LA KINGS 2023/4 Regular season discussion

[GoldenBearHockey]

Who said some of us are not?

You can just tell......you can just tell...lol

EDIT: However, living in CA it's almost a prerequisite to be one now

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The Kings as a whole are playing like a bunch of Dubois dipshits as of late.

It's like a disease that is spreading throughout the team.

 

[Nasti]

The Kings as a whole are playing like a bunch of Dubois dipshits as of late.

It's like a disease that is spreading throughout the team.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

The Kings as a whole are playing like a bunch of Dubois dipshits as of late.

It's like a disease that is spreading throughout the team.

We were worried about Rob Blake establishing the country club

Who knew it was going to be French Canadian Imports being Palm Springs snowbirds doing it

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Something that just gets curiouser and curiouser to me is how for a front office that seems to value checking over everything else that they keep drafting smallish scoring wingers then wondering why they can't check, or a billion centers that they'll never actually play at center.

like why draft Kaliyev to play 4th line wing when Leason is right there

If you're going to draft for skill and upside over toughness, and not go out and get toughness, why are you shocked that your skill isn't good depth checkers and bench them

Just shithole lack of vision man, I don't like musing on it because it's a black hole, but all of the cracks we saw as apparent years ago are coming to fruition and I hate it

If these guys were a baseball team they'd spend 50 rounds drafting only shortstops then wonder why their pitching and outfield sucks

 

[Herby]

Turcotte
Bjornfot
Kaliyev

Not looking great at the moment.

if you suggest it's good drafting, then it's terrible development and asset management, given you're repeatedly benching these guys and/or dicking them around and losing them for nothing, even an equivalent pick is better than waivers, especially if the guy is clearly not in your plans.

Or, if it's bad drafting, you'll have to admit that. But you've just shown me it's good drafting and I've long agreed with that, just terrible development and deployment.

And you can't suggest it's awesome management given the team is essentially in the exact same spot they were last year only with fewer assets and less cap flexibility and the players we gave away are having massive success with their new teams, including one who has vaulted into leading the conference largely due to our former players.

It's a combination of both, with some bad luck mixed in.

Using this draft both the 1st rounders ended up being low ceiling guys. I think they kind of knew that was the case with Bjornfot on draft night, he was touted as more of a vanilla NHL ready guy who was going to play a simple game without much offensive upside. I think they wanted a left-handed shot who could play with Drew relatively quickly (DD was 29 at the time) and really didn't know at the time they had somebody else in the system who was tailor made for that role. The AHL year didn't help, but as mentioned before I don't think it was as damaging as it was for Turcotte and Kupari.

Turcotte wasn't projected to be McDavid, but the Richards/Toews comparisons were what was expected when they took him, and he ended up falling victim to the Tier-1 to NCAA filter that has effected others but can be hard to project. His play in the NCAA was really underwhelming and I think the Kings thought that it was the environment he was in and not the player, panicked and made a poor decision that really hurt his development with the pull to the AHL. We all know the story, not ready for the level, to small and the injuries inevitably continued. But even had he stayed 2 or 3 seasons in Madison, I don't think we see anything more than a really good 3rd liner. I figure the team probably knew this after his first camp, remember Jim Fox on ATKM (which he kind of had to pull back). Turcotte could have gone anywhere from 3 to 10 in the draft, and whoever got him was going to be in trouble, it's just unfortunate it was us. Bad luck + Bad development = awful ROI for Top 5 pick.

Kaliyev who knows, the God given talent is there for sure but he can't seem to get it figured out with this team and with TM's system. There have been plenty of players through the years who have to move on elsewhere to figure it out (Purcell, Lang, Boyle) and I worry that may be the case here. But it's also possible that Kaliyev's weaknesses prevent him from ever being that type of player in the NHL. But he isn't going to be useful in the NHL unless he's put into a role where he can produce 25G and 50Pts at minimum, he's just not going to do enough all around to be effective as a 15G, 35 point player.

This draft produced huge expectations with three picks in the Top 33 of the draft, but sadly the only player of consequence we got was Spence. Tough pill to swallow.

The Lizotte experiment is bothering me - he is so small and against bigger or faster teams pretty invisible.

I am biding my time until my boy Helenius takes over the 4C - he has been hot recently and had a decent fight at the end of the game vs Henderson on NYE. He took on Geertsen.

I would love to see players like Englund and Helenius against Edmonton in the playoffs and see if Nurse, Kane and Desharnais still try and bully us.

Not sure having players prone to ending up in the penalty box is how you want to try and beat the Oilers.

 

[chris kontos]

Delete

 

[BigKing]

Blake has seven drafts now. Currently on the team, one that went through a rebuild:

Anderson
JAD
Kaliyev
Spence
Byfield
Laferriere
Clarke

I know you don't build an entire team out of draft picks but he's had a total of 15 1st and 2nd round picks in his first six drafts: I'll exclude last year's draft. Here we are.

2018 draft looks like a total air ball.

 

[chris kontos]

Roy and kaliyev
For:
Johnathan drouin

Make the call rob!

 

[tny760]

Roy and kaliyev
For:
Johnathan drouin

Make the call rob!

??????????

i'm sorry dude but what?

 

[ZJames]

Pierre Limp Dick. It's contagious. This team needs a Viagra prescription. They're getting too soft.

 

[chris kontos]

Yet another attempt at humor
I better be careful- the wrong people might see this and make it happen

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Surprised they didn't try to pick up Comtois while they were at it

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Blake has seven drafts now. Currently on the team, one that went through a rebuild:

Anderson
JAD
Kaliyev
Spence
Byfield
Laferriere
Clarke

I know you don't build an entire team out of draft picks but he's had a total of 15 1st and 2nd round picks in his first six drafts: I'll exclude last year's draft. Here we are.

2018 draft looks like a total air ball.

Why are you discounting prospects that were traded for players on the roster, (Faber v Fiala) etc,

Check out how many homegrown players Vegas had on their cup team, or EDM on their team now, etc,

EDIT: Meh Vegas shouldn't count, the previous cup winners, is probably better one to start with

 

[Trash Panda]

Surprised they didn't try to pick up Comtois while they were at it

I’m not gonna lie, I’m getting pretty tired of typing out Québécois nomenclature on this message board.

Could we just like… f***ing not even joke about something like that.

 

[ru4reals]

Roy and kaliyev
For:
Johnathan drouin

Make the call rob!

Dear lawd!!! Please no!!! For Jonathan Drouin!!! LOL.

 

[kingsfan28]

Bye Toby! Hope he gets a shot somewhere else. Someone catch me up on Bjornfot, this is my first season back of trying to keep up with the team. I remember him being solid and capable on his call ups back then. Did he just never develop?

He never got better than year one. I'm afraid he peaked there. 5 years since his draft and he's yet to improve at any level. He had a chance to win the spot in camp, and did nothing. Englund took his job.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

He never got better than year one. I'm afraid he peaked there. 5 years since his draft and he's yet to improve at any level. He had a chance to win the spot in camp, and did nothing. Englund took his job.

What we saw in year 1 is what we will see when he's somewhere else in the right role with a bit of confidence. Bank on it.

 

[Johnny Utah]

If the Kings play Clarke on the off wing and take out Englund this might be the softest Kings squad in years.

Also, I have been watching a lot of Ontario games and Clarke pops off like a young Doughty except down there he has Doty, Helenius, Hodgson, Ward, and Connauton all watching his back. Without Englund, he will have NO ONE.

 

[kingsfan28]

Yeah people were saying that about Iafallo too. Also Walker. And Durzi.

We'll see.

Dont miss any of them except Durzi to run pp2. AI has 1 goal and 4 assist since Nov, and our pk is actually better since he left. Even Valardi has cooled down, no points since Dec 22.

 

[kingsfan28]

What we saw in year 1 is what we will see when he's somewhere else in the right role with a bit of confidence. Bank on it.

What exactly is the right role? he couldn't even make 3rd pair LD here and was given the job to start camp. This isn't a system thing or coach, its a Toby thing. Does he want to put the work in to play in the NHL.

 

[LeftKinger]

Stoll probably helping those guys with their release since they’re getting a lot of shots blocked or shooting wide.

 

[LeftKinger]

Toby should’ve been a regular NHL’er after he spent the majority of the season up a couple years back. That’s my only gripe. After that though, I do think he had his opportunities and never looked quite the same.

If they recall Clarke just to sit him in his first game I’m throwing a bamboo shoot at Todd’s forehead. Going to the game tmw.

 

[funky]

What we saw in year 1 is what we will see when he's somewhere else in the right role with a bit of confidence. Bank on it.

So even if he plays like he did in year 1, who are you taking out of the lineup to play him for? Is it Mikey, Gavrikov or the only muscle we have?

He is not displacing any of them. I personally think Moverare is underrated and deserves the 7th spot.

Toby has played 117 games and has 1 goal. I think his career high is 8 assists. He did not light Ontario on fire like we hoped. He is as vanilla as JAD but has a base that you can throw into NHL games and play low event hockey. At the time of the draft I am sure the Kings saw this in him but hoped there would be more. They couldn’t get it from him, if he is claimed maybe another team can.

At the end of the day he is a later first round Salish pick in a crappy draft year. Most in that range did not pan out.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Dont miss any of them except Durzi to run pp2. AI has 1 goal and 4 assist since Nov, and our pk is actually better since he left. Even Valardi has cooled down, no points since Dec 22.

So even if he plays like he did in year 1, who are you taking out of the lineup to play him for? Is it Mikey, Gavrikov or the only muscle we have?

He is not displacing any of them. I personally think Moverare is underrated and deserves the 7th spot.

Toby has played 117 games and has 1 goal. I think his career high is 8 assists. He did not light Ontario on fire like we hoped. He is as vanilla as JAD but has a base that you can throw into NHL games and play low event hockey. At the time of the draft I am sure the Kings saw this in him but hoped there would be more. They couldn’t get it from him, if he is claimed maybe another team can.

At the end of the day he is a later first round Salish pick in a crappy draft year. Most in that range did not pan out.

For the third time--it's not about this. It's about depreciating a first rounder into a waiver and getting nothing back for it simply because you suck ass at development and deployment. And overly focusing on Toby here is missing the forest for the trees--that this keeps happening and the reason I and some others are so annoyed about it is this is the conversation each time. "well, walker didn't fit here. Well, Durzi didn't fit here. Well, Faber didn't fit here. Well, Iafallo didn't fit here. Well, Vilardi didn't fit here." Like, how many times do you need to say it before realizing where the problem is? Literally everyone not named Petersen is off playing a major role on a competitive team and they were all moved for less than their value.

They're not all going to make it and they're not all going to have spots on this team. But it would be nice to not consistently give other teams--especially conference opponents--free, strong middle roster options for their competitive teams for free. Especially when the net result is those teams get better and we stay the same.

All in all it's just a masterclass in asset depreciation via bad deployment and development. It's finding a 100 dollar bill and instead of buying a candybar for a buck spending 50 on it just because you can.