Value of: Brandt Clarke

[My Cozen Dylan]

Clarke for Mattias Samuelsson.

Clarke isn't going to develop on the King's.

I mean yeah, Sabres wouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth.

 

[KopitarGOAT420]

The Kings treatment of Brandt Clarke is very close to legitimately making me find another team to support. It's just THAT outrageously stupid and frustrating.

Kings have a combined 0-4 record and have been outscored a combined 15-2 when Clarke has been healthy scratched (in two of those four games, the Kings were shut out in BACK TO BACK GAMES).

He leads the team in points from a defenseman despite weird/damaging comments from the head coach and diminishing opportunity/ice time. And he's only just turned 22 years old. He's already made a number of highlight reel plays at the NHL level. He's incredibly creative and skilled. But he's 'too risky' for the Kings organizational philosophy (defense first, above all else, always).

Kings have something like a .750 win % when they play Clarke 14-18 mins of ice time and instead they'd rather play Kyle f**king Burroughs. Last night they got torched by the damn Blackhawks and in that game Kyle Burroughs had 5 mins of ice time and Jacob Moverare had 7 mins of ice time.... the Kings are consciously choosing THAT over Brandt Clarke - their best offensive defenseman right now and a player who SHOULD be the future of their blue line. Side note, Moverare is solid as hell but I'm just saying.

This Kings organization is just dumb as absolute rocks & completely allergic to offensive defensemen. It's completely insane. This kid is legitimately going to be a consistent 60+ point d-man if a team just gives him a chance to be creative and play freely. He's that gifted offensively.

So again, if you're thinking "No way the Kings trade Brandt Clarke that would be aggressively stupid" - This organization is just that stupid so don't be too surprised if they do just that this TDL or off-season.

EDIT: I have to add this in here because I'm reading some additional comments about how 'bad Clarke is defensively'.... His defensive game really isn't that bad. He's a young player so of course he makes mistakes sometimes and he needs to put on some more muscle so of course he can get out-muscled at times but all in all he's actually pretty solid defensively (especially for a 22 year old offensive defenseman in his first full NHL season). He just doesn't do everything 'perfectly' defensively ALL the time so Kings coaching/management have decided to view him as a player 'they can't trust'. It's nonsense.

 

[mab894]

How about Joel Hofer and a 27 first? Kings seem hell bent on destroying Clarke's value

 

[The Devilish Buffoon]

Batherson +?

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

His preferred spot is on the offensive side of the blueline.

Everywhere else is dicey.

This is a player who came in this year and put up a bunch of points in a very unorthodox and ultra risky style. He was challenged by his coach publicly (likely after privately) to play professional defense FIRST then acclimate his skill without being the liability he most definitely was at the time. He has struggled since - his numbers dropped, his PP production was non-existent, and his defense only marginally improved.

Nobody knows how this went over with him off the ice, but his confidence sank like a stone after, gasp, being asked to be reliable. A whole lot of shell-shocked fellow Kings fans seem to think that the team is going to trade him instead of working through the natural acclimation difficulties because we have seen them make disaster trades with our other top prospects. I have said this many times, Clarke is the defensive version of Trevor Zegras, only on a team that wants immediate success and doesn't want to afford him what are increasingly looking like lengthy growing pains.

The fans aren't wrong. But, Clarke has in fact been the team's 7th best defenseman since the turn of the year and badly needs a break to build his confidence back up. A team stupidly chasing another first round exit (if they even make it) cannot afford to let Clarke play awful defense while not contributing offensively. He should be kept and sent to Ontario to regain some swagger.

This is just wrong by the eye test AND the stats back that up

There are a # of guys who have been worse AND they can't move the puck, they're just thought of as good ol boy stay at home dmen...and it's not because they don't try to make plays. Hell Clarke is on the bench in part because Joel Edmundson started thinking he was Paul Coffey and leaving Brandt back alone to defend oddman breaks.

The fact is this team is deathly scared of playing anything but 6 defensive-leaning dman because they think that's their identity while discounting that the puck actually needs to move out of the zone too and while having 6 safety nets is nice you can watch the other teams checkers leave the points alone because they aren't a threat to do anything but throw the puck into someones shinguards and turn it over for an oddman break to defend semi-well in their own end, rinse, repeat.

It's not a coincidence the Kings are getting caved when running Spence, half-strength Drew, and 5 Matt Greenes with Clarke out. And some other team is going to make out like bandits like they have with all our other kids on a bargain price.

 

[Stealth JD]

How about Joel Hofer and a 27 first? Kings seem hell bent on destroying Clarke's value

Blues shouldn’t be trading firsts anytime soon. I’d rather they keep their lotto ticket for the DuPont draft than trade it early.

 

[bland]

This is just wrong by the eye test AND the stats back that up

There are a # of guys who have been worse AND they can't move the puck, they're just thought of as good ol boy stay at home dmen...and it's not because they don't try to make plays. Hell Clarke is on the bench in part because Joel Edmundson started thinking he was Paul Coffey and leaving Brandt back alone to defend oddman breaks.

The fact is this team is deathly scared of playing anything but 6 defensive-leaning dman because they think that's their identity while discounting that the puck actually needs to move out of the zone too and while having 6 safety nets is nice you can watch the other teams checkers leave the points alone because they aren't a threat to do anything but throw the puck into someones shinguards and turn it over for an oddman break to defend semi-well in their own end, rinse, repeat.

It's not a coincidence the Kings are getting caved when running Spence, half-strength Drew, and 5 Matt Greenes with Clarke out. And some other team is going to make out like bandits like they have with all our other kids on a bargain price.

No RJ, its because Brandt Clarke is a defensive lisbility and has contributed 4 points in his last 19 games. He had 13 points in the first 20 games, just 12 in the next 35.

The stats and eye test show a kid blowing coverages, consistently beat from the wall to the slot, over-powered in front of his net and doing very, very little with the puck. He was so ineffective on the PP - which should be his strength - that he was passed by Spence and a 5 forward unit.

Your heart is in the right place here, but Clarke is the wrong kid to use as evidence. If he wasn't a top prospect he would have been sent down two months ago.