I don't know about that Blandalorian.
The Kings do have Jeannot, Burroughs can fight and the coaching staff does seem to favor Burroughs. With that being said, trying to make sense of anything the front office does is a fool's endeavor
Actually, I disagree. This year has been much different than the previous seasons and it surprises me that more folks haven't caught on.
I know we have our jokes here, and in many ways we expect the same failures and look to see how we can fit things that we question into the boxes built by our disappointments, but this has actually been a very easy year to read.
The right things are being done for the right reasons. Edmundson is a perennial 60 game player. Englund was never likely to play in the same lineup at the same time barring a severe rash of injuries, but its pretty clear that they want some muscle on the back end. Englund was kept to hedge the bet on Edmundson being a full timer.
I don't think that Burroughs was brought in to be a regular, but they wanted a disposable, veteran RHD for camp should Clarke prove himself not ready.
Clarke isn't a right out of the box player, he has some very poor tendencies that will only be ironed out with experience. And part of that experience may very well come from the adversity of sitting out at times if need be. And his physical immaturity could also be a bigger concern for the staff than we know.
Clarke proved himself as a viable option in camp, but the Doughty injury made keeping Burroughs a necessity.
So the camp decision of backing up physicality or backing up the inexperience pn the right side got punted down to January. Moverare is the surprise here, so undoubtedly the Kings best 7d does not include Englund or Burroughs. It makes sense to keep 8, but 9 is ridiculous.
The realistic options are to either give Clarke a breather, or waive either Moverare, Englund or Burroughs. Burroughs is the safest bet to clear, he has been the worst performer, and with Doughty back (and Gavrikov doing well on the right), Burroughs seems most likely to be waived.
So do they want Clarke to get some time in the AHL, or do they want to lose Burroughs? As a fan it an easy choice, but if they really do see Clarke running out of steam maybe it's harder than it looks