Speculation: Another year of this Bluc **** (The 2024-25 season thread)

[Sol]

use that code and they just instantly redirect you to the suicide hotline

“Damn, you’re a kings fan? Well, maybe you should do it”

 

[King'sPawn]

Okay, you win. Congrats.

Next time I won't ask questions. Learned everything I needed to!

 

[BringTheReign]

Next time I won't ask questions. Learned everything I needed to!

I responded that way because I don't know why you have such an issue with how he was handled during camp. It seems pretty cut and dry that they were considering him to stay and play the season with Reign, so they gave him the extra time at Reign camp. This tracks with updates from Hoven and directly from Yannetti.

As noted during last night’s postgame Twitter Space (online radio show), Mayor’s Manor has learned that forward Koehn Ziemmer will stick around a bit longer. He will be joining AHL Ontario for camp beginning Monday.

Similar to defenseman Jakub Dvorak, the Kings have options with Ziemmer. He can return to the WHL but is also AHL eligible because of where his birthday falls. It’s most likely he’ll eventually end up back in junior hockey. However, he could still start the season with Ontario and get some pro games before being reassigned. For now, it’s more of a week-to-week situation.

Thursday: Kings Roster Notes, Doughty, and Update on Ziemmer Situation

Two names that are not even penciled in yet for Ontario, but that are eligible to play in Ontario, Dvorak and Ziemmer. Will either one of them end up with Ontario? What are the odds that they end up in the rain with the rain versus going back to the WHL?

Well, Ziemer would have been a LAK if he didn't miss the whole year. It would have just been the perfect natural progression. We've had this discussion. I can come up with, I probably can come up with five exact reasons why Ziemmer should only play in Ontario next year, and I can come up with five reasons he should play. He's a 50-50 guy right off the bat.

Like in terms of addressing, he's going to rebuild his body differently. We said that when it's drafted. They talk about skating. Well, some of his skating is mechanical, and some of his skating is not mechanical. It was the same with Toffoli. Some of Toffoli's skating was mechanical, all the less, and a lot of the Toffoli's was not mechanical. Toffoli didn't know how to train, didn't love to train.

For that aspect, it's imperative to get Colin into Ontario under the guise of the coaching staff and the development staff every day, the training staff, the strength department. We're seeing him, and again, not giving him a chance to do anything except everything the right way. So in that respect, it's of tantamount importance that he stays with the rain.

However, he played 15 games last year. He got injured in the exact long time. He was so good at our camp. And then he came back, and the week he got hurt, a couple of our guys who were out there, they'd never seen anything like it. He was just taking the game over.

How about the fact that he got hurt the week before World Junior Camp? I mean, you talk about horrible timing. That's terrible.

Yeah, it just sucked. Every way around it did. So, as I said, it's such an easy projection if he played all last year, there's not even any discussion.

But the thing is, he did miss a whole year, and there's a lot of things he still needs to work on. So, as I said, I think camp will dictate a lot of it. How much does missing last year affect him? Does he come into camp completely in shape? I mean, I'm not saying this is a fall. He missed five months.

He couldn't put weight on. He couldn't go out and ride the bike or run. So, when he came back, he was completely out of shape. So, he missed a year. He didn't get to work on the stuff we wanted him to work on off the ice. As I said, it's just three, four, five fold how the injury affected him.

I think he comes to rookie camp, and as I said, I think you evaluate him on a segment, just certain segments. Comes to rookie camp, where is he at?

Oh, geez, he's right where he was last year. Didn't miss a beat. Okay, now we play him in the same thing as last year. Now you see where he is. Now you give him a chance to make the Ontario team. If he's not there, then he goes back. I don't think it will be as hard a choice.

As I said, right now, I can come up with reasons why I should do one or the other. But I think at the end of the day, the choice will be a pretty easy one. We'll be watching him saying, yeah, last year didn't hurt him.

He's ready for the next step in his career. It's Ontario or you know what? He needs another year.

It's too bad what happened last year. We'll just reset and we'll go from there. So I think Ziemmer will really take care of himself.”

 

[Statto]

So why didn't they use a conditioning stint to keep him in the AHL longer?

I presume at the end of his AHL stint they decided for certain that he needed to go back to the WHL. He was very clear that he wanted to turn pro this year so it makes sense to at least give him the opportunity to make the AHL roster, rather than p-off one of the top prospects. Obviously complete guesswork on my part but it’s not going to be just about managing the player, but the person also. At least it should be.

 

[King'sPawn]

I responded that way because I don't know why you have such an issue with how he was handled during camp. It seems pretty cut and dry that they were considering him to stay and play the season with Reign, so they gave him the extra time at Reign camp. This tracks with updates from Hoven and directly from Yannetti.



Thursday: Kings Roster Notes, Doughty, and Update on Ziemmer Situation

I appreciate the response and I promise I'm not trying to be a pain. It's just that sending a player to major junior is a season-long commitment where you lose flexibility.

So, before they sent him down, I was curious of the decision making. If they wanted him to train with the pros and give him a shot at making the team, what blocked them from a conditioning stint, which they have used in the past? It's something they were able to use with Clarke to let his contract slide. And I don't know if I'm missing anything there.

If they didn't think it was worth exercising, why not? Did he accept what he had to do to train properly? Did he not?

These are nuances in developmental decisions, and it's not that it bothers/upsets me as much as it appears, but I'm curious of why. And with me being a fan of Ziemmer, it's interesting to me.

And I feel it would be more productive brainstorming with you all than nagging Hoven on something he probably wouldn't get a straight answer to.

 

[johnjm22]

I forgot I had a Jfresh subscription. These are all the latest cards including last seasons data.

I think it's kind of funny how all our rando defensemen we got for almost nothing (Englund, Burroughs, Jones) all grade out higher than Edmundson.

 

[AbsentMojo]

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I forgot I had a Jfresh subscription. These are all the latest cards including last seasons data.

I think it's kind of funny how all our rando defensemen we got for almost nothing (Englund, Burroughs, Jones) all grade out higher than Edmundson.

I always find this stuff interesting to look at trajectory too since one bad year can throw off a 3 year weighted avg. IE Byfield trending up has to be accounted for. Or at least as long as people ask the questions 'why'

 

[Lt Dan]

I forgot I had a Jfresh subscription. These are all the latest cards including last seasons data.

I think it's kind of funny how all our rando defensemen we got for almost nothing (Englund, Burroughs, Jones) all grade out higher than Edmundson.

Can you explain what these mean to me like I am 6 yearsold?

View attachment 914062

Those bastards promised me that they wouldn't publish a picture of me. Now I gotta move my boat elsewhere before the paparazzi show up

 

[Schmooley]

I think it's kind of funny how all our rando defensemen we got for almost nothing (Englund, Burroughs, Jones) all grade out higher than Edmundson.

Have a feeling Edmundson will be this years whipping boy. We have at least one every year.

 

[johnjm22]

I always find this stuff interesting to look at trajectory too since one bad year can throw off a 3 year weighted avg. IE Byfield trending up has to be accounted for. Or at least as long as people ask the questions 'why'

The most interesting card is Fiala IMO. Look as his defensive WAR from 22/23 to 23/24. A lot of us noticed that last year he started to play more responsibly. This analytics model reflects that, but way more than I thought it would. It's one of the biggest year to year WAR changes I've ever seen.

They have QB graded as one of the best defensive forwards in the league last year. That's cool.

 

[Statto]

Have a feeling Edmundson will be this years whipping boy. We have at least one every year.

He is already, isn’t he? Along with Lewis.

 

[Schmooley]

The most interesting card is Fiala IMO. Look as his defensive WAR from 22/23 to 23/24. A lot of us noticed that last year he started to play more responsibly. This analytics model reflects that, but way more than I thought it would. It's one of the biggest year to year WAR changes I've ever seen.

They have QB graded as one of the best defensive forwards in the league last year. That's cool.

Fiala was better defensively last year. He really hustles and backchecks also. Most of his criticism defensively is from his decisions with puck in certain situations and areas of the ice that lead to catastrophic defensive lapses for everyone on the ice.
His d zone coverage is not really an issue either.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Have a feeling Edmundson will be this years whipping boy. We have at least one every year.

People will want it to be Edmundson because of contract and the 'lol good ol boy aging vet' stereotype Blake and Luc can't help themselves with

But it's gonna be Burroughs, mark my words. Dude sucks. A golf ball thru a garden hose.

 

[AbsentMojo]

People will want it to be Edmundson because of contract and the 'lol good ol boy aging vet' stereotype Blake and Luc can't help themselves with

But it's gonna be Burroughs, mark my words. Dude sucks. A golf ball thru a garden hose.

Edbumson and Burroughs and a kid that should be allowed to learn his craft and make a few mistakes.. That d-corps is sketchy. I think LAK with that and a new system will be bottom 1/4 of the league in terms of high danger chances against. we'll see if Kuemper can handle the shooting galary.

 

[King'sPawn]

Can you explain what these mean to me like I am 6 yearsold?

WAR is a metric someone developed with their own algorithm - Wins Above Replacement.

The easiest (though possibly laziest) explanation - it's a percentile score relative to the rest of the league, like an NHL2025 game. The difference is the games seem more arbitrary, and WAR is based on collected data, but is weighed on previous seasons (hence the "projected").

So, based on the data, Byfield is expected to be among the top 49% of players. Kopitar 86%, etc.

Obviously this model gets skewed against growing/developing player, and favors veterans who may be on the downswing. But it's a prediction model - one of the reason why analytics get overused and misused. But it's still interesting to some (including me).

But this probably isn't a good explanation like you're 6 years old I'm not good with children.

 

[theMajor]

i have to say, im more excited for this season than i've been in 5+ years...even with Doughty out for a while

 

[tny760]

i have to say, im more excited for this season than i've been in 5+ years...even with Doughty out for a while

BetterHelp.com

Use code LAKINGSFAN

gotchu bro

 

[theMajor]

gotchu bro

can i bank this until i really need it? something tells me i might come january/february....

 

[David Lunch]

Who wants to talk some LTIR vs Cap accruement? With Doughty going on LTIR, it means we have a ton of cap space NOW to work with, but at the expense of accruing cap space for the trade deadline and beyond. Why would Blake do this? Yes, something needed to be done if we wanted to get 23 players on the roster instead of 22, but I believe putting Kaliyev on LTIR would have been enough to get Lee under the cap with Doughty on IR.

This seems extremely short sighted to me and I don't understand the move at all. The only thing that seems logical would be that they plan to add a player now (but then what do you do with them once Doughty returns?) or that they're not wanting to make a big trade deadline acquisition (which would be reasonable if they're accurately not expecting this team to contend for the cup and want to horde draft assets, but that does not seem to be how Rob Blake is thinking at this point of his GM career with his job potentially on the line). So I come back to, W(hy)TF is Doughty going on LTIR?

 

[yankeeking]

i have to say, im more excited for this season than i've been in 5+ years...even with Doughty out for a while

it does seem like a more balanced team if most or all play up to talent level expected, hope the kids and edmundson stay healthy and hope the coaching staff dosen't panic and go back to the 1-3-1
GO KINGS GO

 

[BaileyFan]

Who wants to talk some LTIR vs Cap accruement? With Doughty going on LTIR, it means we have a ton of cap space NOW to work with, but at the expense of accruing cap space for the trade deadline and beyond. Why would Blake do this? Yes, something needed to be done if we wanted to get 23 players on the roster instead of 22, but I believe putting Kaliyev on LTIR would have been enough to get Lee under the cap with Doughty on IR.

This seems extremely short sighted to me and I don't understand the move at all. The only thing that seems logical would be that they plan to add a player now (but then what do you do with them once Doughty returns?) or that they're not wanting to make a big trade deadline acquisition (which would be reasonable if they're accurately not expecting this team to contend for the cup and want to horde draft assets, but that does not seem to be how Rob Blake is thinking at this point of his GM career with his job potentially on the line). So I come back to, W(hy)TF is Doughty going on LTIR?

I don’t believe the Kings would be accruing cap space if Kaliyev was on LTIR either. They would still be over the cap. It does open up the possibility of acquiring a player now as you mentioned with the temporary cap space.

The rumblings last week were that Blake was looking to acquire a 4C which makes sense- you know it has to be KILLING him that two under-25yo’s are on the same line in Turcotte/Thomas. If there is a move, I’d expect it to be one that allows them to send one of those two to the press box indefinitely.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Cap moves besides, this team isn’t big game hunting at the deadline. It’ll be an overpayment for affordable depth.

 

[johnjm22]

Most of his criticism defensively is from his decisions with puck in certain situations and areas of the ice that lead to catastrophic defensive lapses for everyone on the ice.

I agree, but something did change in his game last year.

It's about knowing when to take a chance to generate an offensive opportunity.

This is why I always rave about QB, he rarely makes a poor decision with the puck and knows when to pick his spots.

 

[shuchukfan]

i have to say, im more excited for this season than i've been in 5+ years...even with Doughty out for a while

I'm more excited BECAUSE Doughty is out for a while. Clarke and Spence should get more ice time, so we'll see what they do with it.