Kings Biggest Draft Booms and Busts Since 2000

[LastWordArmy]

As the 2020 NHL Entry Draft approaches, we decided to examine each team’s best and worst pick since the 2000 NHL Entry Draft. The biggest boom is a player that had the best value relative to where they were selected. Meaning, no one in the first round will be considered a team’s best value pick. However, the biggest bust picks will almost always be in the first round. We will examine each player, why they were picked where they were, and what their NHL career was like. Today, we look at the Los Angeles Kings draft, and their biggest boom and bust.


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Los Angeles Kings Biggest Draft Boom and Bust Since 2000

Here is a taste with one of the honourable mentions.


Colten Teubert

Colten Teubert was very close to being considered as the biggest Los Angeles Kings draft bust. In the 2008 NHL Draft, the Kings selected him as the 13 overall player in the first round. Teubert, the Canadian native, has never played for the Kings in the NHL. However, Los Angeles included him in a trade for Dustin Penner to the Edmonton Oilers at the 2011 Trade Deadline. In the remainder of the 2011-12 season, the former 13th overall draft choice played in 24 games with the Oilers and recorded one assist. Teubert also skated in 167 AHL games. The robust right-handed defenceman retired after playing in Germany in 2019.

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[Rorschach]

Biggest boom - Gabriel Vilardi (hopefully)

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I fully agree--I think most people remember Teubert as the biggest bust but the name named--holy cow.

 

[BringTheReign]

I used to develop/force Lauri Tukonen into a 2nd line winger in franchise mode for NHL05-07. Good times.

 

[Jungle Boy]

I used to develop/force Lauri Tukonen into a 2nd line winger in franchise mode for NHL05-07. Good times.

Remember the early 2000s when we thought we had a great farm under Dave Taylor.

Jens Karlson - Brian Boyle - Lauri Tukonen
Jeff Tambelini - David Steckel - Kost Pushkaryov
Sergei Anshakov - Y Lehoux - Petr Kanko
Brady Murray - Greg Hogeboom - Scott Parse
Grebeshkov - Petiot
Lyubushin - Paul Baier
Aaron Rome - Tuuka Mantyla
Daniel Taylor
Yutaka Fukufuji

I spent a lot of time projecting those lines, thanx God it didnt happen

 

[ru4reals]

Remember the early 2000s when we thought we had a great farm under Dave Taylor.

Jens Karlson - Brian Boyle - Lauri Tukonen
Jeff Tambelini - David Steckel - Kost Pushkaryov
Sergei Anshakov - Y Lehoux - Petr Kanko
Brady Murray - Greg Hogeboom - Scott Parse
Grebeshkov - Petiot
Lyubushin - Paul Baier
Aaron Rome - Tuuka Mantyla
Daniel Taylor
Yutaka Fukufuji

I spent a lot of time projecting those lines, thanx God it didnt happen

It became more like one of the worst in the league if not the worst. Sheesh. Boyle and Tambelini yikes in the deepest draft perhaps of all time too. Lets hope it's not deja vu all over again.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

There's a lot of yikes there but between Al Murray finding success elsewhere and some of those guys carving out decent careers away from LA, that points to development a bit again as well too. Tukonen ripped up Europe. Boyle carved out a real good career, albeit a different player than we all thought. Tambellini turned out to be a bit of a tweener but he played a bit. Parse unfortunately like a few other legendary prospects got derailed by injuries (cough medical team cough). Rome even played in the Cup Final with Vancouver.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

It's really head scratching as to why the Kings back then largely avoided drafting CHL based players. They heavily leaned on collegiate and European players, likely because of frugal reasons as they could hold onto their draft rights longer.

Those experiences with Matt Zultek and Justin Papineau must have scared them off.

 

[Herby]

Scouting isn't an exact science but man that Teubert pick just the worst of all time. I remember being home and going to Reign game less than a year after he was drafted and he was just bad, you could have given me 10 guesses as to who the 1st round pick was and I wouldn't guessed. And it was obviously a massive red flag that the Kings sent a guy they used a high 1st on the year before to the ECHL instead of the AHL, but he would have been eaten alive playing a level up. He was sent to the ECHL the next year as well. My guess is the Kings probably knew after the first rookie camp that they made a massive mistake.

At least some of the other busts like Tukonen and Tambellini had atleast some upside, the Kings took a bad player whos upside was as 3rd pairing defender

 

[Telos]

Everything about the Teubert pick was weird. Even that trade Lombardi made about the pick was insane. They must have been laughing their asses off when they saw that we were taking Teubert.

 

[Docgonzo]

Everything about the Teubert pick was weird. Even that trade Lombardi made about the pick was insane. They must have been laughing their asses off when they saw that we were taking Teubert.

I was so confused watching it, thought they traded up to get Myers. Only to trade back with Buffalo and let them pick Myers. It was so odd.

 

[Herby]

Lombardi made some great trades to build that team, because it wasn't going to be built on those early picks.

Between 2006-2010 they had 7 1st round picks and ended up with

- backup goalie (11)
- 4th line forward (17)
- bottom pairing defender (4)
- franchise elite defender (2)
- German league defender (13)
- very good 2nd line forward (5)
- fringe 3rd pair defender (15)

Really remarkable that they had so much success with drafting like that, testament to how good 11, 32, 8 were and how great DL was at making the right trades.

 

[Lt Dan]

There's a lot of yikes there but between Al Murray finding success elsewhere and some of those guys carving out decent careers away from LA, that points to development a bit again as well too. Tukonen ripped up Europe. Boyle carved out a real good career, albeit a different player than we all thought. Tambellini turned out to be a bit of a tweener but he played a bit. Parse unfortunately like a few other legendary prospects got derailed by injuries (cough medical team cough). Rome even played in the Cup Final with Vancouver.

That tells me that the Kings prospect problem was development more than anything else

 

[Lt Dan]

Lombardi made some great trades to build that team, because it wasn't going to be built on those early picks.

Between 2006-2010 they had 7 1st round picks and ended up with

- backup goalie (11)
- 4th line forward (17)
- bottom pairing defender (4)
- franchise elite defender (2)
- German league defender (13)
- very good 2nd line forward (5)
- fringe 3rd pair defender (15)

Really remarkable that they had so much success with drafting like that, testament to how good 11, 32, 8 were and how great DL was at making the right trades.

and the role DL and his staff played in developing 11,32, and 8

 

[BigKing]

If Teubert was as tough as billed, he still would have carved out a role in the league even though he wasn't very good. When you can't back up your tough guy act at the NHL level though, you better be able to play.

He could do neither.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Here's a fun exercise: try assembling a team of players drafted from the previous two GMs (toss in unsigned free agent prospects to the group as well):

Dave Taylor's Kings:
Cammalleri-Kopitar-Brown
Frolov-Jokinen-J. Blake
Reinprecht-Boyle-Tambellini
McGrattan-Steckel-Parros

Visnovsky-Corvo
Lilja-Kaberle
Grebeshkov-Rome/Biron

Quick-Huet

Dean Lombardi's Kings:
Pearson-Schenn-Toffoli
Clifford-Kempe-Kubalik
King-Lewis-Simmonds
Wagner-Dowd-Nolan

Muzzin-Doughty
Martinez-Voynov
Forbort-Cernak/Miller/Hickey

Jones-Bernier

Taylor's drafted team is more top heavy with little depth up front and on the blueline, but they have the best starter. Lombardi's Kings has a considerably better blueline and more depth but a bit thin on talent up front.

The game has changed considerably from when Dave Taylor was trying to put together a team, but his scouts really seemed favored size and struggled to find much talent. His best selections on defense were all mostly overage Europeans.

Lombardi really likes his grinders, as there is a slew of them who didn't make the cut (Deslauriers, Shore, Andreoff), but he really emphasized building from the net out, and the defensemen his staff found prove that. They did a great job signing Muzzin and Jones as free agents, but besides drafting Bernier, the Kings didn't have any success drafting goaltenders after 2006.

Of all the first round picks selected since 2000, Jens Karlsson, Lauri Tukonen and Colten Teubert are the biggest misses. Despite Forbort and Hickey becoming ordinary defensemen, you can bet there's some regret with who they passed over in those drafts.

 

[SFKingshomer]

In hindsight the Teubert pick was terrible but it wasn't a reach at the time. The Hickey pick wasn't great because he went way above where many scouts had him. There were rumors that Boston wanted Hickey at #8 and DL wanted to get his guy so he went way off the board. Hickey has had a decent career and may have been better if not for injuries early in his career.

 

[Herby]

If Teubert was as tough as billed, he still would have carved out a role in the league even though he wasn't very good. When you can't back up your tough guy act at the NHL level though, you better be able to play.

He could do neither.

He had about as much chance of being an NHL d-man as you or I would have. He makes MacD look like Doughty.

He would have had to have switched to forward.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Can anyone point to me who was the last “tough” and big defenseman drafted from the first round who actually panned out? Luke Schenn? He carved out a lengthy career, although relative to his draft position, he’s a major disappointment. Just like Aki Berg.

 

[Lt Dan]

Can anyone point to me who was the last “tough” and big defenseman drafted from the first round who actually panned out? Luke Schenn? He carved out a lengthy career, although relative to his draft position, he’s a major disappointment. Just like Aki Berg.

wihtout look and strictly guessing. I am guessing Jovo

There has to be someone else since the mid 90s though

 

[Matt13]

Can anyone point to me who was the last “tough” and big defenseman drafted from the first round who actually panned out? Luke Schenn? He carved out a lengthy career, although relative to his draft position, he’s a major disappointment. Just like Aki Berg.

Darnell Nurse, 2013. I guess it depends on your definition of tough guy though.

 

[Herby]

The results are similar to drafting fast one-dimensional NFL WRs. Teams get cute and try and fill a very specific luxury need with a 1st round pick and more often that not it blows up in their faces.

That is a good question though, it’s hard to remember many, but part of that is that teams have finally figured out that it’s insanity to draft players like Tuebert and McIlrath in the 1st round with how the game is played now.

Mentioned this earlier but I wonder when the Kings realized how terrible he was, my guess would be they knew a couple of practices into his first rookie camp that they made a huge blunder. I got grilled here for saying it at the time but Teubert’s career was basically over when he was sent to the ECHL. Historically anytime a 1st rounder ends up down there it’s game-set-match on their prospects.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Darnell Nurse, 2013. I guess it depends on your definition of tough guy though.

I don't think I'd lump him in with the Teubert's and McIlrath's and Ellerby's of previous drafts. Nurse put up very decent numbers in juniors with 40+ and 50+ points. Those other lumbering oafs were one dimensional stiffs.

Mentioned this earlier but I wonder when the Kings realized how terrible he was, my guess would be they knew a couple of practices into his first rookie camp that they made a huge blunder. I got grilled here for saying it at the time but Teubert’s career was basically over when he was sent to the ECHL. Historically anytime a 1st rounder ends up down there it’s game-set-match on their prospects.

What I remember most about his dumbass is that all he was interested in camps and rookie games was throwing hits and fighting. He did it at Canada's WJC as well and injured Jordan Caron.


And then this happened to him:

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Gudbrandson too, but like Schenn, relative to draft position it's terrible value.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Gudbrandson too, but like Schenn, relative to draft position it's terrible value.

And just like Luke Schenn, he's bounced around with four different teams and struggles to be a regular in a lineup. A good majority of these types of physical defensemen in the first round turn out to be big mistakes.