Around the league part 2

[Lt Dan]

TM has turned Kopi into a member of his Koala family before our eyes -- overused for going all out in the regular season and by the playoffs you got nothing left. Could probably say the same thing about Drew too.

Hopefully PLD will mean Kopitar's ice time is reduced

Trevor Moore had better deliver.

Thousand Oaks don't f*** around vato!

 

[Telos]

Trevor Moore will likely be a whipping boy this season if he doesn't steadily produce. Hoping for a little bit of a bounceback year for him. The third line will arguably be the most important line for us this upcoming season.

 

[Herby]

Blake didn't spend anything on Carter, but if you want to include him you might want to amend "so little" to "only two cups".

Vilardi and Byfield are draft picks, they didn't cost anything. So just Danault, who also cost zero assets and has been great and paid about right. PLD hasn't even played a game yet, and we don't even know if he will be in the middle. At any rate I don't see how it's astounding since before the PLD trade no assets have been used.

Not sure what the argument is here, sounds more like just an excuse to rip on Blake rather than anything of substance.

#2 and #5 OA picks are certainly not nothing, and can't be just ignored, they were huge pieces that were expected to have filled 2 of the 3 scoring line spots by now, instead they are paying others $14m to play those roles and they lost two Top 9 wings (I did like the PLD trade but it was definitely because of draft ROI not materializing as expected)

Every top 2 pick 2010-2021

Hall
Seguin
RNH
Landeskog
Yakupov
Murray
MacKinnon
Barkov
Ekblad
Reinart
McDavid
Matthews
Laine
Hischier
Patrick
Dahlin
Svechnikov
Hughes
Kakko
Lafferiere
Byfield
Power
Beniers

There were certainly some misses. But there are 8 1st line centers, multiple elite wingers and a couple of really good defenders.

I think it's sweet that you think TM will reduce Kopitar's ice time haha

No way will Kopitar be playing as much this season, the team actually has 3 competent centers.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

No way will Kopitar be playing as much this season, the team actually has 3 competent centers.

If he plays less than 20 min a game i'll eat my hat

he SHOULD play less but nothing makes sense here

 

[Herby]

If he plays less than 20 min a game i'll eat my hat

he SHOULD play less but nothing makes sense here

Barring a major injury to PLD or Danault, there is just no way he is playing as much as he did last season. The Kings did not trust anyone they had playing the 3C or 4C role this season. The 3C this year is one of the guys TM heavily leaned on.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Barring a major injury to PLD or Danault, there is just no way he is playing as much as he did last season. The Kings did not trust anyone they had playing the 3C or 4C role this season. The 3C this year is one of the guys TM heavily leaned on.

I agree with your reasoning Herby, I just don't think TM sees it the same way.

 

[bland]

Barring a major injury to PLD or Danault, there is just no way he is playing as much as he did last season. The Kings did not trust anyone they had playing the 3C or 4C role this season. The 3C this year is one of the guys TM heavily leaned on.

Don't be surprised to see PLD on Kopitar's wing in camp.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Don't be surprised to see PLD on Kopitar's wing in camp.

Right--complain about the C deficiency then load up the top 6 with all the Cs on the roster, rinse, repeat

 

[bland]

Right--complain about the C deficiency then load up the top 6 with all the Cs on the roster, rinse, repeat

McLellan is entering the last year of his deal. They say they expect to contend. No way in hell will this be the year they give the kids the time needed. They will load up the top lines, its what they have always done.

This group has a MO, we have seen it over and over. Expecting them to suddenly "get it" is a mistake.

 

[Herby]

Just saw that the NHL/PA are really trying to make the 2026 Olympics work.

I think for the first time ever the US will be able to send a roster where they can hang with Canada on paper (especially with our advantage in goal)

M. Tkachuk (28) - Matthews (27) - Robertson (27)
B. Tkachuk (26) - J Hughes (25) - Thompson (28)
Boldy (25) - Eichel (29) - Caufield (26)
Larkin (29) - Beniers (23) - Connor (29)

Q Hughes (26) - McAvoy (28)
Slavin (31) - Fox (28)
Sanderson (23) - Werenski (28)

Oettinger (27)
Hellebuckyk (32)


Scratches/Just missed

Zegras
Gaudreau
DeBrincat
Keller
JT Miller
K. Miller
L. Hughes

 

[Fishhead]

#2 and #5 OA picks are certainly not nothing, and can't be just ignored, they were huge pieces that were expected to have filled 2 of the 3 scoring line spots by now, instead they are paying others $14m to play those roles and they lost two Top 9 wings (I did like the PLD trade but it was definitely because of draft ROI not materializing as expected)

Every top 2 pick 2010-2021

Hall
Seguin
RNH
Landeskog
Yakupov
Murray
MacKinnon
Barkov
Ekblad
Reinart
McDavid
Matthews
Laine
Hischier
Patrick
Dahlin
Svechnikov
Hughes
Kakko
Lafferiere
Byfield
Power
Beniers

There were certainly some misses. But there are 8 1st line centers, multiple elite wingers and a couple of really good defenders.




No way will Kopitar be playing as much this season, the team actually has 3 competent centers.

I get all that, I just don't see how Blake gave a lot up. That's only a 33% hit rate on 1C's, and that's at #2. It just seemed a weird argument, especially with Carter in there.

 

[Fishhead]

If he plays less than 20 min a game i'll eat my hat

he SHOULD play less but nothing makes sense here

I think it's very likely Kopitar plays 19 seconds less per game, which would take him under 20.

Surprisingly, TM has cut almost a minute off Kopitar's TOI per game since he arrived. I'd like it to be more, of course. I can see his PK time being cut even further. Ideally he's in the 18's next season, but that's a pretty big reach.

 

[johnjm22]

What's the plan in Vegas? They look like they're about 4M over the cap right now.

Are they just going to have Stone go on LTIR for half the season again and bring him back for the playoffs?

Very difficult to compete with a team that has that kind of advantage.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Kopitar and Doughty are going to get ridden harder than a 1986 Toyota pickup.

 

[Herby]

The Kings didn't trade for PLD to play him at the wing. Blake knew they weren't true contenders with Danault as a 2C and none of the prospects proved capable of being a scoring line center, and he addressed that with a good trade.

Kopitar- Danault - Byfield- Lizotte would a terrible center situation.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Savage.

 

[Kudelski37]

Barring a major injury to PLD or Danault, there is just no way he is playing as much as he did last season. The Kings did not trust anyone they had playing the 3C or 4C role this season. The 3C this year is one of the guys TM heavily leaned on.

Where will the reduction in playing time for Kopitar come from though?

He is the best faceoff guy on the team which is important for special teams, o zone starts down late, and d zone starts up late. PLD is the worst at faceoffs of the expected regular centers, and the only one below 50% for his career or last season.

The three other centers (PLD, Danault, and Lizotte) had the most penalty minutes on the team which will make it even harder to cut back Kopitar's pk time. Each had more penalty minutes than Vilardi, Iafallo, and Kupari combined last season. PLD has a total of less than 50 minutes of PK time in his career, with most coming his first two years with Columbus. I see Kopitar's penalty killing time going up...which will only wear him out faster. His lack of speed was a problem when he had more ice to cover, such as pk/OT.

Kupari killed penalties and was the second best faceoff guy on the team last year. This will be missed.

Do you think TM will cut back power play time for Kopitar? If the Kings are cutting back Kopitar's offensive time, then why did they extend him for $7 mill/year if they no longer want him in roles to collect points?

On the surface, I can see why you might think adding PLD would result in less ice time for Kopitar, but it doesn't make sense when looking at the situations that TM uses Kopitar that drive up ice time outside of the regular line rotations. Maybe the Kings get big leads and just role 4 lines all game??

 

[Herby]

Where will the reduction in playing time for Kopitar come from though?

He is the best faceoff guy on the team which is important for special teams, o zone starts down late, and d zone starts up late. PLD is the worst at faceoffs of the expected regular centers, and the only one below 50% for his career or last season.

The three other centers (PLD, Danault, and Lizotte) had the most penalty minutes on the team which will make it even harder to cut back Kopitar's pk time. Each had more penalty minutes than Vilardi, Iafallo, and Kupari combined last season. PLD has a total of less than 50 minutes of PK time in his career, with most coming his first two years with Columbus. I see Kopitar's penalty killing time going up...which will only wear him out faster. His lack of speed was a problem when he had more ice to cover, such as pk/OT.

Kupari killed penalties and was the second best faceoff guy on the team last year. This will be missed.

Do you think TM will cut back power play time for Kopitar? If the Kings are cutting back Kopitar's offensive time, then why did they extend him for $7 mill/year if they no longer want him in roles to collect points?

On the surface, I can see why you might think adding PLD would result in less ice time for Kopitar, but it doesn't make sense when looking at the situations that TM uses Kopitar that drive up ice time outside of the regular line rotations. Maybe the Kings get big leads and just role 4 lines all game??

Kopitar and Doughty seeing their PP time decreased would be a great thing, lets see if it happens/

I think less ES and potentially less PK as well. Kopitar is 36 years old and signed for 3 more seasons at $24m total. The Kings know they have to manage his icetime and trading for PLD will do that. Of course him and Danault were going to play a lot when the Kings didn't have a competent 3C last year.

 

[bland]

The Kings didn't trade for PLD to play him at the wing. Blake knew they weren't true contenders with Danault as a 2C and none of the prospects proved capable of being a scoring line center, and he addressed that with a good trade.

Kopitar- Danault - Byfield- Lizotte would a terrible center situation.

They aren't even remotely close to contending, and this deal made them worse, not better.

I don't want to make any assumptions about what anybody does or doesn't know about Dubois, but he isn't an answer to any questions. This is a player with 90 point ability but 60 point effort. And they gave him a massive contract to be attached to the hip for 8 years all while HOPING he can figure it out. There is a much bigger chance of this backfiring than him suddenly growing into the player they need to fix the center problem you mention. Right now, they are a weaker team than the one that was easily disposed of by Edmonton, but with no cap space and fewer assets to use to fix the real problems.

 

[Herby]

They aren't even remotely close to contending, and this deal made them worse, not better.

I don't want to make any assumptions about what anybody does or doesn't know about Dubois, but he isn't an answer to any questions. This is a player with 90 point ability but 60 point effort. And they gave him a massive contract to be attached to the hip for 8 years all while HOPING he can figure it out. There is a much bigger chance of this backfiring than him suddenly growing into the player they need to fix the center problem you mention. Right now, they are a weaker team than the one that was easily disposed of by Edmonton, but with no cap space and fewer assets to use to fix the real problems.

I agree they aren't contenders. But as has been discussed before, they made the decision to try and contend in 11 and 8's tiny window, and he fills a massive hole that the team had (2C), a hole that was not going to be filled this season by any of Rob Blake's disappointing draft picks that continue to lag behind other players of the same age.

The Kings have a much more likely chance of finding Vilardi and Iafallo's replacements internally than they do of finding a C who ill be as good as PLD. I think AK could match GV's production.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Yeah, my thought is that TM won't trust PLD to do a god damn thing, see Kaliyev, Fiala.

I can see them using him on wing while he 'learns the system' or some shit. Or if not, they'll use him as a reduced minutes 3C while riding Kopi into the ground.

I'm sorry guys again what you're sayin about reducing kopitar's minutes makes sense but every offseason, everything that's 'made sense' has been thrown in the wood chipper.

I'm ready for
PLD-Kopitar-Kempe
Moore-Danault-Arvidsson
Byfield-Lizotte-Lewis
4th line: who cares, some kids whose hearts we have yet to crush, probably like 5 minutes of Grundstrom JAD Laferriere or some shit

 

[bland]

I agree they aren't contenders. But as has been discussed before, they made the decision to try and contend in 11 and 8's tiny window, and he fills a massive hole that the team had (2C), a hole that was not going to be filled this season by any of Rob Blake's disappointing draft picks that continue to lag behind other players of the same age.

The Kings have a much more likely chance of finding Vilardi and Iafallo's replacements internally than they do of finding a C who ill be as good as PLD. I think AK could match GV's production.

I think Byfield hits PLDs standard levels of production by next season, and Kaliyev is never a full time top 6 player under this coach.

And Iafallo's value has far less to do with production as much as it is play off of the puck. You might see a kid hit his point totals, but there are no wingers on the team or in the system that can forecheck, backcheck, compete along the wall, kill penalties and produce. He is a much bigger loss than Dubois is a gain.

 

[psych3man]

Yeah, my thought is that TM won't trust PLD to do a god damn thing, see Kaliyev, Fiala.

I can see them using him on wing while he 'learns the system' or some shit. Or if not, they'll use him as a reduced minutes 3C while riding Kopi into the ground.

I'm sorry guys again what you're sayin about reducing kopitar's minutes makes sense but every offseason, everything that's 'made sense' has been thrown in the wood chipper.

I'm ready for
PLD-Kopitar-Kempe
Moore-Danault-Arvidsson
Byfield-Lizotte-Lewis
4th line: who cares, some kids whose hearts we have yet to crush, probably like 5 minutes of Grundstrom JAD Laferriere or some shit

Fiala?

 

[AbsentMojo]

I don't want to make any assumptions about what anybody does or doesn't know about Dubois, but he isn't an answer to any questions.

Incorrect..for example: what NHL player wanted off his first two teams? What player did the LAK sign that makes them unable to field a full roster? What is the French translation of Peter Luke Woodcutter?

 

[johnjm22]

this deal made them worse, not better.

You don't know that.

I share your concern about wingers, and about PLD himself, but it remains to be seen.

Center was the Kings biggest need. They're betting on PLD to play the way he's capable of playing, and if he does, they're better for it.