypothetically, that he continued that great play into the regular season and was sitting at ~10 points right now. He'd probably be playing 1C already if that was the case based on how Kopi has looked (admittedly cold/not amazing at times) and how Danault has struggled.
Byfield being the 1C we need him to be would completely change the outlook of this Kings team. They could ice a lineup like this - and have star power at the top of the lineup and great depth throughout:
Fiala - Byfield - Kempe
Moore - Kopitar - Foegele
Turcotte - Danault - Laferriere
Lee - Thomas (Lewis) - Jeannot
Anderson - Clarke
Gavrikov - Spence
Edmundson - Burroughs
The defense is still questionable - but actually becomes really really solid once Doughty returns.
THAT'S the kind of lineup the Kings need to have to be formidable. That lineup, assuming players are pulling their weight and playing to their potential, would be very very solid. Byfield needs to turn it around ASAP. If he doesn't. the Kings should sell off a few players and treat this as a building year for next year.
Yes..... I've said many times the Kings need Clarke and Byfield to be stars to have a chance. Clarke doesn't necessarily need to be a star this year, just needs to contribute like he's been doing. Byfield on the other hand, really needs to step it up.
If Byfield isn't a star, I agree this team is screwed. I still have hope that he'll turn it around / figure it out.
The problem with this lineup is you can't undo the horrible decisions made by Blake the last 5 years or so, poor roster construction and piss poor development choice.
I do agree QB long-term would be better to play C, but you need to look at this through the lens of Rob Blake and Luc Robitaille, because unfortunately they make the decisions, and they have labeled this team a contender.
The second you move QB to C you create problems in the immediate (which is all they care about)
1. QB just hasn't been very good at C right now, so it's unrealistic to expect him to be the 1C and face other teams top checkers and defenseman. Since the Kings had him in the AHL instead of the NHL at 18, and then have had him at W the last two years he has very little experience playing the position and it showed this season. For a team thats President and GM claim to be a contender and you claim is "formidable", it's tough to have learning on the job, especially as a 1C for a faux contender. That is why the learning on the job should have happened in the 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 seasons, but the age 18 season he was stupidly sent to the AHL, and then the age 19 season and since then the team has been "contenders" , and it's tough to learn on the job. QB is way further along if they just say at the start of the 2020/2021 season, go play C , play your game, learn from your mistakes and get better. But that didn't happen because the Kings are obsessed with slow-cooking players in the AHL (which really damaged QB's overall prospects) and foolishly ended their rebuild by bringing in Danault (which further damaged QB's prospects of playing C)
2. As soon as QB moves to C the wing situation gets really awful. Even with QB as a winger, they still lack the required skill (especially goal-scoring) to have a championshiop roster. You take him away and it's a bottom 1/3 wingers. And in the immediate is QB/Kopitar/Danault with Turcotte at wing really better than Kopitar/Danault/Turcotte with QB at wing? The answer is no, and since all BLuc care about is the immediate, that is why the change was made.
3. You screw Turcotte again (a common theme for Blake), right as he's settling into a role as a 3C and playing well, you bump him to the wing. The whole confidence and growing and developing confidence thing goes out the window yet again. Turcotte was never given a chance to gain confidence and be a dominant player in college like his peers were, he was thrown to the wolves in the AHL as a teenager after one of the worst college signings I've seen in 20+ years of following it closely, and then was frequently injured and poorly deployed in the AHL. He finally now, 5+ years after being a Top 5 pick has settled into a pretty important role as 3C and we are going to send him to the wing? Why? If you want to move QB back to C, well then the next move should be trading Danault for a goal-scoring winger and roll with Kopitar/Byfield/Turcotte as your Top 3 centers. Danault has always been the biggest obstacle to QB getting run at C, you have to remove that obstacle and improve areas of weakness elsewhere if you are commiting to QB at C right now.
Like just relax guys. What harm does it do to give this team another 10-15 more games to see if they can figure it out?? Currently, we have to hope for 1 of 2 outcomes. Either the Kings turn it around and a guy like Byfield starts to play like a star and the Kings start to look like they have the potential to make some noise in the playoffs (not just make the playoffs) or the Kings completely fall apart to the point where we get a top 10 pick and new management/coaching. I'm choosing to hope for the 1st outcome because it's more fun and gives us a chance to win. I understand I may be 'wrong'. I understand I may be 'disappointed'. And I'm okay with that. Personally, I'd rather be wrong and disappointed than spend my time sitting around hoping my team does poorly. Now I understand some of you have been fans for 30-40+ years and that's weighed on you over the years and you're fed up. That's fine and to an extent I definitely get it. To an extent, I'm fed up too. But maybe don't ruin it for other people that maybe do still want to have faith/hope in their team???
You are talking about two extremes (winning playoff rounds or picking in the top 10) and completely ignoring that it's way more likely, that they finish exactly as they have the previous three years. They will be a 10-16 team in the NHL that is going to get exposed by a more talented and better constructed roster in the playoffs.
Make noise in playoffs - 15%
Pick in the Top 10 - 10%
Stay in the black hole and lose in round 1 - 75%
Why do we need to "wait and see what they are".... we have over 250 games of data the last 3 years that show us exactly what they are. Why should we ignore that for 10-15 games this season?
Will a fourth season in a row of losing to Edmonton be enough?
