Around the League '18-'19

[KingsHockey24]

Zykov on the top line in Carolina

We should of traded Brodzinski instead of Zykov.

He led the AHL in goals and has 8 points in 12 NHL games.

 

[KingsHockey24]

More goals than that scrub Kopitar.

Update: Andy Andreoff just got his ass kicked by Craig Smith.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Zykov on the top line in Carolina

Oof

 

[KINGS17]

Zykov on the top line in Carolina

Zykov is 6-1, 223 lbs. and only 23 years old. I think the Kings gave up on this guy a little too soon.

 

[LAKings88]

Yay, Zykov for a handful of games from Versteeg.

 

[kingsfan28]

Zykov is 6-1, 223 lbs. and only 23 years old. I think the Kings gave up on this guy a little too soon.

It's Brian Boyle all over again.

 

[kingsholygrail]

It's Brian Boyle all over again.

He had to get skating lessons from a professional because his new team was going to cut him if he didn't get better?

 

[kingsfan28]

He had to get skating lessons from a professional because his new team was going to cut him if he didn't get better?

Don't know about that, but I can see an entire season of " Zykov could've" posts already lining up when he gets his 10th goal.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Sharks are "back in black." What a bunch of tools.

 

[KingsFan7824]

We should of traded Brodzinski instead of Zykov.

He led the AHL in goals and has 8 points in 12 NHL games.

A whole 12 games? At the end of seasons when the team is out of it and blah, blah, blah? With a sh% of 19? We're in the era of sample sizes.

Zykov is just another player that wouldn't have helped this core not waste a couple contender window seasons. I can imagine what the reaction would be if the Kings were going into the season with a 23 year old(pushing it as an actual prospect by that age) with 12 games under his belt as the best top line LW option. Although Zykov would be #2 behind Connor, and Pearson would've already been traded, so it's a moot point.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

A whole 12 games? At the end of seasons when the team is out of it and blah, blah, blah? With a sh% of 19? We're in the era of sample sizes.

Zykov is just another player that wouldn't have helped this core not waste a couple contender window seasons. I can imagine what the reaction would be if the Kings were going into the season with a 23 year old(pushing it as an actual prospect by that age) with 12 games under his belt as the best top line LW option. Although Zykov would be #2 behind Connor, and Pearson would've already been traded, so it's a moot point.

While riding shotgun next to Aho. Can't imagine a world where he is sitting next to Kopitar, people would be complaining about the slow, Frolov-like winger lumbering around.

Plus if we would have traded Brodz instead the complaint would be we gave up too soon on an over-PPG player in the AHL.

He'd be nice to have right now sure, but I guess so would Schenn and Simmonds instead of Richards dead contract.

 

[King'sPawn]

A whole 12 games? At the end of seasons when the team is out of it and blah, blah, blah? With a sh% of 19? We're in the era of sample sizes.

Zykov is just another player that wouldn't have helped this core not waste a couple contender window seasons. I can imagine what the reaction would be if the Kings were going into the season with a 23 year old(pushing it as an actual prospect by that age) with 12 games under his belt as the best top line LW option. Although Zykov would be #2 behind Connor, and Pearson would've already been traded, so it's a moot point.

Are you arguing people would be unhappy to have a 23 year-old fighting for a top 6 wing spot?

I know I'd rather have that than 14 + 5 games of Versteeg. And I wanted it at the time of the trade, too, as did many others.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Are you arguing people would be unhappy to have a 23 year-old fighting for a top 6 wing spot?

I know I'd rather have that than 14 + 5 games of Versteeg. And I wanted it at the time of the trade, too, as did many others.

I'm saying if Zykov couldn't help Carolina the last few years, he wouldn't have helped the Kings aging core stay in contention up to this point. They have a 24 year old with 75 NHL games played fighting for a top 6 wing spot as it is, but we're pining for Zykov.

Schenn has had between 55-70 points the last 3 years, but we never hear about the guy, except that he has no hockey sense. Does anyone keep us up to date on a 27 year old $5m cap hit player who had 70 points last year? In the last 4 years, Schenn averages 25 goals and 59 points per 82 games. He could've possibly helped the core all this time, and been a more proven commodity going into this season.

 

[KINGS17]

I'm saying if Zykov couldn't help Carolina the last few years, he wouldn't have helped the Kings aging core stay in contention up to this point. They have a 24 year old with 75 NHL games played fighting for a top 6 wing spot as it is, but we're pining for Zykov.

Schenn has had between 55-70 points the last 3 years, but we never hear about the guy, except that he has no hockey sense. Does anyone keep us up to date on a 27 year old $5m cap hit player who had 70 points last year? In the last 4 years, Schenn averages 25 goals and 59 points per 82 games. He could've possibly helped the core all this time, and been a more proven commodity going into this season.

But as many have correctly pointed out the Kings were not in contention the last three years anyway. Having Zykov now is easily better than have Versteeg for part of a season on a roster which was not a contender.

The return and time frame for the Schenn deal are not comparable at all to Zykov.

 

[King'sPawn]

I'm saying if Zykov couldn't help Carolina the last few years, he wouldn't have helped the Kings aging core stay in contention up to this point. They have a 24 year old with 75 NHL games played fighting for a top 6 wing spot as it is, but we're pining for Zykov.

Schenn has had between 55-70 points the last 3 years, but we never hear about the guy, except that he has no hockey sense. Does anyone keep us up to date on a 27 year old $5m cap hit player who had 70 points last year? In the last 4 years, Schenn averages 25 goals and 59 points per 82 games. He could've possibly helped the core all this time, and been a more proven commodity going into this season.

The Kings didn't need Zykov to save them the past few years. Versteeg did not help them for 19 games he played for the Kings.

It's almost as if keeping Zykov would have been just as beneficial for the Kings than trading him for a rental.

As for Schenn, we don't hear about him because he wasn't traded for a fringe rental. He was traded for someone intending to be (and was successfully for a couple seasons) to be a game breaker.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Can we complain about Cernak, McKeown, Sabourin, Mersch as well please?

Want to make sure we agonize over every little thing in advance of the season.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The Kings didn't need Zykov to save them the past few years. Versteeg did not help them for 19 games he played for the Kings.

It's almost as if keeping Zykov would have been just as beneficial for the Kings than trading him for a rental.

As for Schenn, we don't hear about him because he wasn't traded for a fringe rental. He was traded for someone intending to be (and was successfully for a couple seasons) to be a game breaker.

Zykov couldn't even crack a lottery team.

If he were here, we'd just be comparing him to Mersch in terms of skillset. But he's wearing a red jersey, so.

I think he'll be a good complementary player to a speedy team though, but this is a lot of really random crying over spilled milk because someone saw a tweet.

Can't wait to see what happens the first time Gravel makes some good plays.

People want roster turnover, but apparently, they don't want roster turnover.

 

[tonellisghost]

The thing with EK is that he is merely average in his own end. I mean he is lights out on the rush and has a real knack for finding open ice in the O zone but other than that he isn't anything special. Sure you can break anyone down to their strengths and weaknesses (99 couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag that already had a rip in it etc.) but I think that where EK is concerned that his average D will end up more of a noticeable liability on the Sharks.

That isn't to say that EK isn't a great player but he is one that has his special place and not much more. People compare him to several hockey greats but I look at it like this, who would you rather have?

EK or Ray Borque?
EK or Paul Coffey?
EK or Drew the animal Doughty?
I would rather have RB PC and DD over EK any day. That said EK is great at what he does. He is going to get to free agency and someone will break their piggy banks to sign him and that will be that. The Sharks have to do well so that they can entice EK into staying. They paid a huge price for a rental and only time will tell if it was worth it.

 

[KingsFan7824]

But as many have correctly pointed out the Kings were not in contention the last three years anyway. Having Zykov now is easily better than have Versteeg for part of a season on a roster which was not a contender.

The return and time frame for the Schenn deal are not comparable at all to Zykov.

At the time of the trade, they were at the top of the Pacific, near the top of the conference, and other than Washington, right near the top of the league. I know they weren't really contending then, but it's better than where they were at the same time in 2012.

The Kings didn't need Zykov to save them the past few years.

Needed somebody to help not waste years of the aging core.

As for Schenn, we don't hear about him because he wasn't traded for a fringe rental. He was traded for someone intending to be (and was successfully for a couple seasons) to be a game breaker.

Ok, so intent is the starting point? I'm sure they intended to do better after the Vertseeg trade. Did they want to go out quietly in the 1st round? They were 5 points away from 2nd overall in the league when they made the deal. Looking back, they weren't ready made contenders when they got Richards. They were still multiple moves away, meaning even more assets had to be traded on top of Schenn and Simmonds, and then Richards broke down into nothing far sooner than intended. I'm sure they intended to be better than 8th in the West after trading for Richards, but they weren't. Sort of got lucky that Carter didn't want to be in Columbus. The intent was to have Gagne as a major piece of the team, then he got hurt. Without him getting hurt, do they get Carter? We'll never know.

I'm sure they intended to win the Cup after getting Richards, but the odds of doing so are always on the lower end. If everything else goes the same way, but there's no Cup, then there's no Zykov deal, Richards is the worst trade in franchise history, and we are constantly reminded of Schenn, regardless of what the intent of the trade was, since they weren't ready to win the Cup on that trade alone.

Also, let's not pretend that Zykov is on the same level as Schenn or Simmonds when they were traded. He had 7 goals and 14 points in 43 AHL games when he went to Carolina. If Versteeg was a fringe rental, Zykov was a fringe prospect. Especially since he has yet to play much 2 years later. He's got awesome numbers in 12 games though. If he's a consistent 55 point winger in his career, then yeah, it'll be one of those what if trades. Doesn't matter what Lombardi intended that 15-16 team to do, they did not succeed, and he stole some of the future from the fans by desperately trying to win today(back then).

 

[Martyros]

Purcell had one or two good season after the trade.
Noah Welch once had 4 points in 5 games.
Ya, go look up that guy.

We live in a world where we're disappointed no matter who we trade. I remember when i mentioned we could have gotten more for Zykov this early in his career....alot of you had already given up on him much sooner than management. Now he has one good small stint and is now one of the worst trades in franchise history. Give him a couple of seasons before jumping the gun.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The thing with EK is that he is merely average in his own end. I mean he is lights out on the rush and has a real knack for finding open ice in the O zone but other than that he isn't anything special. Sure you can break anyone down to their strengths and weaknesses (99 couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag that already had a rip in it etc.) but I think that where EK is concerned that his average D will end up more of a noticeable liability on the Sharks.

That isn't to say that EK isn't a great player but he is one that has his special place and not much more. People compare him to several hockey greats but I look at it like this, who would you rather have?

EK or Ray Borque?
EK or Paul Coffey?
EK or Drew the animal Doughty?
I would rather have RB PC and DD over EK any day. That said EK is great at what he does. He is going to get to free agency and someone will break their piggy banks to sign him and that will be that. The Sharks have to do well so that they can entice EK into staying. They paid a huge price for a rental and only time will tell if it was worth it.

I would rather have the same players as you mention. However he's likely to be playing with friggin Vlasic on the Sharks. No matter how you feel about his defense, that's as good of a safety blanket as a dude can have. Remember how Drew looked with Vlasic in the Olympics? EK's offense is Drew's on steroids while his biggest weakness is now going to be covered in the best possible way.

Burns still gets the same deployment to wreack havoc in the offensive end, while Sharks pick up a guy to tilt the ice another half game. The other factor that not many are talking about is that Ek's minutes being limited to 25ish per game is going to be a huge boon; sometimes, even Doughty gets tired playing 30 plus and you can see him 'conserving' (like many great players do to be fair); imagine if he was only going to get 22 minutes a game and knew it? You know how much harder these guys can go? I think that's going to be a huge factor.

I think EK's point totals are actually likely to come down but he's going to be like +30 this year with the ice so tilted.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Zykov is looking like one more bag of doodoo for the Kings to carry from the post Cups hangover.

 

[King'sPawn]

Can we complain about Cernak, McKeown, Sabourin, Mersch as well please?

Want to make sure we agonize over every little thing in advance of the season.

Normally I agree with you that people have ridiculous criticisms. But we're not discussing other fringe players. We're talking about a good player who was traded away a player when he was 20/21 years old. He plateaued a bit due to injuries. He was traded for a fringe player to help make the playoffs.

I think the Kings have another very good player who has quite a few injuries.

It's ironic you think the Zykov for Versteeg trade is a non-issue and silly to bemoan, but you think the Kings would be making a huge mistake trading Vilardi for Pacioretty/Skinner/any other top 6 forward.

Do you not see the parallels of trading a talented but oft injured forward and mortaging a future we can't afford?

Or do you want to keep marginalizing bad move after bad move because they wouldn't have helped us anyway?

Sabourin and Mersch had many chances in the organization. Cernak and McKeown trades are also good discussion points of bad trades and I will be happy to discuss why I think they are bad moves, but I wanted to focus on discussing Zykov.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Normally I agree with you that people have ridiculous criticisms. But we're not discussing other fringe players. We're talking about a good player who was traded away a player when he was 20/21 years old. He plateaued a bit due to injuries. He was traded for a fringe player to help make the playoffs.

I think the Kings have another very good player who has quite a few injuries.

It's ironic you think the Zykov for Versteeg trade is a non-issue and silly to bemoan, but you think the Kings would be making a huge mistake trading Vilardi for Pacioretty/Skinner/any other top 6 forward.

Do you not see the parallels of trading a talented but oft injured forward and mortaging a future we can't afford?

Or do you want to keep marginalizing bad move after bad move because they wouldn't have helped us anyway?

Sabourin and Mersch had many chances in the organization. Cernak and McKeown trades are also good discussion points of bad trades and I will be happy to discuss why I think they are bad moves, but I wanted to focus on discussing Zykov.

We're discussing a player who people are jumping the gun over. Zykov has played a total of 12 NHL games. Would he be nice to have? Yeah, any asset would at this point, but there's no guarantee if he's here that he's even sniffing the roster. It's a lot of grass is greener stuff and literally no one was complaining until they saw a tweet. I bet no one has even blinked about Cernak or McKeown in the last year or two either because after a bunch of tears after what a great NHLer McKeown was going to become, he's even a longshot at this point. My point is only that people jump right on the stuff they perceive as negative, and whether or not the trade is a 'non-issue' in hindsight, we're back to completely disregarding context.

I'm not even going to address Zykov-for-Versteeg being even remotely parallel to Vilardi-for-Patches because I think even you will realize how foolish that sounds to team context as well as player value.
Unless you think Zykov's ceiling is a 1C and that we're still a Stanley Cup favorite.

I still think Zykov for Versteeg is ultimately such a marginal trade to complain over, yes. There are much greater ones that can be looked up on as "mistakes" and I'll still chastise them in similar fashion because the team context--going for it--was similar. I think we're all aware that we mortgaged the future to 'win now' for years and now we're left holding the bag, I just want people to move the f*** on from a minor trade for ultimately middle six wingers two and a half f***ing years ago under a completely different team context. Yes, it's a waste of an asset, but yes, it's a marginal one compared to the other things we've endured. All I'm saying is it's a mountain over a molehill over two similar players and Zykov hopes he can have the career Versteeg has had, the trade was clearly made because we needed the player everything apparently thinks Zykov is going to be right now but we needed him 3 years ago, and it is what it is.

And I'm saying that as a guy who really liked Zykov as a prospect and took a bunch of shit defending him during his injuries. I see that one of your qualms is that he didn't get as fair a shake as some other prospects and I agree with that but I don't think the trade was made because he was stagnant, he just happened to be the trade casualty.

It's not about marginalizing bad moves, it's about contextualizing moves, and pretending this stuff is happening in a vacuum is very unlike you.

Hell who would he beat out here? We have JAD and Vilardi to contend with after the Etem invite and the residual guys who should have been pressing--hell, you could argue Brodzinski is a better player based on production at various levels and you see how people here feel about him. Does this team really hurt for another bottom-six type average-skating winger?

 

[Vamos Rafa]

So we don't have an alternate jersey this year? Lame.