Kings Biggest Draft Booms and Busts Since 2000

[Ray Martyniuk]

You're going way off topic now. This is about Bud Holloway, man.

Really...looks like you are off topic Buddy!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Except guys like Lewis can be had for 700 thousand not 2 Million. Will be glad when he moves on and the Kings can insert someone with a little more scoring and playmaking threat. Not just a skater with blinders. He did score the odd once in a blue moon important goal though but other than that I hated him because he was a failed first rounder...better suited for the second or third round! I could have stomached that!

I definitely wouldn't call Lewis a failure. Ty Wishart, Riku Helenius picked right before him were failures. Stewart picked right after was a success--but right after that, Mark Mitera, David Fischer, Bobby Sanguinetti were failures.

A guy playing a key role on multiple cup champions cannot be considered a failure in pure context. Did we hope he'd be more of a scorer? Absolutely. But a swiss army knife at 17th overall when shit was terrible around him? Good pick, good result.

 

[kovacro]

I don't know why people hurl Trevor Lewis around as an insult. Yeah the 2020 model is a little broken down.

The guy had a great NHL career. If JAD turns out to be Trevor Lewis with a little more offense, we should be so lucky. That's the best kind of depth you can ask for.

Agreed. He's had a good pro career. Drafted, developed and spent his entire career thus far with the same organization. I would say that's a fairly solid return on the Kings investment. I don't think you will find many more guys who have played more NHL games than him that were drafted in the 17th slot.

There are some that have the expectation that when your a 1st round pick, you automatically need to be a very productive top 6 forward or your simply a bust.

 

[Ray Martyniuk]

I definitely wouldn't call Lewis a failure. Ty Wishart, Riku Helenius picked right before him were failures. Stewart picked right after was a success--but right after that, Mark Mitera, David Fischer, Bobby Sanguinetti were failures.

A guy playing a key role on multiple cup champions cannot be considered a failure in pure context. Did we hope he'd be more of a scorer? Absolutely. But a swiss army knife at 17th overall when shit was terrible around him? Good pick, good result.

When it comes down to it he was a 4th liner and that's what we got! Look around not many 4th liners that were any good...they were usually the fighters,goon and garbage men,I wouldn't say Lewis was a key figure or rather had a key role...he skated,took the puck and threw into the O-Zone and chased.Not much to get excited about especially from a former first rounder...not like he won the Selke or something...one of the only Kings I just did not like period he bored me to tears!

 

[Herby]

Lewis isn't a bust, far from it, but not sure I'd say he had a great career. That is probably going a bit to far.

He is a good 4th line forward. Botton-six forwards on championship winning teams always get a little overrated, that is something that has always happened though. If the Kings never win SC's a guy like Lewis has a vastly different legacy.

 

[Herby]

Holloway wasn't given a fair shake...Was better than Blinders Lewis!

Nope.

He had a chance to show he was an NHL player when he returned to NA and played that year in the Habs system and he couldn't crack their lineup and returned to Europe.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

When it comes down to it he was a 4th liner and that's what we got! Look around not many 4th liners that were any good...they were usually the fighters,goon and garbage men,I wouldn't say Lewis was a key figure or rather had a key role...he skated,took the puck and threw into the O-Zone and chased.Not much to get excited about especially from a former first rounder...not like he won the Selke or something...one of the only Kings I just did not like period he bored me to tears!

Lewis isn't a bust, far from it, but not sure I'd say he had a great career. That is probably going a bit to far.

He is a good 4th line forward. Botton-six forwards on championship winning teams always get a little overrated, that is something that has always happened though. If the Kings never win SC's a guy like Lewis has a vastly different legacy.

a 10-goal, 20-point pace PKing energy guy who forces turnovers, moves the puck forward when he's on the ice, hogs defensive starts and still turns up positive #s, CAN play on the top lines in a pinch is an EXCELLENT 4th liner on ANY team and calling that not a good career shows a complete misunderstanding of hockey. There's no other way to put it, and I'm not getting into it again because the same people cannot grasp context around the league about what bottom-sixers bring to the game. Boring =/= ineffective.

 

[Herby]

a 10-goal, 20-point pace PKing energy guy who forces turnovers, moves the puck forward when he's on the ice, hogs defensive starts and still turns up positive #s, CAN play on the top lines in a pinch is an EXCELLENT 4th liner on ANY team and calling that not a good career shows a complete misunderstanding of hockey. There's no other way to put it, and I'm not getting into it again because the same people cannot grasp context around the league about what bottom-sixers bring to the game. Boring =/= ineffective.

I stand by what I said, I think championship winning fourth liners get overrated. Nothing against Lewis, it doesn't mean he's a bad player (he's not). But he's alot like a Doug Brown or Tim Taylor from those Detroit teams. If you replace them with another teams fourth-liner the overall team results are still the same, like this may be un-popular but the Kings still win 2 SC's if you swap Trevor Lewis for Torrey Mitchell or Trevor Lewis for Jamie McGinn, and those teams are not winning cups with Trevor Lewis. That is why I am hesitant to hype up the importance of Trevor Lewis.

If that makes me "unable to grasp the context around the league" so be it.

 

[BigKing]

Lewis has had some pretty big moments in big games. He was also a 3rd line forward on the 2012 team.

The big thing, however, is that his teammates voted him "Unsung Hero" for like seven straight seasons or something like that. Intangibles get knocked a lot but all of us admire the Cup winning Kings intangibles while bemoaning the lack of it the past few seasons.

Do you hope for more out of a 1st round pick, especially when said pick is part of the Demitra trade and Giroux went after him? Sure. At the same time, you could also get someone like:

Aki Berg, Matt Zultek, Mathieu Biron, Jens Karlsson, David Steckel, Denis Grebeshkov, Jeff Tambellini, Lauri Tukonen, Colten Teubert and Derek Forbort.

You can do the same exercise when looking at the Kings draft history in the 2nd and 3rd rounds when believing you can easily find guys like Lewis in these rounds as well. Spoiler alert: it isn't easy. The Kings draft history is littered with 2nd and 3rd round picks that never even played an NHL game.

 

[KINGS17]

The only problem I have with Lewis, isn't with Lewis. It's with the Kings not trading him when he had more value.

Seems like a great teammate, hard working pro, but the Kings didn't need to keep all of these guys.

 

[BigKing]

The only problem I have with Lewis, isn't with Lewis. It's with the Kings not trading him when he had more value.

Seems like a great teammate, hard working pro, but the Kings didn't need to keep all of these guys.

Well, he had his best ever season in 2018 and they thought they were a contender going in to 2019 so there was no reason to trade him at that point if you believe in the supposed contender status.

Of course, he then started getting injured and made it difficult to be traded. Now age and the injuries have taken him to a place where he couldn't be given away at the trade deadline this year.

I don't really sweat Lewis not being moved when he had more value since it wasn't crazy value to begin with. What is interesting is rumors that he will be re-signed for next year. I do believe you need examples for the young players to follow, but his current level of play makes it difficult to support bringing him back: at least not as an actual player.

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I'm usually one of the last people clamoring for ex-Kings to return, but I wouldn't be upset if both Lewis and Clifford returned on one (or two) year deals at not much more than league minimum. If one of the pups beats them out for a spot, great; you've got a plus-attitude healthy scratch - if the pups aren't quite ready, the Lombardi relics are quality bottom-line filler until they are.

(I suspect both can get more than chump-change 4th liner-money, though, in which case the Kings might as well just look elsewhere).

 

[johnjm22]

A GREAT defensive forward can help take the penalty killing load off his teams best scoring forwards. Lewis was unable to do that largely because he can't be relied on to take face-offs.

Lewis's career PPGA/60 is 6.05. Not very good. His career PK TOI per game is about 1:30

Compare that to Handzus when he was here. Dude averaged almost 3 minutes of PK TOI per game and had a PP GA/60 of 3.44. That's what a GREAT bottom 6 forward should be able to do for you.

 

[KINGS17]

Well, he had his best ever season in 2018 and they thought they were a contender going in to 2019 so there was no reason to trade him at that point if you believe in the supposed contender status.

Of course, he then started getting injured and made it difficult to be traded. Now age and the injuries have taken him to a place where he couldn't be given away at the trade deadline this year.

I don't really sweat Lewis not being moved when he had more value since it wasn't crazy value to begin with. What is interesting is rumors that he will be re-signed for next year. I do believe you need examples for the young players to follow, but his current level of play makes it difficult to support bringing him back: at least not as an actual player.

Yeah, I don't sweat Lewis as much as some of the other guys either.

 

[kingsfan28]

I definitely wouldn't call Lewis a failure. Ty Wishart, Riku Helenius picked right before him were failures. Stewart picked right after was a success--but right after that, Mark Mitera, David Fischer, Bobby Sanguinetti were failures.

A guy playing a key role on multiple cup champions cannot be considered a failure in pure context. Did we hope he'd be more of a scorer? Absolutely. But a swiss army knife at 17th overall when shit was terrible around him? Good pick, good result.

Plus, he broke Gibson in the playoffs with that game 6 goal. He was never them same and they lit him up in game 7.

 

[kingsfan28]

Nope.

He had a chance to show he was an NHL player when he returned to NA and played that year in the Habs system and he couldn't crack their lineup and returned to Europe.

This! The guy got impatient and was given poor advice from his agent . Had he not gone to Sweden or wherever, he'd have been called up with King and Nolan and probably had his name on the cup. His window closed on the nhl before it began.

 

[kingsfan28]

And the LA Kings select with their second first rounder(and 17th overall) in the 2006 draft a fourth liner!Good move and the Kings could have had Giroux or Berglund or a number of other players that played first,second line! Instead they got a player that scored a point every 4 games. That's what you would call a waste of a first rounder...you find guys like Lewis in the 4th,5th rounder...this is where Lombardi started to go wrong when he fell in love with drafting Americans instead of the BPA!

Wrong on this . This was an Al Murray draft and Lombardi was barely on the job and yet to have his guys in place. He was going on his advice. Murray knew Lombardi had a thing for goalies, and that's why Murray took Bernier and traded up to get Lewis based on this . Al Murray was replaced a few months later.

 

[kingsfan28]

Yeah but what does the 2006 draft have to do with Kubalik?

Maybe you need a refresher course...it all Kubalik these days!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

A GREAT defensive forward can help take the penalty killing load off his teams best scoring forwards. Lewis was unable to do that largely because he can't be relied on to take face-offs.

Lewis's career PPGA/60 is 6.05. Not very good. His career PK TOI per game is about 1:30

Compare that to Handzus when he was here. Dude averaged almost 3 minutes of PK TOI per game and had a PP GA/60 of 3.44. That's what a GREAT bottom 6 forward should be able to do for you.

1. If you have to dig to that obscure stat to try to make your case while ignoring addressing everything else, what does that say?

2. Looking at all 50 players who got more than 50 minutes of PK TOI during their stay here since 2008, Handzus is actually showing a 7.52 PK GA/60 for his Kings stay. Lewis' 6.08 is better than Kopitar, Doughty, really just about all the regulars but Williams and Stoll.

3. Lewis on the PK doesn't take the penalty killing load off the teams' best forwards because Kopitar and Brown are one of the best PK duos in the league with Kopitar a Selke candidate so it's a little tough to fault Lewis for not being one of the best of the generation. Will agree Lewis not ever improving on faceoff sucks.

I pulled stats from Evolving Hockey, not sure this link will persist but here:

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Wrong on this . This was an Al Murray draft and Lombardi was barely on the job and yet to have his guys in place. He was going on his advice. Murray knew Lombardi had a thing for goalies, and that's why Murray took Bernier and traded up to get Lewis based on this . Al Murray was replaced a few months later.

The Flyers actually wanted Trevor Lewis as well (and you know Dean Lombardi was aware of that fact since he was with them). Even Bobby Clarke forgot Giroux's name when he stepped to the podium to make the Flyers' selection.

Flyers fans even touch on it in this reddit discussion (though they got Hextall mixed up for Lombardi).

 

[Ray Martyniuk]

This! The guy got impatient and was given poor advice from his agent . Had he not gone to Sweden or wherever, he'd have been called up with King and Nolan and probably had his name on the cup. His window closed on the nhl before it began.

Holloway deserved a callup at the end of 2011 when he was leading the team in Scoring...but he got crickets instead. You are guessing about his agent giving him bad advice right? The Kings probably weren't going to give him a shot anyways not with near Selke winner Lewis on the squad...LMFAO

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Holloway deserved a callup at the end of 2011 when he was leading the team in Scoring...but he got crickets instead. You are guessing about his agent giving him bad advice right? The Kings probably weren't going to give him a shot anyways not with near Selke winner Lewis on the squad...LMFAO

So why didn’t any other team give Holloway a shot?

 

[Ray Martyniuk]

The Flyers actually wanted Trevor Lewis as well (and you know Dean Lombardi was aware of that fact since he was with them). Even Bobby Clarke forgot Giroux's name when he stepped to the podium to make the Flyers' selection.

Flyers fans even touch on it in this reddit discussion (though they got Hextall mixed up for Lombardi).

The Kings traded Pavol DeMitra RIP for the 1st(Lewis) and O'Sullivan...just think the Kings could have had Giroux,hell I would have settled for Marchand or Lucic(no forget that)! Lewis at 17...37 or 47 yes...17...pathetic!

 

[HookKing]

The Kings traded Pavol DeMitra RIP for the 1st(Lewis) and O'Sullivan...just think the Kings could have had Giroux,hell I would have settled for Marchand or Lucic(no forget that)! Lewis at 17...37 or 47 yes...17...pathetic!

I'll take the two cups as is.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'll take the two cups as is.

But with Bud they’d have eight Cups.