GDT: 2024-25 season game 37 LA Kings vs New Jersey Devils @3:00pm 1/1/25

[VILARGOD]

Now I get why you guys get so mad at @Axl Rhoadz

Completely schooling the whiskey bottle GM's here.

Dead on about

handling Fiala and long term implications for future and current players.

Unhinged comparison of PLD to Fiala

Jim "Jackie nominee" Hiller.

School is in session man boys!

Go ahead and joke for the 100th time about us being the same person, when obviously much different styles.

lol all those whiny emails to the soccer guy only made AXL up his game with still funny succinct
non-bannable replys.

Winning!

 

[Surf Nutz]

Lick GIF - Lick - Discover & Share GIFs

How's you initiation with the good old boys?

 

[King'sPawn]

Such a ridiculous comparison. 167 points in 187 games with the Kings.

I literally compared commitment - trading away high-end talent as well as a lot of money long-term. That's not a talent comparison. They traded Faber + first for Fiala, and committed 7.5 x 8. They traded Vilardi, Iafallo, Kupari, and second for PLD, and committed 8.5 x 8.

That's like saying the Kings used the same pick on Tukonen as they did on Kopitar. It's not saying Kopitar is as talented as Tukonen. The Kings just used similar value in picks on two players.

Do you need crayon to explain further?

 

[Brownie to Pancakes]

They're not getting rid of fiala with a power play this bad

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

I literally compared commitment - trading away high-end talent as well as a lot of money long-term. That's not a talent comparison. They traded Faber + first for Fiala, and committed 7.5 x 8. They traded Vilardi, Iafallo, Kupari, and second for PLD, and committed 8.5 x 8.

That's like saying the Kings used the same pick on Tukonen as they did on Kopitar. It's not saying Kopitar is as talented as Tukonen. The Kings just used similar value in picks on two players.

Do you need crayon to explain further?

This new trend narrative around here that Fiala = shit player….is pretty comical and lame.

What’s next, everyone gonna find a way to sneak ‘strawman’ into their posts?

 

[Surf Nutz]

I literally compared commitment - trading away high-end talent as well as a lot of money long-term. That's not a talent comparison. They traded Faber + first for Fiala, and committed 7.5 x 8. They traded Vilardi, Iafallo, Kupari, and second for PLD, and committed 8.5 x 8.

That's like saying the Kings used the same pick on Tukonen as they did on Kopitar. It's not saying Kopitar is as talented as Tukonen. The Kings just used similar value in picks on two players.

Do you need crayon to explain further?

 

[dabeechman]

I literally compared commitment - trading away high-end talent as well as a lot of money long-term. That's not a talent comparison. They traded Faber + first for Fiala, and committed 7.5 x 8. They traded Vilardi, Iafallo, Kupari, and second for PLD, and committed 8.5 x 8.

That's like saying the Kings used the same pick on Tukonen as they did on Kopitar. It's not saying Kopitar is as talented as Tukonen. The Kings just used similar value in picks on two players.

Do you need crayon to explain further?

Vilardi is on pace for 40 goals this year and is something like a .8ppg player since he landed in WPG.

Faber is nearly tied with Fiala for points. PLD outscoring Fiala.

I like Fiala, but he does do some dumb sh*t and he's frustrating as hell to watch.

Somebody mentioned earlier that Blake's trades weren't all that bad...they've been .org changingly awful.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

Vilardi is on pace for 40 goals this year and is something like a .8ppg player since he landed in WPG.

Faber is nearly tied with Fiala for points. PLD outscoring Fiala.

I like Fiala, but he does do some dumb sh*t and he's frustrating as hell to watch.

Somebody mentioned earlier that Blake's trades weren't all that bad...they've been .org changingly awful.

I don’t care what anyone says, Fiala trade was exactly what the team needed at that time….try using context, folks.

Oh, and Darcy Kuemper says hello.

 

[Schmooley]

They're not getting rid of fiala with a power play this bad

Considering hes on the ice for the full 2 minutes of the powerplay the blame for how bad its been is partly on him.

 

[Omni Owl]

Vilardi is on pace for 40 goals this year and is something like a .8ppg player since he landed in WPG.

Faber is nearly tied with Fiala for points. PLD outscoring Fiala.

 

[Brownie to Pancakes]

Considering hes on the ice for the full 2 minutes of the powerplay the blame for how bad its been is partly on him.

You could easily make the argument that it would sink to 10% if he wasn't there

 

[FSL KINGS]

Somebody mentioned earlier that Blake's trades weren't all that bad...they've been .org changingly awful.

Grundström trade sure did pay off.

 

[dabeechman]

Grundström trade sure did pay off.

Blake has left the chat.

 

[Schmooley]

You could easily make the argument that it would sink to 10% if he wasn't there

Yea you could argue that and you could also argue he turns it over constantly on the powerplay making it bad.
I dont even really think they have to trade him like others here do but all these reasons people saying they cant are not really strong arguments to keep him if you watch every game.
The only thing right now you can say about him is the team looks good so theres no reason to mess with whats working.
If they were losing games hed be crucified in the media for the way hes playing.

 

[Brownie to Pancakes]

Yea you could argue that and you could also argue he turns it over constantly on the powerplay making it bad.
I dont even really think they have to trade him like others here do but all these reasons people saying they cant are not really strong arguments to keep him if you watch every game.
The only thing right now you can say about him is the team looks good so theres no reason to mess with whats working.
If they were losing games hed be crucified in the media for the way hes playing.

5th on the team in points while last in +/- means he's not the PP problem, imo

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

5th on the team in points while last in +/- means he's not the PP problem, imo

If you run a bunch of filters with him and without him, with certain linemates and without, the numbers barely budge whether Kev is on the ice or not for the PP.

He's not THE problem but he's not being a solution either, and for a team that's 27th in the league on the PP at 16%, yeah, you could argue 'keeping him around for the PP' isn't reasonable. He's got 5 pp goals despite undeservedly being absolutely force fed as much offensive responsibility free time as humanly possible. There's an opportunity cost there for the other forwards on the roster--soft, easy, offensive deployment could be used elsewhere.

It's basically PLD syndrome--they're doing everything they can to justify their investment no one cares as much when we are winning but he would be getting absolutely raked if we start losing and he doesn't pull his head out of his ass. Only it's easy to argue Fiala has been worse because he's high-event net negative where PLD was just low-event neutral worthless.

I would argue giving those minutes to Byfield or Turcotte would be better uses of at least his extra minutes if not his entire PP time until he figures out his life.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

Fiala was traded for good old US boy and HHOF inductee Brock Faber. That and Jim Fox makes things even worse here.

PLD for Gabe, that was the real shitty one.

 

[Statto]

I don’t care what anyone says, Fiala trade was exactly what the team needed at that time….try using context, folks.

Oh, and Darcy Kuemper says hello.

No issue with acquiring Fiala but we definitely overpaid, even if you take the view that Faber was projected as a #3 D at that time. Had it been a 2nd or 3rd rd pick it’d been better value at least.

As much as getting Kuemper instead of PLD was definitely a win for us, you can’t argue that trading Vilardi (+) for Kuemper would be a good deal. We over paid for PLD before you consider the contractual overpayment. Again the pick was unnecessary or at the very least too high to be considered good value at the time of the trade.

So there’s the context.

Fiala was not a bad acquisition IMO but the trade value was not in our favour at the time and now looks absolutely horrendous. He’s not playing well but with his work rate (unlike PLD) I think he will raise his game at some point, so I’m not down on him like some.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

No issue with acquiring Fiala but we definitely overpaid, even if you take the view that Faber was projected as a #3 D at that time. Had it been a 2nd or 3rd rd pick it’d been better value at least.

As much as getting Kuemper instead of PLD was definitely a win for us, you can’t argue that trading Vilardi (+) for Kuemper would be a good deal. We over paid for PLD before you consider the contractual overpayment. Again the pick was unnecessary or at the very least too high to be considered good value at the time of the trade.

So there’s the context.

Fiala was not a bad acquisition IMO but the trade value was not in our favour at the time and now looks absolutely horrendous. He’s not playing well but with his work rate (unlike PLD) I think he will raise his game at some point, so I’m not down on him like some.

I'd argue that there won't be many scenarios when you are acquiring a calibre of player like Fiala (PPG), that a team won't need to 'overpay'. Again, maybe we can all be GMs of the year on Xbox, maybe we could have gotten Fiala for Iafallo + 3rd, but yeah this is the real world. The real world says, you traded a prospect picked LATE in the 2nd round + 1st round pick, for a guy picked 11th overall. That's a pretty fair deal.

The real argument here is....3 years later you want a do-over. It's a silly and ridiculous discussion.

 

[bland]

No issue with acquiring Fiala but we definitely overpaid, even if you take the view that Faber was projected as a #3 D at that time. Had it been a 2nd or 3rd rd pick it’d been better value at least.

As much as getting Kuemper instead of PLD was definitely a win for us, you can’t argue that trading Vilardi (+) for Kuemper would be a good deal. We over paid for PLD before you consider the contractual overpayment. Again the pick was unnecessary or at the very least too high to be considered good value at the time of the trade.

So there’s the context.

Fiala was not a bad acquisition IMO but the trade value was not in our favour at the time and now looks absolutely horrendous. He’s not playing well but with his work rate (unlike PLD) I think he will raise his game at some point, so I’m not down on him like some.

Acquiring an offensive winger wasn't the wrong idea, they just picked the wrong one. Had they put any kind of thought into how they would integrate a player so completely opposite of their game plan and not just jumped at some "numbers", things could have worked out differently.

Just like Dubois, there was a full book available on Fiala. Both had red flags, but I suspect there were some analytics folks involved that misunderstand what really matters on a team.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Faber turned down the contract. Blake got pissed & traded him. Going to need to move on. Faber plays small anyways. Can't have Doughty, Faber, Clarke down the right. Not enough physicality.

But, Doughty, Clarke, Spence? Seems like a trade for some toughness is needed.

 

[johnjm22]

No issue with acquiring Fiala but we definitely overpaid, even if you take the view that Faber was projected as a #3 D at that time. Had it been a 2nd or 3rd rd pick it’d been better value at least.

As much as getting Kuemper instead of PLD was definitely a win for us, you can’t argue that trading Vilardi (+) for Kuemper would be a good deal. We over paid for PLD before you consider the contractual overpayment. Again the pick was unnecessary or at the very least too high to be considered good value at the time of the trade.

So there’s the context.

Fiala was not a bad acquisition IMO but the trade value was not in our favour at the time and now looks absolutely horrendous. He’s not playing well but with his work rate (unlike PLD) I think he will raise his game at some point, so I’m not down on him like some.

The trade value for Fiala was exactly right. An established scorer in his prime, with controlled rights, for a 1st round pick and high quality prospect.

I'm a Fiala hater, but even I can see the value at the time was correct. (That doesn't mean it's a good trade)

I also don't think the PLD trade and contract were overpayments on paper. Again, I don't like the trade, and I can't stand the player, but the trade value seems about right.

 

[King'sPawn]

Acquiring an offensive winger wasn't the wrong idea, they just picked the wrong one. Had they put any kind of thought into how they would integrate a player so completely opposite of their game plan and not just jumped at some "numbers", things could have worked out differently.

Just like Dubois, there was a full book available on Fiala. Both had red flags, but I suspect there were some analytics folks involved that misunderstand what really matters on a team.

It's not just what was acquired. It's what was traded away.

A rebuilding team traded away a piece they could build around. Really two pieces, if you want to include the 1st round pick. You can argue fair value, but it wasn't the right time.

They are finally building around a couple of the players drafted during the rebuild (Clarke, Byfield, Laferriere, etc). Having Faber to that mix would have been nice. Having Vilardi in that mix would be nice, too.

But we apparently aren't supposed to talk about trades we think are bad when we think they're bad. Nor can we talk about them years later, when they're still seemingly bad. We just have to accept our role as clapping seals and act like pissy trolls when anyone dares to do otherwise.

 

[Axl Rhoadz]

It's not just what was acquired. It's what was traded away.

A rebuilding team traded away a piece they could build around. Really two pieces, if you want to include the 1st round pick. You can argue fair value, but it wasn't the right time.

They are finally building around a couple of the players drafted during the rebuild (Clarke, Byfield, Laferriere, etc). Having Faber to that mix would have been nice. Having Vilardi in that mix would be nice, too.

But we apparently aren't supposed to talk about trades we think are bad when we think they're bad. Nor can we talk about them years later, when they're still seemingly bad. We just have to accept our role as clapping seals and act like pissy trolls when anyone dares to do otherwise.

YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT. It was not a 'bad' trade'. Do you need me to write that in crayon?

 

[Statto]

The trade value for Fiala was exactly right. An established scorer in his prime, with controlled rights, for a 1st round pick and high quality prospect.

I'm a Fiala hater, but even I can see the value at the time was correct. (That doesn't mean it's a good trade)

I also don't think the PLD trade and contract were overpayments on paper. Again, I don't like the trade, and I can't stand the player, but the trade value seems about right.

I think both picks were the issue for me. Both were unnecessary and/or too high. A round lower for each would have been right for me.

Spence would have been a better option if we were giving a 1st away also. I felt that at the time. I accept value for Fiala is arguable though.

Wrt PLD, Iaffalo was a cap dump essentially and even then the pick felt unnecessary to me. A 3rd or 4th rounder would have been fine.