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Confirmed with Link: Kings announce signing kovalchuk to 3 year contract.

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Adam Michaels said:
Hey guys. Habs fan here coming to ask you guys for some scouting reports on Kovalchuk after he signed with Montreal moments ago.

We know he's not what he once was. But curious to get some info on the folks who watched him much closer than we have.

Thanks!
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use him on the Powerplay and not during ES. I thought that Willie D was picking on him last year and this year it became pretty evident that he is even more one dimensional
 
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Adam Michaels said:
Hey guys. Habs fan here coming to ask you guys for some scouting reports on Kovalchuk after he signed with Montreal moments ago.

We know he's not what he once was. But curious to get some info on the folks who watched him much closer than we have.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Pros: Still has a lethal shot, decent choice as a PP QB.

Cons: On a (even worse at the start of the season) spotty defensive team, he was hands down the worst defensive player out there. Would suck the life out of every line he was given a chance with and he made everyone of them significantly worse. He looked lost on 5on5, no look passes to no one and way too many giveaways. Failed to gel within the system with multiple coaches. Other players got significantly better not playing with him.
 
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King'sPawn said:
Blake was willing to part with future assets to acquire Pacioretty. The trade was only not finalized because of a failure to agree on terms with him.

That is more than "looking into it."

Yes, he had to make real-time decisions, but this was after a full season of little activity to evaluate the organization.

I don't expect Blake to be perfect. But I will definitely criticize the bigger misfires when they happen.

Kovalchuk is defensible, even if it didn't work out.

Gaborik for Phaneuf is defensible, even if it didn't work out.

Actively trying to trade futures for Pacioretty when that's what Lombardi did and set the organization back a few years is not defensible. At all. His saving grace was not backing down on his contract offer, but it still was a gross misstep on the organization direction.
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Not finding a way of signing Kubalik is looking like a huge blunder for Robbie Blake...think he's an idiot for it!
 
Adam Michaels said:
Hey guys. Habs fan here coming to ask you guys for some scouting reports on Kovalchuk after he signed with Montreal moments ago.

We know he's not what he once was. But curious to get some info on the folks who watched him much closer than we have.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone here or people with the Kings will have anything bad to say about Kovalchuk the person. He's a hardworking guy and the players had nothing but good things to say about him. That being said, he clearly wasn't buying into our system and was more of a free flowing kind of player that just didn't mesh very well. A lot of us gave him the benefit of the doubt under Stevens and WD because they clearly aren't good coaches, but under TMac he just couldn't stick. Under Claude Julien? I don't know.

He still has a lethal shot and I do think he wasn't properly utilized on our powerplay. I think at the price you got him for was a no brainer and you're not wasting anything if he doesn't work out.
 
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andys said:
Not finding a way of signing Kubalik is looking like a huge blunder for Robbie Blake...think he's an idiot for it!
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We're not sure what Kubalik wanted - guaranteed spot in NHL?, certain amount of ice time, etc - so IMO it is hard to blame Blake. Also, we have several young players that I want to see get ice time and bringing in another player pulling time from those players isn't something I wanted. Great that the guy is playing well, but I'm ok with Blake not signing him.
 
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andys said:
Not finding a way of signing Kubalik is looking like a huge blunder for Robbie Blake...think he's an idiot for it!
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They couldn't.

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killermiller said:
Pros: Still has a lethal shot, decent choice as a PP QB.

Cons: On a (even worse at the start of the season) spotty defensive team, he was hands down the worst defensive player out there. Would suck the life out of every line he was given a chance with and he made everyone of them significantly worse. He looked lost on 5on5, no look passes to no one and way too many giveaways. Failed to gel within the system with multiple coaches. Other players got significantly better not playing with him.
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another positive: great in shootouts. 80% with Kings.
 
killermiller said:
Pros: Still has a lethal shot, decent choice as a PP QB.

Cons: On a (even worse at the start of the season) spotty defensive team, he was hands down the worst defensive player out there. Would suck the life out of every line he was given a chance with and he made everyone of them significantly worse. He looked lost on 5on5, no look passes to no one and way too many giveaways. Failed to gel within the system with multiple coaches. Other players got significantly better not playing with him.
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The shot is only killer in the event someone is skating behind or to the side of the net as said skater is in serious danger of being hit.

The fact that Montreal passed on him until another winger went down is pretty telling. If he is horrible and they send him down, he will not report and that will be the end of Kovalchuk in the NHL.

The details of this contract are a giant LOL to anyone that thought the Kings could trade him for anything of value without adding a serious sweetener.
 
killermiller said:
Pros: Still has a lethal shot, decent choice as a PP QB.

Cons: On a (even worse at the start of the season) spotty defensive team, he was hands down the worst defensive player out there. Would suck the life out of every line he was given a chance with and he made everyone of them significantly worse. He looked lost on 5on5, no look passes to no one and way too many giveaways. Failed to gel within the system with multiple coaches. Other players got significantly better not playing with him.
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Spot on. I would add that he would excel if he only plays during a man advantage. Just leave him in one spot ala Ovechkin and he could play all two minutes of a power play. Just have him sit and tag the puck at the goal at every opportunity. I’m frankly surprised the Kings haven’t done this considering how bad their power play has been.
 
Adam Michaels said:
Hey guys. Habs fan here coming to ask you guys for some scouting reports on Kovalchuk after he signed with Montreal moments ago.

We know he's not what he once was. But curious to get some info on the folks who watched him much closer than we have.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
The most important thing...check out his wife's twitter account.
 
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lumbergh said:
Spot on. I would add that he would excel if he only plays during a man advantage. Just leave him in one spot ala Ovechkin and he could play all two minutes of a power play. Just have him sit and tag the puck at the goal at every opportunity. I’m frankly surprised the Kings haven’t done this considering how bad their power play has been.
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They tried to do so. That was a big problem at the start of last season as everyone just wanted to try and set him up for that shot.

Maybe it works on a more dangerous power play but nobody respects anything the Kings are doing with the man advantage so covering Kovy was no problem. The other problem was that he would generally miss when he did get the opportunity.
 
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The Kings are giving up 1.28 fewer goals per game in the 25 games since Kovalchuk was banished. It's sort of a ridiculous number to all of a sudden improve by. They're 6th overall in GA since Nov 10th. Montreal is 23rd in GA for the year, and since Nov 10th, and that's without Kovalchuk.

Interested to see what happens. Will Kovalchuk buy what Montreal is selling? Will he seemingly drag the team down simply by being in the lineup? Was it just the Kings? I want to know.
 
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Sleeping Dog said:
We're not sure what Kubalik wanted - guaranteed spot in NHL?, certain amount of ice time, etc - so IMO it is hard to blame Blake. Also, we have several young players that I want to see get ice time and bringing in another player pulling time from those players isn't something I wanted. Great that the guy is playing well, but I'm ok with Blake not signing him.
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Kings have no one on the LWing or RWing better than Kubalik...Blake crapped the bed and who are these players that you would rather have...who?
 
andys said:
Kings have no one on the LWing or RWing better than Kubalik...Blake crapped the bed and who are these players that you would rather have...who?
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I don’t think Kubalik is really any better than Iafallo. He’s JAG. Nothing more than a +/- 45 point guy and there are plenty of those in this league.

Sorry, realized it’s the Kovy thread. As you were, ladies and gents.
 
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