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is it time to eat crow about Dwight King?

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Is he one of the top 60 best offensive left wings in the game? Probably not although he is improving.

Is he a top sixer on most teams in the league? Probably not but the statistics might say different if he plays on the Kopitar line for a full season.

Is he a strong forechecker and mucker with a complementary package that can and should play in the Kings top six? Yes.

Realistically he might still be in the minors on some teams due to lack of organizational developmental training. Something talked about a lot is which teams are the go to places to play if one is a free agent. What about the 'hope they draft me' place to play? We've got it right here. I feel sorry for Edmonton's young players flailing around on the ice. They should be down on the farm in our organization learning how to play a complete game in a strong system.
 
KingsFan7824 said:
Even Doughty, at 399, that's almost 5 full years. That's 1/3 to almost half the roster, depending on where you cut it off.
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There is another jaw dropper right there. Last night when being interviewed, Drew mentioned he is looked at to be a leader and a mentor to younger players. He said something like "I'm only 24 but I've been in the league 6 years...". Six years? Holy crap... that sounds like a long time but the guy is still so young. Anyway, I thought it was crazy that he has been playing that long. But regarding the rest of your post, it follows what DL always talked about in getting younger every year. I don't know that they have gotten younger every year but we've been seeing younger players step right in just like he had envisioned 5-6 years ago.

DL took a lot of crap from people on here for buzz words like "bridge players" and his little charts with boxes on it but when you look at a team like Edmonton, they really could use a copy of DL's "Professional Hockey Management for Dummies". Where are their bridge players? It looks to me like they got a lot of guys sitting in the same box. They are desperately lacking a real plan and structure. They just keep drafting small skill players and then fill out the rest of their roster with whatever they can get. They started the season off without a legitimate goalie. What are they doing? At least Toronto has managed to pull themselves out of their nose dive. I don't know what Edmonton is trying to accomplish other than to draft first overall again. Sorry went off on a tangent there..
 
Buddy The Elf said:
There is another jaw dropper right there. Last night when being interviewed, Drew mentioned he is looked at to be a leader and a mentor to younger players. He said something like "I'm only 24 but I've been in the league 6 years...". Six years? Holy crap... that sounds like a long time but the guy is still so young. Anyway, I thought it was crazy that he has been playing that long. But regarding the rest of your post, it follows what DL always talked about in getting younger every year. I don't know that they have gotten younger every year but we've been seeing younger players step right in just like he had envisioned 5-6 years ago.

DL took a lot of crap from people on here for buzz words like "bridge players" and his little charts with boxes on it but when you look at a team like Edmonton, they really could use a copy of DL's "Professional Hockey Management for Dummies". Where are their bridge players? It looks to me like they got a lot of guys sitting in the same box. They are desperately lacking a real plan and structure. They just keep drafting small skill players and then fill out the rest of their roster with whatever they can get. They started the season off without a legitimate goalie. What are they doing? At least Toronto has managed to pull themselves out of their nose dive. I don't know what Edmonton is trying to accomplish other than to draft first overall again. Sorry went off on a tangent there..
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But you're right. As talented as they are, Edmonton is just drafting and hoping things stick. There's very little vet leadership, precious little organizational leadership, and almost ZERO development going on other than tossing talent to the NHL level. To bring this back full circle, a guy like Dwight King who might be an afterthought or laughed away amongst another teams prospects did his time in our system until he was ready and now seems to fit in seamlessly. I don't know that he even becomes an NHL player elsewhere, never mind an effective one (and maybe i'm selling his apparent talents short there but you get my point).
 
Edmonton is so full of problems.

I know they say to build from the backend out and it is a bit cliche, but it is what DL did essentially. Granted, he stumbled into Quick (and Bernier to a degree) to start off with, but he is the one who built the blueline, drafting Doughty and Voynov, signing Mitchell, trading for Greene (albeit with Visnovsky), signing Scuds, drafting Martinez. He built that blueline.

Most of those pieces were in place well before he landed Richards and Carter, the two pieces that turned a solid but unspectacular forward set into a pretty good one.

And of those pieces he drafted he made them earn their spots. Outside of Quick and Doughty and Kopitar and Brown virtually every player had to work their way onto the team through a few seasons in the minors. The only reason Brown didn't was because the previous regime put him in the line up straight away, unwisely as well.

Edmonton just looks at sheer talent and grabs the best, in their opinion anyways. It made no sense to draft Yakupov with the club already using picks on Hall, the Nuge, Eberle and Gagner, yet they kept at it. Until this draft there's been little investment in the blueline and almost nothing between the pipes. Their development style is less than impressive and they have little return to show for it. Hall and Eberle are doing good, but the rest are returning mixed results, they have almost no defense and the goaltending is a jumbled mess of pieces.

They should be a solid playoff team right now, but they will be lucky to not draft top five again. It's to bad for Eakins, he's a good coach but the team has no one at the rudder and he's going to go down with the ship all because he's not going to be given the pieces to succeed.
 
I'll give a tentative yes. While he hasn't been playing great for very long, it is absolutely clear that he has much more offensive talent than he showed me last season. Assuming he keeps this up, he is absolutely a legit top 6 player.
 
He's playing well but he scores like a 3rd liner who plays on the 1st line. The patient goal he had against Edmonton, he had no one on him while one of the Oilers was trying to get a piggyback ride from Carter.

His first call ups...not much; his rookie quarter season, played very well; all of last season, he should have lost his job if not for the Cup win; this season at the 2/5ths mark, he's playing well with our two best forwards...

Show me he can score 40 points a season for more than one season and then we can talk about him like he's an important player.

I'd love for him to turn in to a Bill Guerin-type. The Kings could really use that.
 
I have watched hour after hour of dedicated media on King from before his draft eligibility and I have NEVER seen him make a move like that under that kind of pressure or that close in. Holy beans that was a really nifty move by a big guy with some pretty heavy hands.

WOW and he scores a goal as I am posting.

Goal and an assist again. I don't know if he is going to be a top 6er for long but he sure is being one now.
 
i am trying to think of a player he reminds me of, sort of glen murray'ish
 
That play he made on the Carter goal was brilliant. Jeff hasn't even scored an empty netter that was easier than tapping that one in.
 
Don't mess with what's working. Giving Kopitar new linemates has injected this team with a breath of fresh air and creativity.

Let's not forget that Dwight King was a top six LW in Manchester and has put up top six numbers in juniors and minors. Now that doesn't always translate to instant production in the pros, but he's slowly worked his way up and EARNED his position on the team. He wasn't coming in to camp slotted as a top six forward. He worked hard and jumped ahead by his performance in camp.

Pretty soon we may have to come up with a name for this line.
 
People don't swoon at king because of his infrequent display of puck handling. Well he just showed the hockey world that he's got some hands. I'd say top 6 for sure.
 
He's really blossomed. You can see how confident he is because he's taking time to both shoot and create. It has to be hard for a young guy to be on a line with the likes of Kopi, Carts or Richards so you expect them to be a bit star struck and maybe not feeling confident enough to do something because the others are stars. I think Sutter's faith in him as a PKer has also helped.
 
Better question than eating crow. Are we glad DL didn't try and upgrade the LW position via trade or UFA? The nice thing about keeping Doughty & Kopitar as the best and highest paid players is that the salary increases for the successful prospects are more manageable.
 
DoktorJeep said:
Better question than eating crow. Are we glad DL didn't try and upgrade the LW position via trade or UFA? The nice thing about keeping Doughty & Kopitar as the best and highest paid players is that the salary increases for the successful prospects are more manageable.
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DL needs to upgrade at LW because it's the Kings weak link. They are top heavy at RW and weak on LW. Don't confuse Kings being a first line LW with King being the Kings best option at 1st line LW. There's a huge difference. King is a good power forward but he'd be just as effective on the 2nd line with Richards and TT if the Kings had a Moulson or Vanek or an elite scoring LW for Kopi
And DL isn't that dumb, he knows it's a weak link and if the team wants to go deep and win a Cup, they need an elite LW . There was a column as late as last week from NY saying he called to ask about Vanek. He's shopping.
 
Dude is playing great, no doubt. It's nice to see, because I wasn't a fan of his last season(thought he took a step back). But so far this season, the guy has been a stud. Both he and Nolan have been terrific. Well done :handclap:
 
Pretty sure teams now gameplan for Dwight, and they still can't stop him. It's not long before they start shadowing and double teaming him on the ice, and I'll tell ya it ain't gonna work.
 
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