BigKing
Blake Out of Hell III: Back in to Hell
I think you can interpret the quote as including last year and this year since they traded those 1st round picks. You find a Dwight King but he isn't making an impact until 2012...that is five years after being drafted. Simmonds was a valuable player for the Kings starting in his D+2 so that is a quicker turnaround but Anderson wasn't a regular until his D + 4 season.
Point being that if they want to "find guys" like the ones he quoted, they better have already drafted some of them if you want to see a contribution anytime soon. Any of these 2nd round picks and later would fit the bill since he mentioned Simmonds. I'd say Fagemo, Spence, Simontaival, Chromiak, Pinelli, Helenius, Kirsanov, and Laferriere fit the bill. None of them have done much at the NHL level--if anything--and they all fit in the 2nd to 5th round range. We've been waiting for Spence to happen and if he finally does, he becomes "one of those guys" since he is a 4th round pick in his D + 5 next season.
As for that stat about the Kings drafting the second most NHL players since 2005 and all the games played, it really helps to toss Kopitar/Quick/Simmonds/Martinez/Doughty/Clifford/Schenn/Toffoli in to that equation. All DL era picks and all 2010 or earlier that are still playing in the NHL today, or at least last season. That is a lot of games.
Even with so many holdovers from DL's scouting staff, that stat means very little to me when it comes to Blake and especially Yanetti when you factor in the Futa factor. This is a "what have you done for me lately" business and business has not been great.
Point being that if they want to "find guys" like the ones he quoted, they better have already drafted some of them if you want to see a contribution anytime soon. Any of these 2nd round picks and later would fit the bill since he mentioned Simmonds. I'd say Fagemo, Spence, Simontaival, Chromiak, Pinelli, Helenius, Kirsanov, and Laferriere fit the bill. None of them have done much at the NHL level--if anything--and they all fit in the 2nd to 5th round range. We've been waiting for Spence to happen and if he finally does, he becomes "one of those guys" since he is a 4th round pick in his D + 5 next season.
As for that stat about the Kings drafting the second most NHL players since 2005 and all the games played, it really helps to toss Kopitar/Quick/Simmonds/Martinez/Doughty/Clifford/Schenn/Toffoli in to that equation. All DL era picks and all 2010 or earlier that are still playing in the NHL today, or at least last season. That is a lot of games.
Even with so many holdovers from DL's scouting staff, that stat means very little to me when it comes to Blake and especially Yanetti when you factor in the Futa factor. This is a "what have you done for me lately" business and business has not been great.