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Is Vilardi the most expendable prospect?

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Raccoon Jesus said:
Move down is probably the best thing that can happen--provided they actually treat him like a scoring line player that needs minutes and don't turn him into Ontario's 3C/4C depth checker--which is unfortunately possible with Tynan, JAD, Turcotte, soonish Byfield...
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I still think he can play in a more offensive role in the NHL right now and be productive.
But I think a stint can/will be very beneficial for Vilardi if he's playing top line minutes.
 
Master Yoda said:
I still think he can play in a more offensive role in the NHL right now and be productive.
But I think a stint can/will be very beneficial for Vilardi if he's playing top line minutes.
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OH I agree, in my perfect world, they're at least trying him on wing next to Kopitar or Danault

But in the absence of that, so long as they give him big minutes in the AHL, preferably at W, then we'll see him back on track in no time.

But it's hard to not be pessimistic at how they're going to use him...
 
Raccoon Jesus said:
Concerned that he's not good enough? Or that he hasn't been spending this time in the NHL instead of AHL?
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Concerned that he isn't in LA right now.

Vilardi I understand. Its one thing to show that you can play the type of game the coach wants while slowly developing your skill set like Kupari, but Vilardi's play was just not at the NHL level in any aspect of the game. Poor on draws, poor in coverages, poor in offensive execution, poor skating, just too many problems that need to be addressed on the job. He definitely needs time to get his confidence back and show that he can offer something tangibly positive while still learning to play while on the NHL roster. His body language has been the worst I can ever recall seeing.

But I am baffled why JAD hasn't been given more than a looksee because he has proven NHL competency.
 
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BigKing said:
I'm not knocking Lizotte or trying to argue anything substantial here, but Lizotte has played with what would be considered good players (for the Kings) for a decent chunk of his time in the NHL since the Kings sucked.

As a King, Lias is at 0.23o PPG. Since Lias has been on the team, Lizotte is at 0.240. The latter's PPG over his Kings career is bolstered by his 2020 season which will most likely be looked back upon as an outlier.

I'm not the biggest Lizotte fan but I don't like a 4th line comprised of midgets and nobody that can hit or Lizotte being in my Top 6. That's what had been happening the past couple of seasons but that's not the case anymore since he's in a pure energy role and has Lemieux riding shotgun. He's doing great in his current role.
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Yeah Lizotte is doing well in his current spot, as good as any other 4th liners we've had lately. As much as he's listed as one of the guys who is taking a spot from a rookie you would think he's doing terrible, but he's outperforming nearly all of them. I honestly don't know if Lias has any higher of a ceiling than Lizotte, he's like a carrot dangling that just quite can't be reached. Kempe was like that for a while, but then picked it up. Hoping Lias does the same.

In reality, we only need a couple of our long list of prospects to hit and we will be good to go.
 
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bland said:
Concerned that he isn't in LA right now.

Vilardi I understand. Its one thing to show that you can play the type of game the coach wants while slowly developing your skill set like Kupari, but Vilardi's play was just not at the NHL level in any aspect of the game. Poor on draws, poor in coverages, poor in offensive execution, poor skating, just too many problems that need to be addressed on the job. He definitely needs time to get his confidence back and show that he can offer something tangibly positive while still learning to play while on the NHL roster. His body language has been the worst I can ever recall seeing.

But I am baffled why JAD hasn't been given more than a looksee because he has proven NHL competency.
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JAD was a guy they always talked up, massive praise from coaches, etc. With how he played when he was up I'm surprised he hasn't seen time too, the only issue I saw was him running out of gas from the schedule. He's not big but he's not tiny either, has shown some good offense, and good IQ.

Perhaps this year was kind of mapped out and they have callup dates planned for players, outside of unforeseen circumstances? If Kupari/Kaliyev go down he might be in the next batch to come up.
 
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Fishhead said:
Yeah Lizotte is doing well in his current spot, as good as any other 4th liners we've had lately. As much as he's listed as one of the guys who is taking a spot from a rookie you would think he's doing terrible, but he's outperforming nearly all of them. I honestly don't know if Lias has any higher of a ceiling than Lizotte, he's like a carrot dangling that just quite can't be reached. Kempe was like that for a while, but then picked it up. Hoping Lias does the same.

In reality, we only need a couple of our long list of prospects to hit and we will be good to go.
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I think Lias has a much higher ceiling but the question is if he will ever get close to it after having his development completely screwed up. Lizotte is what he is which, in the end, might be more than what Lias winds up being.

What I just said about Lizotte is why he gets dumped on: he is what he is while prospects all have potential to be more than what Lizotte is until they prove that they don't have what it takes.

Fishhead said:
JAD was a guy they always talked up, massive praise from coaches, etc. With how he played when he was up I'm surprised he hasn't seen time too, the only issue I saw was him running out of gas from the schedule. He's not big but he's not tiny either, has shown some good offense, and good IQ.

Perhaps this year was kind of mapped out and they have callup dates planned for players, outside of unforeseen circumstances? If Kupari/Kaliyev go down he might be in the next batch to come up.
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I think the Kings just took advantage of who could be sent down without clearing waivers when it comes to JAD. You would have liked to see him just blow the doors off of training camp but since he didn't, the Kings punted.
 
Fishhead said:
JAD was a guy they always talked up, massive praise from coaches, etc. With how he played when he was up I'm surprised he hasn't seen time too, the only issue I saw was him running out of gas from the schedule. He's not big but he's not tiny either, has shown some good offense, and good IQ.

Perhaps this year was kind of mapped out and they have callup dates planned for players, outside of unforeseen circumstances? If Kupari/Kaliyev go down he might be in the next batch to come up.
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This is exactly why I don't overly question the way they have handled the kids this year. For all we know they have given each of them a list of specific things they want to see from them and won't offer that reward until they see the results they are requiring.

But I absolutely agree with KingsPawn's questioning of this developmental team's ability to maximize skill sets of young players. There was a dearth of talent to work with for ages, and only now are we seeing real, honest to goodness skill from Kings forward prospects. The AHL team definitely profited from the coaching change, but maybe - and this is just a speculative maybe - it is a concern that most of the former Kings on the developmental squad happen to be middle six and bottom pairing veterans who didn't exactly make a living on offensive skill.
 
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With Vilardi being sent down, I TRULY hope they give him time at RW and give him a chance to succeed there.

And hopefully in a scoring role.

Vilardi, to me, is fighting two battles. Developing his skillset so it fits in the higher level, and confidence. Shoving him in the bottom 6 would be equivalent to what Dallas did to Jack Campbell: not putting him in a position to succeed and mentally sabotaging him.
 
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King'sPawn said:
With Vilardi being sent down, I TRULY hope they give him time at RW and give him a chance to succeed there.

And hopefully in a scoring role.

Vilardi, to me, is fighting two battles. Developing his skillset so it fits in the higher level, and confidence. Shoving him in the bottom 6 would be equivalent to what Dallas did to Jack Campbell: not putting him in a position to succeed and mentally sabotaging him.
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The only thing I kind of disagree with you about is that I don't see bottom 6 minutes in the NHL as a disadvantage to a young player. Those aren't necessarily defensive assignments since the toughest minutes are going to the top 6 centers. There may a lot of defensive zone starts in the stats, but do any of those fancy stats show where the shifts started?

Vilardi's groups couldn't retain possession and the play was tilted in the Kings zone practically every time he was on the ice. The team was playing poorly at the time and I just don't see it as a problem if the coach wants to try and retain what was rare offensive zone possession by starting a center who can actually win draws. Putting Vilardi out in those situations just wasn't advisable.

Its not like he was centering Jordan Nolan, the Kings don't have any defense-only wingers at the moment. Tkachev wasn't skating with the pace that is apparently required here now.
 
bland said:
The only thing I kind of disagree with you about is that I don't see bottom 6 minutes in the NHL as a disadvantage to a young player. Those aren't necessarily defensive assignments since the toughest minutes are going to the top 6 centers. There may a lot of defensive zone starts in the stats, but do any of those fancy stats show where the shifts started?

Vilardi's groups couldn't retain possession and the play was tilted in the Kings zone practically every time he was on the ice. The team was playing poorly at the time and I just don't see it as a problem if the coach wants to try and retain what was rare offensive zone possession by starting a center who can actually win draws. Putting Vilardi out in those situations just wasn't advisable.

Its not like he was centering Jordan Nolan, the Kings don't have any defense-only wingers at the moment. Tkachev wasn't skating with the pace that is apparently required here now.
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I might have been unclear - my issue is a bottom-six role in the AHL.

Vilardi being demoted to the AHL should have a scoring role (or at least more minutes) with the demotion. Otherwise, if he's warming the bench with a demotion, this would be a lot for someone to overcome mentally.

Adjusting his game and playing a new position (RW) requires confidence and trust to "make mistakes."

I wouldn't even mind Vilardi playing bottom-six on the RW in the NHL. I don't expect players to be given a spot. But a team with a lot of veterans and journeymen should be able to insulate their young talent enough to put them in a position to succeed.
 
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Okay okay if we're not going to glue Maatta to the bench could someone at least put clear tape on his skate blades on video
 
Sometimes changes really spark a player. From personal experience, I'm a fencer and back in college when I switched weapons for fun, it really energized my game. Trying something new made me excited to keep playing the game.

Hope the same happens to the Vilardi
 
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