I think everyone is making too much of the SUCK the Kings are going through.
Despite being inept offensively, on paper, the Kings are definitely a talented team. Having a brain dead coach in Todd and a brain dead Gm in Blake will result in bizarre management and formation. Regardless of what happens Hiller is only an interim coach and Blake is most likely gone. The season is likely lost but next season should give us a better understanding how this team will perform IF the Kings put a better staff in place.
Blake will be allowed to play manage out his contract thru next season, most likely.
He got rid of Coach Tod and Hiller is getting it done, vindicating Blake's action.
like Hiller so far, and who is really out there this summer for a head coach?
Also with all those injuries right before the deadline he basically opted into a mulligan.
Seems you think the Kings are not going to the playoffs, as you said the season is lost?
Thankfully you have made many bold but incorrect predictions, in addition to the two above.
I know a lot of posters here have many very elaborate fantasies about what the Kings are going to do and what they think they should do lol.
It's nothing personal , I just tend to see things differently than most of the regulars here.
You either believe we’re a contender with Kopitar and Doughty leading the way or you don’t. I gave up on the idea once Vegas swept us 6 years ago.
Weird , I thought hockey teams have up to a 23 man roster ?
But you make it black and white based on 2 of 23?
Danault was not signing with LA to be a 3rd line center, people who thought this were naive. It was widely reported that he wanted to go somewhere that he was going to be put in a scoring position. People just wanted to believe otherwise because it was an admission that players they were emotionally invested in were either behind schedule or they were being written off completely.
LA was trying to appease Doughty and perhaps Kopitar too (he just may not have gone to the media) so they were trying to contend for the playoffs, and the drafted centers were in a tough spot to try and achieve that goal.
Byfield was clearly not ready to assume that role, I think he was a longer-term project than they imagined when he was drafted. If they took a guy who was going to take 4 seasons to reach a top-6 role while still wanting to contend with 11 and 8 they are dumber than anyone thought.
Vilardi had major injury issues and had looked pretty bad as a center the year before Danault was signed. His skating was going to make it impossible for him to play the position. He has since developed into a serviceable 2nd line winger but they were right that he couldn't play C.
Turcotte's lack of an offensive game was clearly obvious to everyone by then, and internally they had to have known he had zero chance to be a 2nd line center (see Jim Fox interview and subsequent walk-back).
I like Danault, he is a solid player and by all indications is a great locker-room presence. I think any contender would love to have this guy centering their 3rd line, but for LA he was a poor signing. It was the proverbial fork in the road moment for Blake, where he could have gone down the foolish path of trying to contend with older players, with a roster construction that has never been successful, or going down the path where he turned the franchise over to the next gen
eration and continued rebuilding for three more years. The decision to go down the route he did, and the subsequent moves (trading Faber, trading for and signing PLD, punting 1st round picks) is unfortunately going to set the franchise back probably 5 additional seasons from being contenders than it would have had they committed to the youth, where they'd probably be coming out of the rebuild in an amazing spot to be long-term contenders.
I think the plan was to have PLD as the L2 center, possibly with Fiala and whoever else.
Moore with Danault as his chemistry center has outperformed and Fiala has lived up to his billing more often recently.
Big players like Byfield are notorious for taking a bit longer to develop , everyone acknowledges it except a few of the blind spotted comments here.
Sure they wanted him to come along sooner and have the Kings contending sooner with 11th. 8 and every other jersey number they roster.
The vaccine push and the leg injury sealed the fate.
Vilardi is made of glass and Blake was smart to trade him for PLD, although they also hoped he would come along sooner. He is rounding into form and the playoffs are the final exams for everyone from Beckerman on down to the popcorn guy.
TUrcotte also had many injuries and a big delay with lowered expectations now.
His story has not been written with a conclusion yet.
Reminds me of the choir singing bad things about Kempe and then some guy the called Senor Bustfield.
Not that Alex is quite on that level but he could be a 3C plus or a winger too,
Danault was a great signing.
Where would we be withoutt and Moore and now gelled with Fiala?
It's very likely AEG wants to keep as many seats occupied as possible and they did not want the full rebuild, the rebuild that many comments still pine for a decade later.
That ship has sailed...around the world by now.
But whatever floats your boat.
If the next 100 years of Kings hockey and the careers of Byfield and Clarke are already ruined why comment here, why watch Kings hockey?
It is illogical , unless you are a masochist.
Is this board mostly frequented by masochistic comments.
I believe, the answer is yes.
As a matter of fact people seem to lose it on good old fashioned, my home team hockey fans here from what I have read in a large number of comments.
Seeing things very clearly after 9 months at a Buddhist temple in the Himalayas.
Fortunately they had cable.
