Confirmed with Link: LA Kings @LAKings Welcome to Los Angeles, Phillip Danault!

[Mats26]

Danault is simply an insurance policy. You pay for it and hope you don't need to make a claim because it means something went wrong. i.e Kopitar goes down or prospects bust and no one can take over the 2C. In the end Blake gets peace of mind knowing they have at least 1 center position locked up for a while.

Whether or not he was the right policy is up for debate.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Danault is simply an insurance policy. You pay for it and hope you don't need to make a claim because it means something went wrong. i.e Kopitar goes down or prospects bust and no one can take over the 2C. In the end Blake gets peace of mind knowing they have at least 1 center position locked up for a while.

Whether or not he was the right policy is up for debate.

Can you imagine at this point....

 

[Natey]

Danault currently stands at 3 GF, 5 GA for a 37.5% GF%, 7th amongst Kings forwards. If you just look at 5 vs 5, then he's 5th, but this is a player getting major minutes in all situations. 2 GF 2 GA in 79 minutes 5 vs 5. That tells you that few goals get scored when he's on the ice on both sides. You know who else had stats like this? That's right, Nick Shore.

I'm gonna say this again. PDO is not "luck". Good teams with winning records almost always have good PDOs. Bad teams with losing records almost always have bad PDOs. Good players who regularly make positive contributions to their team generally have good PDOs. Players who aren't helping the team on both sides of the rink generally have PDOs below 1. Look it up yourself. There's very strong correlation between team PDO and point percentage. Sort any team's roster by PDO and you'll see who thee best players are on that team.

Danault is middle of the pack amongst forwards in PDO, and few goals get scored when he's on the ice. If any of this makes you happy, then you must like boring hockey and games that end with the score 2-1.

Again, I'm not saying that Danault is the problem. He's just not doing much to help or hurt the team. He's not doing much at all. He's just kinda...there. It's early, but we're already 7% through the season. I'll be happy if he puts up two points the next game, but the Kings need more out of a 2C.

The same can be said with +/- though. Good teams have a good line and bad teams have bad ones. But you can't judge a player on just PDO just like you can't judge a player on just +/-. Both are stats that are extremely influenced by a million other factors.

 

[Telos]

We also got Danault for nothing. If we turned around and offered him for trade there would be takers. If he doesn't put up the numbers, which he is clearly skilled enough to do, then we still get Selke caliber defense down the middle on the 2nd or 3rd line when Kopitar is not on the ice. Also, he is getting paid the same as Handzus and Stoll when looking at percentage of the cap. This is a no-brainer, I don't know how it could even be debated. The Habs were fools to let him walk and then rush to sign Suzuki to that $7.875M deal.

 

[KingLB]

Danault is simply an insurance policy. You pay for it and hope you don't need to make a claim because it means something went wrong. i.e Kopitar goes down or prospects bust and no one can take over the 2C. In the end Blake gets peace of mind knowing they have at least 1 center position locked up for a while.

Whether or not he was the right policy is up for debate.

What is the point of insurance on a 84’ Datsun?

If Kopi goes down in the next couple years or if the prospects never pan out. Then who the second line center is irrelevant.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Danault currently stands at 3 GF, 5 GA for a 37.5% GF%, 7th amongst Kings forwards. If you just look at 5 vs 5, then he's 5th, but this is a player getting major minutes in all situations. 2 GF 2 GA in 79 minutes 5 vs 5. That tells you that few goals get scored when he's on the ice on both sides. You know who else had stats like this? That's right, Nick Shore.

I'm gonna say this again. PDO is not "luck". Good teams with winning records almost always have good PDOs. Bad teams with losing records almost always have bad PDOs. Good players who regularly make positive contributions to their team generally have good PDOs. Players who aren't helping the team on both sides of the rink generally have PDOs below 1. Look it up yourself. There's very strong correlation between team PDO and point percentage. Sort any team's roster by PDO and you'll see who thee best players are on that team.

Danault is middle of the pack amongst forwards in PDO, and few goals get scored when he's on the ice. If any of this makes you happy, then you must like boring hockey and games that end with the score 2-1.

Again, I'm not saying that Danault is the problem. He's just not doing much to help or hurt the team. He's not doing much at all. He's just kinda...there. It's early, but we're already 7% through the season. I'll be happy if he puts up two points the next game, but the Kings need more out of a 2C.

Danault came out of an exausting SCF. He had a month and half less time to recover. Give him time to get his stamina and his efficiency in all aspects of the game will improve. Habs fans here, I saw Danault many times since the last 5 years, beleive me, he can be better than that. He's starting slowly the machine. He'll never be a scoring player but he wins FO in crucial time and he's good at all the small things, like poke check, intercept plays, passes and puck carrying.

 

[funky]

I love Danault thus far. He is all over the ice, all over the opposition, winning face offs and has actually set up quite a few plays. He is taking a lot of defensive face offs and has taken a bit of the load off Kopi.

He is brand new to the city, the teams style of play and the players.

I think he is a great add and he meshes very well with AI who is having a great year as well.

 

[unicornpig]

Danault has been awesome, great signing

 

[bouncesonly]

What is the point of insurance on a 84’ Datsun?

If Kopi goes down in the next couple years or if the prospects never pan out. Then who the second line center is irrelevant.

Lol, a 1984 Datsun in 1984 is as bad as it is in 2021, it was never good.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

I love Danault thus far. He is all over the ice, all over the opposition, winning face offs and has actually set up quite a few plays. He is taking a lot of defensive face offs and has taken a bit of the load off Kopi.

He is brand new to the city, the teams style of play and the players.

I think he is a great add and he meshes very well with AI who is having a great year as well.

This! It's everything I see, every game. You never see him idling in open ice, waiting for the play to happen. He's always in the mix. I don't mind him on the 2nd PP, as
he sees the ice well and makes great plays. If you bemoan that he may only score 12 goals, you're missing all the faceoff wins, the shutting down the opposition and
his ability to create offense. Maybe he scores only 10-12, but he helps Kempe score 20 and Alex score 25.

 

[lumbergh]

Lol, a 1984 Datsun in 1984 is as bad as it is in 2021, it was never good.

Look at this sexy beast.

I believe Phillip Danault has better acceleration than this thing. But Phillip Danault won't whisper sweet nothings in a sexy female voice like, "Your door is ajar".

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I think if anything his passing/playmaking vision was undersold.

 

[bland]

Lol, a 1984 Datsun in 1984 is as bad as it is in 2021, it was never good.

I feel as though an opportunity was missed.

 

[cyclones22]

Danault's actually better than I thought he would be. Good skater, good at puck protection, good passer and hockey sense, an absolute animal around the puck. As advertised Selke qualities. 56% defensive zone starts and still almost 60% Corsi for. Kaliyev would benefit being on his wing.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

Find the last Iafallo goal. Kupari is bringing the puck up, full throttle and is going to be stopped at the blueline, he dishes a quick pass to Phil, and less than 1 second of having it,
makes a sharp pass to Iafallo, who is breaking in and scores. 90% of all other Kings, do not make that pass. They would receive the puck from Kupari and look up for their
options, waste 2 seconds and that play never happens...or worse, the defender stops anything from happening. Phil has near elite sense and IQ. You can probably find the replay with the sequence.

 

[Fat Elvis]

I have zero problems with #24
Guy is as advertised.

Seems odd to plant your flag in complaining about him. The guy almost always outplays his opponents. Gives a lot more effort shift by shift than others on the roster.

 

[BringTheReign]

I don't want to copy and paste the whole thing again, but his contract is basically identical to Handzus and Stoll's deals, and I think he's a better player than both of them. I've loved Danault so far; I go as far as to watch only him during his shifts because of how cerebral he plays. It's honestly fascinating to watch.

 

[BigKing]

Someone that knows how to read the fancy stats please let me know if Danault is making like easier on Kopitar. The latter is back to playing over 21 minutes a night but is Kopitar getting easier defensive assignments and less D-zone starts? Danault at 57% on face offs is pretty nice.

He's not a guy that puts this team over the top but he will be a valuable piece if the youth start to hit at the right time. His signing is worthless if the prospects don't pan out but his cap hit doesn't matter if the prospects don't pan out because the franchise is screwed at that point regardless.

 

[cyclones22]

Someone that knows how to read the fancy stats please let me know if Danault is making like easier on Kopitar. The latter is back to playing over 21 minutes a night but is Kopitar getting easier defensive assignments and less D-zone starts? Danault at 57% on face offs is pretty nice.

He's not a guy that puts this team over the top but he will be a valuable piece if the youth start to hit at the right time. His signing is worthless if the prospects don't pan out but his cap hit doesn't matter if the prospects don't pan out because the franchise is screwed at that point regardless.

A quick and dirty one is the last 3 seasons Kopi's ozone start %: 44.8, 52.3 and 50.7 last season. This season: 60%. Danault is 44.2% ozone starts in comparison, which is still higher than his 36.2% at Montreal last season. I wonder if those centers in Montreal are missing his protection in the lineup at all...

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

A quick and dirty one is the last 3 seasons Kopi's ozone start %: 44.8, 52.3 and 50.7 last season. This season: 60%. Danault is 44.2% ozone starts in comparison, which is still higher than his 36.2% at Montreal last season. I wonder if those centers in Montreal are missing his protection in the lineup at all...

They are getting crushed in MTL. Everyone except Caufield. Danault isn't helping him much in Laval.

"won't miss those intangibles." Sure, and Stoll Williams and Mitchell are all 'replaceable' too.

 

[BigKing]

A quick and dirty one is the last 3 seasons Kopi's ozone start %: 44.8, 52.3 and 50.7 last season. This season: 60%. Danault is 44.2% ozone starts in comparison, which is still higher than his 36.2% at Montreal last season. I wonder if those centers in Montreal are missing his protection in the lineup at all...

Perfect.

He's on pace for 255 shots this season. Career high for him is 259 shots in 2010 when he potted what was his career year in goals (34) until the 2018 season when he got 35 with only 200 shots. For his career, he is at a minimum of 25 goals when he attempts 200 shots.

 

[Gjwrams]

What is the point of insurance on a 84’ Datsun?

If Kopi goes down in the next couple years or if the prospects never pan out. Then who the second line center is irrelevant.

Hey! My first vehicle was a 72 Baby Crap Yellow-Green Datsun truck. My old man bought it for me. I drove that thing into the grave!

 

[bouncesonly]

I love Danault thus far. He is all over the ice, all over the opposition, winning face offs and has actually set up quite a few plays. He is taking a lot of defensive face offs and has taken a bit of the load off Kopi.

He is brand new to the city, the teams style of play and the players.

I think he is a great add and he meshes very well with AI who is having a great year as well.

Agreed, he's a solid center. The Iafallo goal from the Sabres game was started with an intercept (albeit a lazy cross ice pass by the Sabres), and flung backwards without transitioning to Kempe who managed to keep it under control with a nice kick forward that allowed Bjornfot to come in and slot it to Iafallo.

 

[tny760]

Hey! My first vehicle was a 72 Baby Crap Yellow-Green Datsun truck. My old man bought it for me. I drove that thing into the grave!

basically my 86 4runner's older cousin

head gasket finally let go at like 250k so i said hell with it and rebuilt the motor for like $1000 with a new head

suckers with car payments... :]

 

[Mats26]

A quick and dirty one is the last 3 seasons Kopi's ozone start %: 44.8, 52.3 and 50.7 last season. This season: 60%. Danault is 44.2% ozone starts in comparison, which is still higher than his 36.2% at Montreal last season. I wonder if those centers in Montreal are missing his protection in the lineup at all...

You bet they are... but don't expect that bipolar fanbase to admit that.