GDT: Kings off-season thread

[kingskring]

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[kingskring]

 

[KingsHockey24]

I don't care what TM has to say.

This team has quite a bit of holes that need to be addressed.

 

[King'sPawn]

Grade for the season: B+

Making the playoffs was the bare minimum. Bonus points for overcoming injuries.

The Kings needed to do a better job integrating the forward prospects at the NHL level instead of playing Kopitar 22+ minutes.

By the postseason, Kopitar was too worn down, and the prospects were too unprepared.

Danault + Moore saved the season. Great acquisitions by Blake.

Dreadful special teams. The Powerplay and Penalty Kill, combined, were 92.7% effective.

 

[kingsfan]

Better luck health wise, getting even slightly above average special teams, adding a top line goalscorer, figuring out wtf is going on in net and seeing the kids take another step should be the goals and expectations for next year.

 

[Docgonzo]

I hope Blake is really checking with every team this off-season. This series made it painfully obvious they need scoring help.

Boeser, Fiala, Forsberg, Marner, Granland, Ehlers, Connor, Nino, Nichuskin, Palat

Also need some size and toughness on the backend but that list is harder to come up with.

 

[unicornpig]

f*** you Todd!

Fiala, garland, forsberg, bertuzzi, nylander. Upgrade at LD and possibly a goalie

 

[ZJames]

Kaliyev had a solid rookie season, and I hope he will get more ice time next season. Of all the Kings young forwards, I hold out the most hope for him. Byfield really needs to take a big step forward next year. The kid has a ton of potential, but potential doesn't mean squat if you don't fulfill it. Turcotte and Vilardi? I don't know what to think of them at this point. I really hope their injuries haven't done them in. Hopefully there will be some surprise forwards that make the team out of camp (Here's looking at you, Fagemo!). They should have some open spots, seeing as how DB23 is now retired, and hopefully they move on from AA.

I can't help but feel like Father Time is starting to catch up with Kopitar, or maybe it's just TMs anemic offense. This team has a lot of heart and should have a pretty good D core next year, but that won't make up for the lack of offense on this team. As much as I would love to see Forsberg on this team, I wonder just how much it would actually help. Rob and TM need to figure out how to fix the power play. At this point, I wish the KIngs would have the option of simply declining the power play.

As mentioned, I do feel good about our group of defensemen. Plug a healthy Doughty into this group of young d-men (who got some valuable playoff experience), and I think we will have a strong defense next year. Hopefully Quick has one more year of good hockey in him, and Peterson can have a rebound season.

 

[Ginger Papa]

Hi everyone,

I thought it best to wait until the initial pain calmed down a bit.

Your Boys performed amazing, imho. Older players turned back the clock, Young guys took a step & this years acquisitions showed up (Arvidsson excluded of course).

In other words, your Team showed some serious balls

The experience your youth gained is worth 2 Regular Seasons worth.


Best wishes on your off season, happy retirement to #23 & may your Team return to contention soon.


Cheers.

 

[lexlavender]

Goals for off-season

Sign Forsberg

Prospects hit the gym, no going home and getting fat. They all need to put on man weight.

Start easing in Clarke

Trade for Chychrun if cheap

Hope Iafallo and Petersen can get out of their funk, recover and refresh back to NHL levels.

Resign Kempe, ideally 5x5, can live with 6x5

Trade away a RD for some help or scoring prospects

Fire Marco Sturm and get a real PP coach

 

[BigBrown]

Honestly, I think we got to rebuild the rebuild. This year was a step forward in the small picture but a step backwards big picture. As it is the Kings are not building a contender, they're building a pretender

All our top forward prospects are looking like busts. By now it should be obvious to even the most optimistic of observers. Some might turn out to be fine players but they aren't guys you build your team around. There is no new Kopitar in the system. There is not even a new Dustin Brown in the system. The heir apparent in goal looking like Jason Labarbera.

Next season is gonna be tough. They'll be expected to improve on this season when they're already massively overachieving. We're unlikely to have another season like this from Danault. I don't see Kempe scoring 35 again. Kopitar is gonna get worse. I'm not confident they'll even make the playoffs.

They have plenty of players with trade value. Now is the time to trade them. Sign a bunch of good character but terrible players over the summer and gut it out for a couple more years, then come back stronger.

First, identify whether drafting or development is the problem and let the axe come down on them, hard. Get someone who knows what they're doing in charge instead. Oh, and get a head coach who gives a shit about player development or at least knows something about it.

 

[Sol]

I don't care what TM has to say.

This team has quite a bit of holes that need to be addressed.

He’s the biggest hole. Certified Choker and PHD in reverse sweeps. The biggest improvements next year is bringing in Trotz.

 

[Sol]

Honestly, I think we got to rebuild the rebuild. This year was a step forward in the small picture but a step backwards big picture. As it is the Kings are not building a contender, they're building a pretender

All our top forward prospects are looking like busts. By now it should be obvious to even the most optimistic of observers. Some might turn out to be fine players but they aren't guys you build your team around. There is no new Kopitar in the system. There is not even a new Dustin Brown in the system. The heir apparent in goal looking like Jason Labarbera.

Next season is gonna be tough. They'll be expected to improve on this season when they're already massively overachieving. We're unlikely to have another season like this from Danault. I don't see Kempe scoring 35 again. Kopitar is gonna get worse. I'm not confident they'll even make the playoffs.

They have plenty of players with trade value. Now is the time to trade them. Sign a bunch of good character but terrible players over the summer and gut it out for a couple more years, then come back stronger.

First, identify whether drafting or development is the problem and let the axe come down on them, hard. Get someone who knows what they're doing in charge instead. Oh, and get a head coach who gives a shit about player development or at least knows something about it.

This is how I feel exactly. We’re heading into pretender mode with how bad our top picks have been. No superstar or star potential in the top picks. You’re not going to go far.

Fire the staff, clean house. And if the boys don’t make drastic improvements next year. Year one of the new rebuild will begin. And I think we’re heading there because Turcotte,Byfield, and Vilardi are definitely not stars.

Hopefully Clarke is a stud though. That will be important

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

They say what was wrong with Arvidsson?

 

[CowMix]

Might be a hot take since we just lost to basically McDavid by himself but I think in hockey having stars is overrated. If he can carry that Oilers team to the Stanley cup maybe I'll be proved wrong but I think for now if you can roll 4 solid with a sprinkling skill that's all you need. Players are so streaky that many players are capable of becoming star for a season. Vegas was most successful when they were a solid team and started suffering when they switched to just trying to add as many "stars" as possible.

 

[WHOneedsSOX]

Might be a hot take since we just lost to basically McDavid by himself but I think in hockey having stars is overrated. If he can carry that Oilers team to the Stanley cup maybe I'll be proved wrong but I think for now if you can roll 4 solid with a sprinkling skill that's all you need. Players are so streaky that many players are capable of becoming star for a season. Vegas was most successful when they were a solid team and started suffering when they switched to just trying to add as many "stars" as possible.

Or be like Tampa Bay and have both.

 

[Soapdodger]

Considering all the injuries this team really over performed.
TMac makes a lot of questionable decisions but the results speak for him.
That being said I brace for a rough season ahead of us.
There will be a lot of growing pains and some of the veterans will most likely decline in performance.
I am not sure if we make the playoffs unless reinforcements are brought in.
Which would hurt the development of our prospects.
I am really curious how guys like Durzi, Björnfot and Spence will perform next season.
Will Byfield break through? He reminds me of a young Joe Thornton. Thornton was also injured during preseason, hadn't yet grown into his body and had one the the worst rookie season of any 1st overall pick.
There was a lot of criticism of him after that season but the following season he was much better and would later turn into the dominant player we all remember.

 

[KingsFan7824]

I guess the one good thing is that Kopitar didn't lead the Kings in goals, assists, pts, PP pts, or +/- during the playoffs.

 

[Lt Dan]

In other words, your Team showed some serious balls

 

[Cook24]

Kempe-Kopitar-Forsberg
Moore-Danault-Arvidsson
Iafallo-Byfield/Vilardi/Turcotte-Kaliyev(whoever earns it more)
Lemieux-Lizotte-Grundstrom
Kupari

Anderson-Doughty
Chychrun-Clarke
Durzi-Roy
Spence

One of our RD will have to switch over to left side…

Walker, Bjornfot moved in trades…

 

[kovacro]

Goals for off-season

Sign Forsberg

Prospects hit the gym, no going home and getting fat. They all need to put on man weight.

Start easing in Clarke

Trade for Chychrun if cheap

Hope Iafallo and Petersen can get out of their funk, recover and refresh back to NHL levels.

Resign Kempe, ideally 5x5, can live with 6x5

Trade away a RD for some help or scoring prospects

Fire Marco Sturm and get a real PP coach

Don’t think Chychrun is going to be cheap for any team trying to acquire him this off-season.

It’s going to be difficult to address all the needs by going outside the organization either via free agency or trade for an experienced player, the Cap will not allow for that. Have to get some of the young organizational talent integrated onto the roster who are on entry level deals. They need to be important contributors going forward.

If they can find a taker for Iafallo, I would consider moving him.

Cal starts his contract next year and must show well or his deal becomes a concern.

I don’t know what happened to Bjornfot in the ladder half of the season. He needs to be a fixture on the backend going forward.

Two more years of Kopitar at $10 million per. Hopefully he’s not on a sharp decline but he’s not a number one centre at this stage of his career.

I’d like to see AK34 in a top 6 role.

Off-season should be interesting and I think there should be turnover with respect to our coaching staff. Wrobo is leaving Ontario from what I read somewhere so that is a vacancy that will need to be addressed.

 

[ibleedkings]

It's getting old when you check the NHL leaderboards and there is never a King on page one. You just keep scrolling and nothing, sad. I say we make a run at Nylander. Toronto is gonna move players and look to upgrade their D. Maybe we help them out. I prefer him over Forsberg, because he's younger and contract for Filip is gonna be stupid.

 

[Lt Dan]

Offseason plan

Goodbye: AA, WhatsAMattaU
Welcome: Another scoring winger (Forsberg would be awesome) a goalie of the future, bring Jesse Cohen back between periods with Creed Bratton as a side kick

Also have a bake sale

 

[Cook24]

Would like to see a move for a goalie to take over once quicks gone next summer. Someone like Dostal from the ducks but would be tough to get them to move him to us…

 

[tny760]

those tmac comments, especially the "next season starts tomorrow" bit is probably the first i've read from him that seems genuine and not like a load of bullshit

this offseason really is gonna be the crux of a lot of these kids' careers and i hope they recognize it