LA KINGS 2023/4 Regular season discussion

[johnjm22]

It's ridiculous to say Bjornfot has peaked. A lot of defensemen don't hit their stride until their mid 20's or even late 20's.

The problem for Toby is that he's plan vanilla. He's probably never gonna be great in any individual area. If he carves out an NHL career it will probably be as an Olli Maatta type.

Not what you want from a 1st round pick obviously, but I think he'll be an NHLer.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Vanilla is the perfect word.

 

[King'sPawn]

I think people tend to forget--since he came right in--that he's the youngest of our D, even younger than Spence.

Yeah. Bjornfot is only 22. Englund didn't even play an NHL game until around this year, and he's going to be 28 in a month. Englund scored his first NHL goal THIS SEASON, and some are ragging on Bjornfot only having a few smattering of assists a couple seasons ago?

Bjornfot needs to gain strength so he'd have the capacity and confidence to win more battles. He's a very good skater, responsible (but not strong or elite) in his own end, but has shown his coachability by the way he's jumped in on the attack the way McLellan has wanted the defensemen to do so.

Not saying he'll be a superstar, but people tend to think that if a prospect isn't immediately great, then he's a lost cause. And people forget that growth in prospects isn't linear. I remember a subforum who thought Vilardi couldn't handle the workload of a 2nd line center (or even a second line PLAYER) two offseasons ago. And he was 22 at the time.

It may take Bjornfot to be moved to another org for him to work out, though. He's not getting the reps on the ice in game action. And it's hard to imagine a scenario where he'll get more opportunity in LA.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Toby doesn’t do one thing extraordinary well. Jim Fox mentioned this. What’s his identify?

Does he fight, score, hit? No. Is he physical? No. Can he run the power play? No. Is he jacked or in great shape? No.

 

[johnjm22]

Not many Dmen grade out this highly.

Kings are in a tough situation with him, Spence and Clarke.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Personally I would move Spence, put Clarke with Englund and re sign Roy but my fear is that management is so soft they let Roy walk and put Clarke with Gavrikov.

 

[KingsFan7824]

It's ridiculous to say Bjornfot has peaked. A lot of defensemen don't hit their stride until their mid 20's or even late 20's.

The problem for Toby is that he's plan vanilla. He's probably never gonna be great in any individual area. If he carves out an NHL career it will probably be as an Olli Maatta type.

Not what you want from a 1st round pick obviously, but I think he'll be an NHLer.

Unfortunately, 1st rounder doesn't inherently mean anything. Picking in the 20's is as much of a crap shoot as anything after the 1st round. I don't know if you said that name for a reason beyond that he was a King, but Maatta, like Bjornfot, was the 22nd overall pick in a draft.

It's the top 5, maybe top 10, picks that matter. After that, you're almost as likely to get a guy in the 5th rd as you are the 2nd.

 

[Rick Knickleback]

Interesting week coming up:

post-Christmas potential trap game vs the Sharks
Visit to Vegas
First meeting with the Oil two nights later

Too early still to call it a bellwether, but should be a decent enough report card on the first 1/3 of the season.

 

[Johnny Utah]

I’ll be at the Vegas game let’s go!!!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Not many Dmen grade out this highly.

Kings are in a tough situation with him, Spence and Clarke.

They're not. They can't afford Roy, plain and simple. Unfortunate reality of so many non-ELC/bridge contracts.

Toby doesn’t do one thing extraordinary well. Jim Fox mentioned this. What’s his identify?

Does he fight, score, hit? No. Is he physical? No. Can he run the power play? No. Is he jacked or in great shape? No.

Zero disagreement here, but there are spots in the NHL for guys who can play 18 minutes without being a liability.

Toby getting bounced around the lineup from left to right in different situations and partners as a youth isn't great development, nor was his injury.

I'm just saying 1. it's far too early to bury him, but sounds like he's this forum's new kickball and 2. just like the others, whether he has a spot here or not, he'll go elsewhere and thrive with a team that has a vision for him like this one doesn't. It's the usual burning of assets just because we can and the usual elevation of a player elsewhere because we don't know what to do with them due to lack of vision.

If you hate him, it shouldn't bother you, so I don't know why people are so grumpy about these hypotheses that we are ending up batting damn near 100% on.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Don’t hate him, just disappointed.

If I was 22 and a borderline NHLer I would either hire MacDavid’s skating coach, Reaves fighting coach, Zegras’ skills coach or PLD’s trainer so I could offer 1-2 things in my arsenal that set me apart from other players.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

I called Englund over TB all summer and was trashed.

Toby is a bust.

We were getting used to it that you were always wrong, Johnny.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Don’t get used it. I’m usually right.

 

[rajuabju]

Personally I would move Spence, put Clarke with Englund and re sign Roy but my fear is that management is so soft they let Roy walk and put Clarke with Gavrikov.

Roy is definitely making it hard to fathom letting him just walk in the off-season.

 

[kilowatt]

Why would we let Roy walk? He’s basically Blake’s Jake Muzzin, and he doesn’t turn 29 until March. If he’s looking for an 8 year contract, then okay, maybe we look to move him. But if he would take a 4 year contract we ought to keep him.

 

[Rorschach]

Not many Dmen grade out this highly.

Kings are in a tough situation with him, Spence and Clarke.

If I have to let go one, I prefer Spence. But really, it depends on what we get.

 

[Brownie to Pancakes]

I don't care what they do at RHD as long as Clarke takes over PP1 for Drew

 

[tny760]

Why would we let Roy walk? He’s basically Blake’s Jake Muzzin, and he doesn’t turn 29 until March. If he’s looking for an 8 year contract, then okay, maybe we look to move him. But if he would take a 4 year contract we ought to keep him.

that's how i see it too, can't afford another risky long-term unless the AAV is low low

 

[chris kontos]

Dump arvidson sign roy

 

[kinghock]

Dump arvidson sign roy

Kings will not have money for either one of them.
They need real goaltender and need to sign Byfield among others.

 

[KingsHockey24]

If Blake knew how good QB would be this year do you think he still acquires PLD?

 

[Docgonzo]

I like Roy a lot but sadly it just make sense to keep him unless he’s fine with like 4x4 or something. Byfield, Kaliyev, Grundstrom, Lizotte, Spence all need new contacts. Kings will need 1-2 new goalies to sign, even if they keep Talbot as a backup he keeps up this season and he’s getting a raise.

Plus in 24-25 Gavrikov and Englund’s contracts are up and there are still no real LHD to take their spots yet. Don’t think you can fit in a starting goalie and a top 4 lhd with Roy making over 5.

 

[Trash Panda]

It’s been said here before, but this teams best bet of success is gonna come from replacing a guy like Roy with a guy like Clarke.

Clarke showing up & showing out on an ELC would be the the exact type of internal development that this roster desperately needs.

I say this as a guy who f***in loves Matt Roy too.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Why would we let Roy walk? He’s basically Blake’s Jake Muzzin, and he doesn’t turn 29 until March. If he’s looking for an 8 year contract, then okay, maybe we look to move him. But if he would take a 4 year contract we ought to keep him.

It's just unrealistic to sign him. Check out our current cap situation. There are 10 free agents on this current roster, most of which are due HEAVY raises.

I f***ing love him and wish he could be a King forever but he's gotta cash in.

And it's not just Roy, it's Gavrikov the following year, the price of having so many vets on the roster and refusing to play ELC/RFA youth before waivers, hence we're running into a cap wall. That was one of our biggest criticisms of Blake, he's put us to the end of our assets and picks and cap flexibility before even winning a round.

Edit: and thats not counting the AHL guys, theyr'e basically all RFAs/graduating ELCs, so even graduating kids replacing those guys may cost a raise.

I mean if Roy will take a sweetheart deal good for us but the low end of the comparables is Zub at 4 years x 4.6m, i can see him getting 6x5.5 easy and it's less that he's not worth it and more where is the money coming from?

Would be pretty nice to have Faber on a sweetheart contract right about now eh, but that would have required some vision...

 

[kingsfan28]

It's just unrealistic to sign him. Check out our current cap situation. There are 10 free agents on this current roster, most of which are due HEAVY raises.

I f***ing love him and wish he could be a King forever but he's gotta cash in.

And it's not just Roy, it's Gavrikov the following year, the price of having so many vets on the roster and refusing to play ELC/RFA youth before waivers, hence we're running into a cap wall. That was one of our biggest criticisms of Blake, he's put us to the end of our assets and picks and cap flexibility before even winning a round.

Edit: and thats not counting the AHL guys, theyr'e basically all RFAs/graduating ELCs, so even graduating kids replacing those guys may cost a raise.

I mean if Roy will take a sweetheart deal good for us but the low end of the comparables is Zub at 4 years x 4.6m, i can see him getting 6x5.5 easy and it's less that he's not worth it and more where is the money coming from?

Would be pretty nice to have Faber on a sweetheart contract right about now eh, but that would have required some vision...

Here in lies the rub, too may good RHD . You have Spence, Clarke, and a hypathetical Faber with only 1 spot available. Next year, say Roy leaves, now you have 2 top RHD', and only one can play. Someone is getting traded.