Around the League '18-'19

[YP44]

f*** is Jumbo Joe a beauty. Wish he had signed with the kings two years ago

 

[YP44]

This plus the MaxPac deal solidify both the Sharks and Vegas. Both of those teams have gotten objectively better. Way better. And they were already better than the Kings last year.

It’s not doom and gloom. It’s realism. The Kings will be fighting for the #3 spot with a very much improved Flames.

Take off the purple glasses for a second and look at this division. It’s going to be a struggle. Anyone with eyeballs can look at the Kings roster and see a giant question mark. Even moreso now with Vilardi not participating in camp and likely spending another year in juniors.

How have the Knights gotten significantly better than last year? MAF will not repeat his numbers, they lost Perron and Neal and replaced with Statsny and Pacioretty. Plus alot of their team will not have career years again.

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

This plus the MaxPac deal solidify both the Sharks and Vegas. Both of those teams have gotten objectively better. Way better. And they were already better than the Kings last year.

It’s not doom and gloom. It’s realism. The Kings will be fighting for the #3 spot with a very much improved Flames.

Take off the purple glasses for a second and look at this division. It’s going to be a struggle. Anyone with eyeballs can look at the Kings roster and see a giant question mark. Even moreso now with Vilardi not participating in camp and likely spending another year in juniors.

And Anaheim always seems to f***ing find a way to win. And Edmonton probably won't be as bad as last year. Arizona also improved after finishing last season strong. Kings are still better than those teams on paper though so we'll see.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

How have the Knights gotten significantly better than last year? MAF will not repeat his numbers, they lost Perron and Neal and replaced with Statsny and Pacioretty. Plus alot of their team will not have career years again.

You don't think Pacioretty and Stastny are better than Neal and Perron?

 

[KingTrouty]

While i hate that EK is a Shark, karma to all those rat bastid Ottawa fans for their shade to Drew over the years.

Rot in hell, Ottawa fans. I love watching you guys implode.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Vegas got worse this year imo. No Perron either.

The pacific got much better this year IMO. But so did the Kings. I'm curious to see how it plays out, hopefully Blake has a couple of spades up his sleeves.

I think that's the kicker. It's always been a super-competitive division top to bottom. Maybe 1-2 teams each year are bad, but there aren't often runaway winners. It's always a dogfight and I don't expect that to change.

Actually having Doughty Karlsson Burns in the same division will STOP all the East Coast boners on Karlsson

but here comes the Hedman > Karlsson > Doughty threads

Yep, practically guarantees a Norris for Hedman, probably runner up for PK, and the writers that would normally vote 'west coast' are gonna split votes. and I predict people will start wondering aloud if EK was even ever that good if he doesn't return to full form after those injuries.

 

[KingTrouty]

I wanna make a poll in the main thread, but after my activities yesterday, I do believe I would be banned

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

This plus the MaxPac deal solidify both the Sharks and Vegas. Both of those teams have gotten objectively better. Way better. And they were already better than the Kings last year.

It’s not doom and gloom. It’s realism. The Kings will be fighting for the #3 spot with a very much improved Flames.

Take off the purple glasses for a second and look at this division. It’s going to be a struggle. Anyone with eyeballs can look at the Kings roster and see a giant question mark. Even moreso now with Vilardi not participating in camp and likely spending another year in juniors.

You're agreeing with me. I never had the Kings winning the division and always have said they'll be in the dogfight for the playoffs. I think most realistic posters acknowledged we were a bubble team with some more cautiously optimistic posters putting us in a Pacific playoff spot. Stop trying so hard to be edgy with the purple glasses bullshit.

You don't think Pacioretty and Stastny are better than Neal and Perron?

I think Patches is a major upgrade on Neal and perron is perron, not a big gain or loss either way. I've never been a big stastny fan--he's slowish and soft, doesn't fit in with that vegas squad at all.

Like I said, I think Vegas is better on paper, but I'll bet they finish with less points than last year.

 

[YP44]

You don't think Pacioretty and Stastny are better than Neal and Perron?

I do but not to the point of offsetting half their rosters career years. In my breakdown I have moved them way up since Pacioretty.

 

[KopitarFAN]

This plus the MaxPac deal solidify both the Sharks and Vegas. Both of those teams have gotten objectively better. Way better. And they were already better than the Kings last year.

It’s not doom and gloom. It’s realism. The Kings will be fighting for the #3 spot with a very much improved Flames..

I think most would disagree on Vegas, between what they gained (Patches, Stastny), what they lost (Neal, Perron) and a roster full of guys who could regress, not just W. Karlsson, but the others who could see diminished rolls due to the additions, even MAF, who had the best season of his career based on many metrics, can't expect that again.

Not saying Vegas is gonna suck, just saying I think they finish with less than 109 points (possibly quite a few less).

 

[kingsboy11]

The Kings still have question marks as we are hoping for bounce back seasons from Toffoli and Pearson, while hoping for additional scoring from Kovalchuk and Carter and hopefully Vilardi, as well as hoping for similar seasons from Kopitar and Brown and you're hoping for more growth from Kempe and Iafallo. I'm not as worried about the defense because despite their issues last season we were still the best defensive team in the league. I think we can expect the powerplay to be significantly better. I know there's a lot of "hoping" in this post, but I'm fairly confident in these guys to be able to play lock down defense and score. I think this is season is where we finally find that right balance of scoring and defense. I don't think the Karlsson or Pacioretty trades change the focus for this year at all.

 

[Stimpythecat]

Dang it! I was hoping he'd stay east or go to Dallas if he went west.

 

[YP44]

The Kings still have question marks as we are hoping for bounce back seasons from Toffoli and Pearson, while hoping for additional scoring from Kovalchuk and Carter and hopefully Vilardi, as well as hoping for similar seasons from Kopitar and Brown and you're hoping for more growth from Kempe and Iafallo. I'm not as worried about the defense because despite their issues last season we were still the best defensive team in the league. I think we can expect the powerplay to be significantly better. I know there's a lot of "hoping" in this post, but I'm fairly confident in these guys to be able to play lock down defense and score. I think this is season is where we finally find that right balance of scoring and defense. I don't think the Karlsson or Pacioretty trades change the focus for this year at all.

biggest thing for me is the resurgence of Brown and Kopitar. If they regress to their 2016-17 numbers than we are screwed.

 

[Stimpythecat]

I know some here don't like him but I saw this yesterday. If this was his feelings before, I will tune in just to see his reaction to the trade.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

biggest thing for me is the resurgence of Brown and Kopitar. If they regress to their 2016-17 numbers than we are screwed.

I expect some regressing but not that hard, but I also expect some bounceback from the 70s and some progression from youngsters like Iafallo and Kempe (and LaDue)

 

[Butch 19]

The Kings still have question marks as we are hoping for bounce back seasons from Toffoli and Pearson, while hoping for additional scoring from Kovalchuk and Carter and hopefully Vilardi, as well as hoping for similar seasons from Kopitar and Brown and you're hoping for more growth from Kempe and Iafallo. I'm not as worried about the defense because despite their issues last season we were still the best defensive team in the league. I think we can expect the powerplay to be significantly better. I know there's a lot of "hoping" in this post, but I'm fairly confident in these guys to be able to play lock down defense and score. I think this is season is where we finally find that right balance of scoring and defense. I don't think the Karlsson or Pacioretty trades change the focus for this year at all.

Hope springs eternal (especially right before training camp)

 

[Stimpythecat]

I expect fewer goals scored by them since Kovalchuk is the sniper-finisher but more assists with combined goal scoring increasing.

Iafallo had 9 goals and 16 assists. Even an average for Kovalchuk season will be an improvement and Iafallo improves the 3rd line.

 

[BigKing]

Yeah. If Kopitar or Doughty even get like a 3-4 week injury at any point in the season, they won't make the playoffs.

Outside of Vegas, the Kings are the biggest regression candidate in the division and that could still mean 95 points for Vegas. Maybe Edmonton is a mess but McDavid is still McDavid. Arizona isn't easy. I'd like to bury Anaheim but they manage to get 100 points every season.

It was going to be tight, like always, to make the playoffs anyways; however, adding EK for nothing is a real stinger. I guess the bright side is that San Jose trucks the Kings anyways so maybe it only accounts for losing 1-2 points in the grand scheme of things and maybe San Jose hangs more losses on the other teams.

 

[HowDareYou]

 

[YP44]

I expect some regressing but not that hard, but I also expect some bounceback from the 70s and some progression from youngsters like Iafallo and Kempe (and LaDue)

me too

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Not only do they get an AWFUL return, they didn't even dump Ryan in the process. That is a franchise crippling trade

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Yeah. If Kopitar or Doughty even get like a 3-4 week injury at any point in the season, they won't make the playoffs.

Outside of Vegas, the Kings are the biggest regression candidate in the division and that could still mean 95 points for Vegas. Maybe Edmonton is a mess but McDavid is still McDavid. Arizona isn't easy. I'd like to bury Anaheim but they manage to get 100 points every season.

It was going to be tight, like always, to make the playoffs anyways; however, adding EK for nothing is a real stinger. I guess the bright side is that San Jose trucks the Kings anyways so maybe it only accounts for losing 1-2 points in the grand scheme of things and maybe San Jose hangs more losses on the other teams.

I think the thing is, being realistic, we can't really compare ourselves right now to teams that are pushing all their chips in and going for it hardcore. That includes teams like Vegas, SJ, Nashville, even Winnipeg. We're more of the STL, Calgary class where we were always going to be a bubble team--being realistic with our core but protecting our future.

I guess there's a world where Blake could have slung every prospect and pick we have this summer to shoot for Patches and Karlsson while moving some salary out somewhere, but is that really what people want at this point anyway?

 

[Butch 19]

my current nightmare: SJ vs Tor in SCF.

ouch. time to go camping

 

[YP44]

Not only do they get an AWFUL return, they didn't even dump Ryan in the process. That is a franchise crippling trade

I don't get why a lot of people thought Ryan was going to be involved. I get that he was rumoured to be at the deadline but a lot has changed. Now I think Ryan will be very useful to the Sens in getting to the floor. Especially once Stone and Duchene are moved. By the time Ottawa will need that money his deal will be done.

 

[Sol]

How do you guys expect the Kings to "regress" from last season? That is pretty unlikely. As a team they got better. Kovalchuk is a big addition. A healthy Carter, a fast Carter is a big addition, lastly if Vilardi is healthy (the real wild card in the speculation) the Kings should be doing good.

Anyone forget Carter was injured the whole season and wasn't playing healthy? I like to be negative as much as the next person, but I don't see regression in performance. Maybe a little from Kopitar and Brown, but if what I say is true, then there will be more points to go around for our newer additions