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

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Kuemper Buyout:

SeasonSavingsCap Hit
2025-26$1,791,667$3,458,333
2026-27$1,041,667$4,208,333
2027-28($708,333)$708,333
2028-29($708,333)$708,333

Makes sense to do it this offseason.
 
Totally forgot we still had Moverare. We sure have a plethora of #6-7 D-men. Interesting they chose Portillo over Copley, guess they want to see what he can do...
 
OK just when i think they got it right w QB on PP1, I see they moved Clarke to PP2? File this under Make it make sense

I like that Hiller has proven he's not afraid to get creative with his lineup decisions...... But I reallllllly think he overdoes/overthinks it sometimes.

Clarke is very good at manning the point on a powerplay- He knows how to get pucks through defenses and either on net or to the front of the net for rebound opportunities. It's honestly one of the biggest strengths to his game IMO. He's also just an exceptional playmaker in general who sees the ice really well. He's not the issue with your struggling powerplay.

TBH, it's probably not a personnel issue to begin with... I definitely understand trying to change things up a bit but you have a powerplay with Clarke, Kempe, Kopitar, Fiala, and Laferriere.... As an NHL coach, you should be able to get at least decent production out of that group. There's plenty of offensive ability among those 5 players.

Maybe instead of jumping to "lets try 5 forwards on the PP" they should take a look at "lets try to get these guys cycling around the ice so we can generate some different looks for different players instead of constantly setting up the same 2-3 shot attempts"??

We don't need 5 forwards on the PP - we need a PP that isn't completely and totally predictable.
 
OK just when i think they got it right w QB on PP1, I see they moved Clarke to PP2? File this under Make it make sense

Glad to see Turcotte back on the ice and evidently ready for game action and on the power play. Stay safe, buddy.

My guess with this power play alignment is that Hiller thinks Spence isn't doing a good job of generating offense on PP2.
 
A few good things from this year...

The Kings are the 8th youngest team and finally giving the kids a shot - Turcotte, Thomas, Lee, Clarke, and now Helenius and Portillo.

The Kings are tied with NJ for the league in fights - so they are finally not getting bullied.

The bad...

Danault, Byfield, and Spence look terrible.

Also, the Kings need a scorer to play with Kopitar/Kempe. I was going thru the league leaders in goals and a few guys intrigued me - McCann and Palmeri. Also, bummer the Kings didn't make a run at Jack Roslovic - he's having a great center and can play C/RW.

The D without Doughty has been a mess. Gavrikov and Anderson have been awesome, Clarke is having a solid year, Spence has been terrible and the rotation of Englund/Burroughs/Jones hasn't done much. Englund looks worse than last year, Jones is hurt and barely plays, even though he has the best Corsi of the three. I thought Burroughs was playing the best of the three, but he's out of the line up again.
 
A few good things from this year...

The Kings are the 8th youngest team and finally giving the kids a shot - Turcotte, Thomas, Lee, Clarke, and now Helenius and Portillo.

The Kings are tied with NJ for the league in fights - so they are finally not getting bullied.

The bad...

Danault, Byfield, and Spence look terrible.

Also, the Kings need a scorer to play with Kopitar/Kempe. I was going thru the league leaders in goals and a few guys intrigued me - McCann and Palmeri. Also, bummer the Kings didn't make a run at Jack Roslovic - he's having a great center and can play C/RW.

The D without Doughty has been a mess. Gavrikov and Anderson have been awesome, Clarke is having a solid year, Spence has been terrible and the rotation of Englund/Burroughs/Jones hasn't done much. Englund looks worse than last year, Jones is hurt and barely plays, even though he has the best Corsi of the three. I thought Burroughs was playing the best of the three, but he's out of the line up again.
Spence has been pretty good so far. Playing the role of Sean Walker. He's just not getting the job done on the power play. He may just end up being a solid 3rd pairing guy.

Byfield has also been okay, again, not on the scoreboard as much as we'd like. He's doing all the other good things, and is basically the Kings best penalty killer

Danault is also mostly invisible on offense, but playing decent defense. Net meh.

The players that have actually been bad are Kevin Fiala and Andre Lee. For some reason the Moore-Danault-Fiala line hasn't worked this year. He and Byfield are like oil and water. Andre Lee needs to go work on his game in all three zones in Ontario.
 
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Every time I’ve seen Portillo in the big leagues, he gets his back blown out, I have zero faith in him.
 
I agree. Frankly I'd switch Fiala and Clarke, but that's my best guess of what they're looking for.
For me its Kempe or Fiala.. Fiala more creative but also risky.. Kempe PP goal scoring only 5 last season - thats really bad. Only 1 this season.
 
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Also, the Kings need a scorer to play with Kopitar/Kempe. I was going thru the league leaders in goals and a few guys intrigued me - McCann and Palmeri. Also, bummer the Kings didn't make a run at Jack Roslovic - he's having a great center and can play C/RW.
One of the only positives from last game against Colorado was that Moore seemed to play pretty damn well with Kopi and Kempe. Would be amazing if that line continues to play well together. That could help get Moore going offensively too. If Moore doesn't stick on that top line, I'd really like to see Laferriere moved back up.

Laferriere was great initially with 9 and 11 - the only real reason he didn't stick on that first line is because they wanted to try to get Byfield going so they moved QB back to LW1 for a couple games. Then they move QB back to center and put him with a red hot Laferriere again, just to try to get him going. Now they're moving Clarke off PP1 again, mainly to try to get QB going.

I love QB and I really hope he still ends up figuring it out but at some point it starts to get a bit ridiculous - Constantly altering your lineup to try to get a player going. It's especially ridiculous when you're essentially punishing other young players (or at least decreasing their opportunities) in the process. Laf and Clarke have been great and have both exceeded expectations. Yet now because QB has been struggling 1 is on the 3rd line and the other is being kicked off the 1st PP unit??? Just because there's a 2nd OA pick who can't get his game together? That's frustrating.

Fiala also seems to be a bit of an issue in terms of line combinations. Currently most Kings fans would say Fiala doesn't work well on a line with either Byfield or Kopitar. Which means Fiala basically HAS to be on a line with Danault. The only problem: Fiala hasn't necessarily played amazingly with Danault either. So you have this winger who should be one of your best players but seemingly doesn't fit on any of your top 3 forward lines... What do you even do in that situation??
 
Kuemper Buyout:

[TABLE=collapse]
[TR]
[TD]Season[/TD]
[TD]Savings[/TD]
[TD]Cap Hit[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2025-26[/TD]
[TD]$1,791,667[/TD]
[TD]$3,458,333[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2026-27[/TD]
[TD]$1,041,667[/TD]
[TD]$4,208,333[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2027-28[/TD]
[TD]($708,333)[/TD]
[TD]$708,333[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2028-29[/TD]
[TD]($708,333)[/TD]
[TD]$708,333[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

Makes sense to do it this offseason.
I am absolutely certain that's why they acquired Kuemper - a cheaper buyout than Dubois.
 
The more I think about it. The more I think the Kings need to get Fiala and QB back together again and just deal with the 'growing pains' until those two figure out how to play together. That or take the same approach with Fiala and Kopitar.

Then you can turn the Danault line into a true shutdown/energy 3rd line.

Moore - Kopitar - Kempe
Fiala - Byfield - Laferriere
Turcotte/Thomas - Danault - Foegele

Or

Fiala - Kopitar - Kempe
Moore - Byfield - Laferriere
Turcotte/Thomas - Danault - Foegele

One thing I like about the above two options is that no one is playing too high/low in the lineup. When you look at the top 6 - each one of those forwards is legitimately a top 6 NHL forward. Whereas a lot of other options for the Kings right now have 1-2 players playing up in the lineup when they're ideally more suited for the 3rd line / bottom 6.

Or maybe Fiala would work well with Turcotte at center?? Turcotte's a player who is constantly involved in the play and constantly pushing pace up the ice. Fiala adds the creativity and offensive production?

Maybe a Fiala - Turcotte - Laferriere line could be pretty nasty? Then you just live with QB on the wing for the time being?

Byfield - Kopitar - Kempe
Fiala - Turcotte - Laferriere
Moore - Danault - Foegele

Idk man. Just trying to make sense of it all *rips cigarette*
 
This is how Dooley said they lined up...

(Turcotte) – Kopitar – Kempe – Thomas
Foegele – Byfield – Laferriere
Fiala – Danault – Moore
Lee – Helenius – Lewis – Jeannot

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Englund – Burroughs
 

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