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LA KINGS 2023/4 Regular season discussion

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King'sPawn said:
Futa's not been with the org since 2020. Even before then, his role was diminished where he was basically doing nothing from 2018.

Basically Futa's been a non-factor since Blake took over.
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Okay but f*** him too.
 
LAKings88 said:
If the roles were reversed, where would Spence be in Minny?
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He would be in the bottom-4 at best. He definitey wouldn't be in the top pairing.
LAKings88 said:
For KP:

Jordan Spence:
  • IIHF U20 World Juniors Silver Medal (2021)
  • MJAHL Rookie of the Year (2018)
  • QMJHL Defensive Rookie of the Year (2019)
  • QMJHL Rookie of the Year (2019)
  • QMJHL Defenseman of the Year (2020)
  • QMJHL First Team All-Star (2020, 2021)
  • AHL All-Rookie Team (2022)
  • AHL First Team All-Star (2022)
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I see you know how to use EliteProspects. Yes, he got Silver for WJC, and he only played 2 games. He was Canada's 7th defenseman.

Want to know how I know? Because I watched and was clamoring for him to play more. Because, newsflash, I like Spence.

And yes, I'm aware of his accolades in junior. I've watched him since before he played in the AHL, kind of like how I watched Faber in the NCAA.

I've said again that Spence is a good player. He just doesn't compare to Faber. If you did more than watch the one Minnesota game Faber played the Kings (if you even watched that), you might see that not finding the two comparable isn't the same as underrating Spence.
 
King'sPawn said:
He would be in the bottom-4 at best. He definitey wouldn't be in the top pairing.

I see you know how to use EliteProspects. Yes, he got Silver for WJC, and he only played 2 games. He was Canada's 7th defenseman.

Want to know how I know? Because I watched and was clamoring for him to play more. Because, newsflash, I like Spence.

And yes, I'm aware of his accolades in junior. I've watched him since before he played in the AHL, kind of like how I watched Faber in the NCAA.

I've said again that Spence is a good player. He just doesn't compare to Faber. If you did more than watch the one Minnesota game Faber played the Kings (if you even watched that), you might see that not finding the two comparable isn't the same as underrating Spence.
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Is the difference that great that it nixes the Fiala deal? That seems to be the argument I keep seeing?

LA traded out of a position of strength for a talented point producing exciting player to watch for 8 years.

The moaning and hand wringing over Faber is just interesting to me. He is known as a defensive first dman. It's too bad he wasn't a lefty. I don't hate the guy either. he also has size Spence never will. Minnesota picked a good player and he fits in their system.

I watch Spence play and am damn impressed. He is smart defensively, doesn't shy away from contact and has offensive flair that I'd argue is being stifled in his role currently. I guess he is getting some minutes but I prefer him over DD on the PP. He has proven he can run a PP in the AHL.

Different career paths but I do indeed think Spence gets underrated even today.

I remember his goal in the WJC tournament as well. I think he has a higher offensive upside than Faber too. Faber is the better defender.

Now Clarke is a different beast all together. If LA is lucky, he can be the prototype new offensive dman of today's NHL.

I doubt Minny asked for Spence, would you give up Clarke or Faber in that trade?
 
LAKings88 said:
Is the difference that great that it nixes the Fiala deal? That seems to be the argument I keep seeing?
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For me, yes. I don't think it was the right time for Fiala, and definitely didn't want to trade Faber for him.
LAKings88 said:
LA traded out of a position of strength for a talented point producing exciting player to watch for 8 years.
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I agree they did this. But I don't think it was the right move.
LAKings88 said:
Now Clarke is a different beast all together. If LA is lucky, he can be the prototype new offensive dman of today's NHL.

I doubt Minny asked for Spence, would you give up Clarke or Faber in that trade?
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No, I wouldn't give Clarke up for Fiala.

Spence would have been easier to swallow if traded in place of Faber, but I still feel that the Kings shouldn't have traded for Fiala or PLD. They should have spent the past couple seasons transitioning to having youth take over for the team and doing an actual rebuild.

Blake has been chasing ghosts in my opinion.
 
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Just skidding back to Faber for Fiala--I've said repeatedly I don't hate it. It worked out wonderfully for Minny obviously but Fiala, warts and all, is a point machine. It favors Minnesota and did from the get go I think, but that was one trade Blake made that made sense for everyone. I didn't like the timing for this exact reason--Blake seemed to think the window was open, or crowbarred it open, far too soon. Now we're running on dwindling assets and cap space and we haven't gotten out of the first round in a decade. Completely hit the gas way too early.

The byproduct seems to be that it gave him all sorts of confidence to piss away anything under 25 years old just because we have it. You got gifted 100 bucks and rushed out to spend it on candy but oops now you have a flat tire and no money. Just pisspoor foresight. Up until that point he had been reserved to a fault, now he's addicted to wasteful spending. I remember a few folks saying it's easy to do that part, what happened next matters--and what's happened next is he's turned into a total crackhead.

And I also said before it was pretty clear the Kaliyev benching and Clarke callup were just a puppet show to distract from the current issues and that was BEFORE they waived AND LOST Toby and decided not to play Clarke. Like these guys have had the absolute worst month but they can't even get out of their own way.
 
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bland said:
Just to recap:

1sts in 2021 and 2022
2nd in 2022
Faber
Vilardi
Kupari
Iafallo
Quick
Durzi
Walker
Peterson
Bjornfot
Retention on Provorov
$7.4 million for 7 years of Fiala
$8.5 million for 8 years of Dubois
$7 million for two more years of Kopitar

All just to be in the exact same spot as two years ago.
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Imagine if Blake did all this in a big market like Toronto.
 
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kingsfan28 said:
He'd actually have to put the work in to make that last part happen.
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Meh, as bland as he is, I think all he has to do is play okay as a 5-7 to stick around the league and become viable. He is someone I can see becoming a solid 4-5 veteran when he is in the 28-32 age range. I'll admit he didn't do much to force his way into the lineup, but at the same time this organization has a knack for jerking around and stunting prospects. Toby's case probably is one of the more egregious ones because it almost felt like they had a vendetta. Clearly they did not like him and felt he didn't have a serious future in LA because if they had any sort of interest in him then it just comes off as hateful spite practically at this point.
 
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DAkings20 said:
Spence should be playing 20+ a game, the mismanagement in our players development continues to be first class
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I need someone to explain to me why we think Spence is our Quinn Hughes or Cale Makar?

Don't get me wrong, he's a good, he's young, but that's about the only two things they have in common,

Spence needs a lot more work on the defensive side of the game before you can slot him in at 20 plus minutes
 
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bland said:
Just to recap:

1sts in 2021 and 2022
2nd in 2022
Faber
Vilardi
Kupari
Iafallo
Quick
Durzi
Walker
Peterson
Bjornfot
Retention on Provorov
$7.4 million for 7 years of Fiala
$8.5 million for 8 years of Dubois
$7 million for two more years of Kopitar

All just to be in the exact same spot as two years ago.
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Don't forget Grans
 
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This team is just the Muzzin-Martinez pairing incarnate.

Great talents with some of the best metrics possible but with moments of catastrophic breakdowns that invalidate all of the good work they do 98.5% of the time, all while misusing guys in the wrong position with no one going hard to the net. Amazing combo that cannot get out of their own way, cause all their own problems, can't solve them with enough frequency to get over the hump.
 
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