GDT: 2024-25 season game 47 LA Kings vs Detroit Red Wings @4:00pm 1/27/25

Last week it was looking like King's could coast on 0.500 hockey into the playoffs. They're only 4 points up on Vancouver now, couple games in hand. Vancouver pulls their head out of wherever it's stuck & King's could have some issues.

Missing the playoffs would be helpful if it got the front office replaced.

One goal scored tonight by the King's isn't enough.
 
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Notable young players since the change to Todd 16 games ago

Raymond (1st line)
7-16-23

Kasper (1st line)
7-4-11

Edvinsson (2nd d pair)
4 assists +8

So much for the narrative/excuse that “Todd hates kids” that was talked about around here a lot.
I wonder how much of both situations has been dictated by the GM/culture. I recall hearing even the 1-3-1 was dictated from Blucifer.
 
I wonder how much of both situations has been dictated by the GM/culture. I recall hearing even the 1-3-1 was dictated from Blucifer.
Imagine if somebody had told you 25 years ago that Luc would be in control of hockey operations and would push a playing style more defensive oriented than any team in the NHL.

It would be like Trevor Lewis being GM 20 years from now and installing a run and gun offensive style.
 
The song I started singing after our last winning streak

“And the Trevor’s came back, the very next day”
 
Imagine if somebody had told you 25 years ago that Luc would be in control of hockey operations and would push a playing style more defensive oriented than any team in the NHL.

It would be like Trevor Lewis being GM 20 years from now and installing a run and gun offensive style.
That right there is shocking enough... 2nd part icing on the cake.
 
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Notable young players since the change to Todd 16 games ago

Raymond (1st line)
7-16-23

Kasper (1st line)
7-4-11

Edvinsson (2nd d pair)
4 assists +8

So much for the narrative/excuse that “Todd hates kids” that was talked about around here a lot.
I wonder how much of both situations has been dictated by the GM/culture.
Those guys look like they were already in those roles before Todd got there. He has to play them like that. It's not like he really has any other options.
 
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Kings picked a bad time to go cold. Next 3 games against Florida, Tampa and Carolina.

Hiller has overplayed Kuemper.

Hold onto your butts.
 
I was curious so I did a very unofficial check on LA's offense prowess. My unofficial research shows that since the 2001-2002 season, the highest the Kings offense (goals per game) has ever finished in a regular season is... 10th. Accomplished 3 times.

Please note I did this quickly and could be wrong but that's just... not acceptable.
 
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Todd sends a massive FU….to you know who.

Isn't it amazing how the best player on the ice tonight was someone "barely old enough to buy a beer" who is turning into a star player before our eyes at age 22, in his 4th season in the NHL, while being coached by a guy who "hates kids" (I know the 2nd quote isn't attributed to you since you loved Todd)

I wonder how Raymond's career would be progressing in LA. You think he'd be a star player right now?

I was curious so I did a very unofficial check on LA's offense prowess. My unofficial research shows that since the 2001-2002 season, the highest the Kings offense (goals per game) has ever finished in a regular season is... 10th. Accomplished 3 times.

Please note I did this quickly and could be wrong but that's just... not acceptable.
Good research.

Since 2001, the Kings have drafted eight players who went on to become clear-cut top-six forwards in the NHL, a very low number for a team that has only advanced beyond the first round three times in the last 24 years. These players were Mike Cammalleri (2001), Dustin Brown (2003), Anze Kopitar (2005), Wayne Simmonds (2007), Brayden Schenn (2009), Tyler Toffoli (2010), Adrian Kempe (2014), and Gabe Vilardi (2017). Over that period, the Kings used 15 first-round picks on forwards, including seven selected in the top 13 between 2003 and 2020.

Three of the players who became top-six forwards (Schenn, Simmonds, Vilardi) were traded well before reaching their peak in exchange for two established top-six players (Richards and Dubois). Another, Cammalleri, who is the only Kings draft pick other than Kopitar to record an 80-point season this century, was traded in his prime after his age-25 season for a draft pick that turned out to be a bust.

More recently, the Kings traded their 2015 first-round pick (which, according to Mike Futa, was set to be Mat Barzal) for a one-season player (Milan Lucic). The aforementioned 2017 pick, Gabe Vilardi, was also traded for another one-season player (Pierre-Luc Dubois). Additionally, the back-to-back top-five picks in 2019 and 2020 (Alex Turcotte and Quinton Byfield) have failed to produce anything close to the level of offensive output you would expect from forwards taken that high.

The win-now trades and the significant amount of youth given up for players who played a small number of games for the Kings have certainly hurt their overall goals-for numbers over the past two decades. While the Kings have been a defensively oriented team, this issue largely stems from a problem that has plagued the organization and its scouting staff for years: an inability to hit enough home runs in the first round. They’ve excelled (regardless of the GM) at finding gems outside the first round, but whether it’s an evaluation problem, a development problem, or a combination of both, the Kings just haven’t been able to make enough of their most important forward picks work out.

The Kings made it work with their biggest hit, Drew Doughty, pairing him with Taylor and Al Murray’s three home-run picks they inherited (Kopitar, Quick, and Brown). That core group carried the Kings to a magical three-year run, but once they lost players like Richards, Mitchell, Voynov, and Williams, they were unable to replace them, let alone find potential replacements for players the caliber of Kopitar, Doughty, Quick and Carter.

It’s still incredible that they won those two Stanley Cups, something many of us thought we’d never see. But at the same time, it’s astonishing to think that in June 2014, Kopitar was 26, Doughty was 24, Quick was 28, and Brown was 29, yet they never won another playoff round as a group.
 
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Idk I'm not really too upset. This is exactly where the Kings have been in January the last several seasons. The next 10 games from here are going to tell us a lot about the Kings. Either the train keeps going in the same circle it's been going in lately, progresses uphill, or falls off the face of the planet. All 3 scenarios are equally likely from my perspective.
 
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It’s time to trade Byfield

It's too late to get a return you would have gotten a couple years ago. Look at historical returns around the league for similar players who are moved, fans cling to draft night value when the player was 17 more than GM's do. Byfield is no longer a baby by modern (non-Kings) development standards, and he carries a pretty big cap hit for a guy currently on pace for 40 points. He's not worthless on the trade market, but the return would probably anger a lot of people here and wouldn't make the Kings contenders. The Kings are better off hoping that Byfield ends up being an outlier that people always talk about, like Tage Thompson, instead of the enigmatic player he has shown. Since the highlight reel goals against Columbus last March, he has 13 goals in 79 games.

If QB were traded, it would probably make sense for it to be in a swap for another youngish player who has also stagnated. If Seattle offered Beniers for QB, would you still be on board with trading him? I feel like the pre-draft red flags that were talked about with both players have sadly become a reality. But that is the type of trade I could see being made if the Kings ever did consider going down that path.

Can’t wait for the inevitable deadline move where the Kings overpay for a middling forward who struggles to fit in here.

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^^^
Two of the most disappointing and frustrating seasons in Kings history right there, and those trades were the cherry on top. Luckily none of the assets given up turned into anything.

The Kings looked amazing for 50 games in 2005-2006 and then having the clown show of Garon and Labarbera caught up with them, they turned into a pumpkin and DT just had no answers. He had a black-hole roster that could have gotten a 6-8 seed but the goaltending did them in. He should have been looking for a goaltender if he was going to trade two former 1st rounders, and not washed up Parrish and Sopel.

The worst part about missing the playoffs in 2015 (other than missing as defending champs) was it meant the Kings kept their 2015 first in the Sekera trade, which DL then foolishly gave away for that slug Lucic. Had the Kings made the playoffs, Carolina would have gotten the Kings 2015 pick and the Kings would have kept the 2016 pick. 2016 wasn't a great draft, but I could have easily seen DL drafting Tage Thompson, seems like a DL kind of guy.
 
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