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

[Peter James Bond III]

Laferriere's agent was BRILLIANT to leverage him signing after his soph season, by having him stay up with the Kings and burning year 1 of his ELC, as part of the deal. I am sure the Kings would have never expected him to make the team the following year, have enough jam to play 81 games...and then follow that year with a seemingly 30+ goal breakout, ELC 3. He could honestly be headed for a 40+ goal year. He's confident, strong on pucks, has ability to find seems, score on in front of goal tips, high slot tips, has really improved his shot (he said in his April exit interview he would work hard on his shot in the Summer) and can really rifle pucks with accuracy within 25 feet of the goal.

No one was believing he would have this level of success as LW1 and probably move down...but he can play LW1 or can even score with Turcotte, Foegele....and his 7 5on5 goals is tops or among tops in the NHL.

Contracts these days are absurd, when it comes to one breakout season, or a player hitting 30+ goals. You almost know Blake is talking with Hiller to keep Laffy a bit bridled, off the PP...and less minutes, to keep him under 30 goals. Much akin to keeping Clarke away from bonuses last year. Half joking. I think if Laferriere tops 35+ goals, the Kings 'projections' for 25-26 cap model is looking a bit frantic and messing up what they were projecting...probably expected Laf to get 15-20 goals and get him bridged, around 3x3. Not going to happen.

Conversely, Turcotte's 3 x 775K is going to be one of the best contracts in the NHL. I wonder if Turcotte felt like he should take that as a 'guarantee' 3 years, in case a career ending concussion. I'm honestly surprised he took that and go for 2 yrs instead...betting on himself. I wonder if he had Laf's agent, may have done Turcotte better.

 

[FrozenKing18]

Friendly reminder that Rob Blake is going to be the longest tenured GM in Kings history.

Fantastic, that’s another banner up in the rafters.

 

[KopitarGOAT420]

This team desperately needs Byfield to find his scoring touch again.

Danault finally gets a goal last game but prior to that goal the Kings essentially had 0 goals from their middle 6 centers 11 games into the season. That's insane.

Byfield starting to score some goals will also open up his playmaking ability. Right now teams know he's always looking to make a pass so they can key on it.. If he starts finding the back of the net, all of the sudden you have to start defending differently against him and some of those passing lanes will start to open up again.

Really hope it's just a cold start / long scoring drought that ends up being an anomaly in his career. We can't be having these stretches of ~40 games (going back to last season) with 1 goal to show for it. QB just has way too much talent for that. You can see him visibly very frustrated on the ice too. The longer this goes on the harder it's going to be... Hope he can catch a break and get the monkey off his back ASAP.

I'll end with a little bold prediction: Byfield still ends up hitting 20 goals this year despite this ice cold start (I think he's going to start to catch fire once he pots a couple goals and gets his confidence going again)

 

[KINGS17]

Friendly reminder that Rob Blake is going to be the longest tenured GM in Kings history.

This organization is a f'ing joke post-Lombardi.

 

[BringTheReign]

Just my monthly reminder of the Kings roster if they'd done absolutely nothing except re-signing players we had, making draft pick-only trades (i.e. Yannetti-guided) or signing free agents for under $1M. Blake with a disconnected controller from October 2021 until today fields a better team than what we're left with.

Laferriere - Kopitar - Kempe
Vilardi - Byfield - Iafallo
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Thomas - Turcotte - Lee
*Kupari

Anderson - Faber
Roy - Clarke
Englund - Durzi
*Spence

Quick
Rittich
Copley
Petersen buried in the minors

IR: Kaliyev, Doughty
Two additional 1st round picks: Liam Ohgren (Wild), Oliver Bonk (Flyers via Blue Jackets)

 

[King'sPawn]

Just my monthly reminder of the Kings roster if they'd done absolutely nothing except re-signing players we had, making draft pick-only trades (i.e. Yannetti-guided) or signing free agents for under $1M. Blake with a disconnected controller from October 2021 until today fields a better team than what we're left with.

Laferriere - Kopitar - Kempe
Vilardi - Byfield - Iafallo
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Thomas - Turcotte - Lee
*Kupari

Anderson - Faber
Roy - Clarke
Englund - Durzi
*Spence

Quick
Rittich
Copley
Petersen buried in the minors

IR: Kaliyev, Doughty
Two additional 1st round picks: Liam Ohgren (Wild), Oliver Bonk (Flyers via Blue Jackets)

Only thing I'd say is a couple trades probably would have to be made as I don't think that's cap compliant - but at least the Kings would have had a better idea of their core.

 

[BringTheReign]

Only thing I'd say is a couple trades probably would have to be made as I don't think that's cap compliant - but at least the Kings would have had a better idea of their core.

My math shows $44.9M for the forward group, $32.4M for the back end, and $3.1M for the goaltending. That's $80.4M. Adding $3.9M for Petersen's buried hit gets us to $84.3M. I know that assumes they'd signed the same deals staying put, but yeah.

The following season we'd have to figure out Faber's extension and a new deal for Laferriere, but those are both manageable and good problems to have as opposed to what we have now.

 

[YP44]

any updates on Turcotte? Given his concussion history and his propensity to keep his head down and take big hits I am worried.
Guy looks good when healthy, but he has taken some big hits already this year.

 

[kingsholygrail]

any updates on Turcotte? Given his concussion history and his propensity to keep his head down and take big hits I am worried.
Guy looks good when healthy, but he has taken some big hits already this year.

No updates. It's the usual NHL. Upper body injury. Return status unknown.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

"He'll be fine"

Translation

They're searching for a concussion proof coffin

 

[AbsentMojo]

any updates on Turcotte? Given his concussion history and his propensity to keep his head down and take big hits I am worried.
Guy looks good when healthy, but he has taken some big hits already this year.

I think the first time we noticed he was the problem with the concussions was about 2 years ago. You'd think the org would recongize this and address it by now. In youth hockey there are drills they use at the peewee level to get them ready for hits - as kids notoriously look down all the time up til that time. Its like he never went through it.

 

[Reaper45]

It looked more shoulder/neck for Turcotte than head in my opinion unless I missed one of the angles.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Less than 20 games in Turcotte has taken 2-3 big hits on the boards. He can't keep taking these hits. It just isn't going to work.

Need a fill in if Turcotte can't figure it out.

 

[MonkeysUncle]

Less than 20 games in Turcotte has taken 2-3 big hits on the boards. He can't keep taking these hits. It just isn't going to work.

Need a fill in if Turcotte can't figure it out.

Pretty scary, it's like every time Tua takes a hit, you just cringe.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

“We going loco” is the new team slogan.

 

[Statto]

I think the first time we noticed he was the problem with the concussions was about 2 years ago. You'd think the org would recongize this and address it by now. In youth hockey there are drills they use at the peewee level to get them ready for hits - as kids notoriously look down all the time up til that time. Its like he never went through it.

You assume that they haven’t worked with him on it? That’s highly improbable.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

You assume that they haven’t worked with him on it? That’d highly improbable.

When would they do that, before or after all the surfing they do? It's incredible the mindset of this board sometimes....

 

[AbsentMojo]

You assume that they haven’t worked with him on it? That’s highly improbable.

Look at the player - he still looks down too much... Im not really sure what to think but he doesnt protect himself in high danger situations along the boards.. staring down at the puck while a defender is fast approaching - after all he's been through. I think its easier to assume it hasnt been addressed *properly*

 

[Herby]

“We going loco” is the new team slogan.

Awesome, a team song featuring a guy who was literally at the Honda Center cheering on the Ducks when they won the cup.

 

[kingsboy11]

“We going loco” is the new team slogan.

They've been playing it when they're about to introduce the team. This song sucks

 

[Statto]

Look at the player - he still looks down too much... Im not really sure what to think but he doesnt protect himself in high danger situations along the boards.. staring down at the puck while a defender is fast approaching - after all he's been through. I think its easier to assume it hasnt been addressed *properly*

In that basis they have not tried to improve Byfield’s shot, Kuempers goal tending weaknesses will be ignored… etc.

Just because a player isn’t doing something it doesn’t mean they haven’t worked with them on improving it. Keeping your head up and awareness is instinctive as much as anything. It’s incredibly difficult to try and change those sorts of behaviours, especially years of those bad habits.

There are lots of things to hate, including Turcotte leaving college too early. So let’s not invent something that there is zero actual evidence of… and supposition is not evidence.

 

[Herby]

In that basis they have not tried to improve Byfield’s shot, Kuempers goal tending weaknesses will be ignored… etc.

Just because a player isn’t doing something it doesn’t mean they haven’t worked with them on improving it. Keeping your head up and awareness is instinctive as much as anything. It’s incredibly difficult to try and change those sorts of behaviours, especially years of those bad habits.

There are lots of things to hate, including Turcotte leaving college too early. So let’s not invent something that there is zero actual evidence of… and supposition is not evidence.

The frustrating thing with regards to the pulling from college thing, how do they not see how completely ill-prepared he was to play professional hockey as a teenager? I get it, most people here cheered it on (my guess is they wanted immediate gratification of having him play pro in SoCal), but these are supposed to be professional hockey managers, it was one of the most illogical and terrible hockey decisions this organization has ever made on a single player and sadly this is where we are with it. Not only only were their issues carrying the puck with his head down and putting himself in position to get drilled at the NCAA level (what did they think was going to happen at the next level?), there was also the poor offensive season (especially against good competition) and the fact that he was in major need of putting on significant amounts of weight and strength to play the type of game that he was going to have to play at the NHL level, something much easier to do for a college kid with limited practice and 40 or so games as opposed to a 60+ game AHL schedule with much more practice time.

The ideal and logical place to improve ALL of these flaws in his game was a second year at Wisconsin, everybody who follows it closely could see this, you can go back and reference places like USCHO to see the shock people had to him leaving. How are fans able to clearly see this, but the Kings organization wasn't? We aren't talking about some mid-round pick here, this was at the time the Kings highest draft pick in over a decade. Now is there a guarantee he figures out how carry the puck with his head up or have better awareness to his surroundings, or that he discovers an offensive game his second year? Of course not, but the chances of finding those things in Madison as a 19 year old sophomore playing against his peers was a lot higher than finding it at 19 playing against grown men looking to to take his head off at the AHL level. Again, how do the decision makers in this front-office not see this?

They completely wronged this kid in just about every step of development, and sadly none of the people responsible for it have ever been asked to explain their reasoning.

 

[YP44]

It looked more shoulder/neck for Turcotte than head in my opinion unless I missed one of the angles.

still would cause whiplash and, IMO, was caused because he put himself in a vulnerable spot

Less than 20 games in Turcotte has taken 2-3 big hits on the boards. He can't keep taking these hits. It just isn't going to work.

Need a fill in if Turcotte can't figure it out.

He was looking so good to. Get him healthy and trade him maybe best thing LA does from a selfish standpoint.

 

[AbsentMojo]

In that basis they have not tried to improve Byfield’s shot, Kuempers goal tending weaknesses will be ignored… etc.

Just because a player isn’t doing something it doesn’t mean they haven’t worked with them on improving it. Keeping your head up and awareness is instinctive as much as anything. It’s incredibly difficult to try and change those sorts of behaviours, especially years of those bad habits.

There are lots of things to hate, including Turcotte leaving college too early. So let’s not invent something that there is zero actual evidence of… and supposition is not evidence.

Something is amiss.. you have a player that keeps putting himself into dangerous situations and getting concussed - that has totally has effected his career and physical health, and yet there are no apparent changes... What does that say to you? Ive have not heard it acknowledged that these devastating hits are partly due to his inability to avoid them.. Maybe if it was acknowledged Id feel like there was some team level awareness. Maybe if we had actual hockey press in this market the question would get asked.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Awesome, a team song featuring a guy who was literally at the Honda Center cheering on the Ducks when they won the cup.


View attachment 927316

He was a Penguins fan first.