Speculation: LA Kings News, Rumors, Roster Thread part VII

[kings11]

The Kings didn't want to move Jokinen, it was Bettman who step in and said the deal wasn't fair enough with the islanders , so Taylor had to include him in the Palfy deal. Imagine him trying to do that today, with all the 5 players for 1 deals going down? I still can't believe he had the power to do that. As for Turcotte, he was drafted right where he was suppose to be, nobody could've predicted his injuries and various illnesses after being drafted, it's just bad luck. Same goes with the Avs pick in Byram, they couldn't have predicted his concussion issues .

I remember that shit… such BS

 

[kilowatt]

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that we absolutely screwed up drafting Vilardi, Kupari, Turcotte, and Byfield. Four blue-chip centers that were just the wrong picks. Does that mean that if we had chosen other players in those slots, they'd be thriving here in LA? Because I'm not sure that's the case. Here are some alternative forward selections in the next ten picks since 2017:

2017: Necas, Suzuki, Norris, Thomas, Chytil
2018: Bokk, Veleno
2019: Cozens, Zegras, Podkolzin, Boldy, Caufield
2020: Stutzle, Raymond, Holtz, Quinn, Rossi, Perfetti

Does anyone think any of these players would be doing well in LA right now? Could we have developed any of them correctly?

 

[Bandit]

AA hurt long term it seems, but I get your poit.

Not sure what's going on with Lias that we are missing as fans. Goes to Ontario and lights it up then sits on the bench here.

Yeah I don't have anything against Lias per se but it seems clear he's not part of the plan for whatever reason.

 

[Schmooley]

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that we absolutely screwed up drafting Vilardi, Kupari, Turcotte, and Byfield. Four blue-chip centers that were just the wrong picks. Does that mean that if we had chosen other players in those slots, they'd be thriving here in LA? Because I'm not sure that's the case. Here are some alternative forward selections in the next ten picks since 2017:

2017: Necas, Suzuki, Norris, Thomas, Chytil
2018: Bokk, Veleno
2019: Cozens, Zegras, Podkolzin, Boldy, Caufield
2020: Stutzle, Raymond, Holtz, Quinn, Rossi, Perfetti

Does anyone think any of these players would be doing well in LA right now? Could we have developed any of them correctly?

Its hard to say because well never know but I personally think that a lot of these guys wouldnt be doing well here.
Zegras probably would good here because he has the same thing that Durzi has. Where they bring something outside of what the system asks and things undeniably cater toward their skills instead. Suzuki would fit in well with Todds system also I think.

 

[Mats26]

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that we absolutely screwed up drafting Vilardi, Kupari, Turcotte, and Byfield. Four blue-chip centers that were just the wrong picks. Does that mean that if we had chosen other players in those slots, they'd be thriving here in LA? Because I'm not sure that's the case. Here are some alternative forward selections in the next ten picks since 2017:

2017: Necas, Suzuki, Norris, Thomas, Chytil
2018: Bokk, Veleno
2019: Cozens, Zegras, Podkolzin, Boldy, Caufield
2020: Stutzle, Raymond, Holtz, Quinn, Rossi, Perfetti

Does anyone think any of these players would be doing well in LA right now? Could we have developed any of them correctly?

Newhook would be our 3C right now. His style of play fits what we are doing here. So I would yes we could of done better. I mean al least take healthy players with some durability. Some of those are all star players.... let's face it...we screwed up

 

[Kurrilino]

May have to cut cap to fit a difference maker in. Assume 32, 40, 11, 8 not getting moved for cap purposes.
(19, 9)/???/(34, 13)
12/24/33
55/11/89
48/46/???
Something like this where a good center is added makes some sense. Start looking at positions,
RW 13, 34, 33, 89 should all be top 9, 3 spots.
C, 11 & 55 need to be sheltered. Need 2 top 6 C's. Someone moving to wing.
LW 9, 19, 12, (55, 11) 4X centers for 3 spots means someone is playing wing. Gives you 4 LW.

Guys can be shifted, maybe they don't add a center, but it becomes obvious where the redundant pieces that can be trimmed are.

Let's just say we agree on all that for the purpose of the discussion.

The lineup you drew there has 0 chance of winning the cup.
Even if we fill the 1st line center position and the 4th line by shuffling or trading.
The lineup doesn't include the player strength and weaknesses and just puts together a roster.

They way i see this is that the 2 top lines are responsible for scoring goals.
The bottom lines are used to give some time to catch the breath while keeping the opponents in check
If i apply player abilities/skills to our daily roster, it would look like that IMO

xxx - xxx - 34
9 - xxx - xxx
19 - 24 - 33
48 - 46 - 91

While i am extremely happy with the bottom 6, the top 6 is missing a lot of punch and/or qualified players.
Just shuffling players around from here won't cut it.

Just for giggles we assume that some of our youngsters will become NHL'ers according to their skillset
and the picture will become much clearer.

2 years from now, it would look like that:

xxx - 55 - 34
9 - Turcotte/Kupari - Chromiak
19 - 24 - Fagemo
48 - 46 - 91

For me it looks like there is absolutely no need to make a trade or shuffle people around out of their skill zone.
We still have assets like Vilardi, Kupari/Turcotte, Madden, Pinelli to trade for a young winger with scoring upside if available.

The only question is what to do with our senior citizen until this point.
They hold all powers because of their clauses.
Either we can arrange trades and start the future or if they refuse we keep playing them with garbage and collect high end picks.
I don't really see much of a middle ground between those extremes

 

[KingsFan7824]

When a team isn't winning, or winning enough, fans can drive themselves nuts with the details. Every missed pick, every past trade, every minor choice a coach makes, get the microscope treatment. I like picturing all of us in lab coats, in some sort of 80's montage. One with the crazy hair, someone else with glasses half way down their nose, a quick shot of something exploding and everyone having a chuckle, except that one guy who has a face full of dust and grime shaking his head in disbelief.

 

[kings11]

Well the fact is more or less if Kempe gets his 5+ mill we are against the cap.
While being against the cap we have a team that is in no kind or shape able to compete for the cup.

One of the biggest reason for that is our core that doesn't have the skillset anymore but are paid like they are top players.
As long as this is going on, there is no reason to invest into the team since it's going nowhere anyways.

I stand with my opinion, give them a chance to waive their clauses and trade them to contenders or ride the contracts out and just fill the team
with the likes of AA or Wolanin.
Until this core is gone from the team and we get a clearer look of what the future team look like, we keep the youngsters in the AHL growing into their bodies.

I agree this is a horrible choice but still better than an eternal kicking or screaming towards may or not maybe playoff without any chance to get close to the cup.

Losing Brown, Edler, AA alone puts us at $10mill cap space.. Kempe at $5 mill per is only $3mill more per year..

 

[Kurrilino]

Losing Brown, Edler, AA alone puts us at $10mill cap space.. Kempe at $5 mill per is only $3mill more per year..

Peterson is jumping from 800K to 5 mill
Lizotte doubles from 800K to 1.6 mill

According to CapFriendly we are sitting at 60 mil for 22-23
We still have to give new contracts (assuming we will keep those players) to at least
Vilardi, Kempe, Anderson, Durzi, Grundstorm, Lemieux
Squeezing all that into 25 mill will be miracle work also considering that would just barely fill out the roster.

In reality i don't see any way around trading Iafallo and Roy if we want to be even remotely competitive for a playoff spot.

 

[kings11]

Its hard to say because well never know but I personally think that a lot of these guys wouldnt be doing well here.
Zegras probably would good here because he has the same thing that Durzi has. Where they bring something outside of what the system asks and things undeniably cater toward their skills instead. Suzuki would fit in well with Todds system also I think.

Keep in mind that Zegras would have been the 3C here but would probably be in Ontario as he can’t defend his shadow..
The Kings could obviously let kids like QB, AT, AA and RK just wing it on D and exploit their offensive potential but you don’t get very far doing that..

 

[kings11]

Peterson is jumping from 800K to 5 mill
Lizotte doubles from 800K to 1.6 mill

We are pretty much against the Cap not including whatever Durzi will get who also is on 800K right now

Yes and we’re still at $20 mill in cap space..
You can resign Kempe and all the RFA and still have money to add someone..

 

[BigKing]

Keep in mind that Zegras would have been the 3C here but would probably be in Ontario as he can’t defend his shadow..
The Kings could obviously let kids like QB, AT, AA and RK just wing it on D and exploit their offensive potential but you don’t get very far doing that..

Byfield can't finish two shifts in a row without f***ing up so I think Zegras would be up in LA. Turcotte got a chance up here and he's from the same draft.

 

[kings11]

Byfield can't finish two shifts in a row without f***ing up so I think Zegras would be up in LA. Turcotte got a chance up here and he's from the same draft.

With as bad as Zegras is defensively, TMac would have benched his ass.. and whose to say he’d be the same offensive player here?

 

[Herby]

The success of a rebuild often hinges on which spots you get in the draft and which players are available at that spot. Sometimes you draft the "right" players but you just didn't have the chance to even draft the franchise pieces you needed, simply because they were not available. The Kings presumably took Byfield over Stutzle or someone else for that reason - Byfield looked like he *could* be a franchise piece if everything worked out, while with Stutzle everyone knew he would turn into a very good player, but not a franchise-changing one.

People forget DL also drafted Hickey who did nothing for the Kings at 4 overall. What really happened there is he had two franchise players already in the system in Kopitar and Quick and lucked into the third one with Doughty. Because I don't think goalies are *that* important, even just Kopitar and Doughty are a franchise-altering combination for any team out there. You can afford multiple mistakes and adaptations when you get arguably the generation's best defenenseman and the generation's top 10 center in your system for the duration of their careers.

Is there a Doughty or a Kopitar in this group? Who knows, Byfield would need to see massive growth but the potential is there, maybe Clarke is the guy. But in reality the years of sucking have not brought a player you could comfortably project there. Because...I'm not sure that player even was available in the Kings slots. I think the Kings at the spots they were, they knew they needed someone who could change the franchise as a cornerstone piece, not merely a very good player. They probably saw Turcotte as kind of Mike Richards and Byfield as the next big dominant #1 center, Clarke as the next difference-maker from the back-end. It might turn out that they are not all that and the rebuild fails to produce a Cup winner or contender. But if you look at those drafts, you really have to ask yourself whether a Doughty or Kopitar was even available at their picks. That is a franchise defenseman or a franchise center, the only one that might fit the bill is Moritz Seider. So with the picks they had and the draft classes available...I'm not even sure if there was a combination there that would generate the Kings two franchise pieces in key positions (C/D).

Beyond that, it's clear this team does a far better job developing defensemen than forwards. Ironically, it might turn out that despite the plethora of high center picks they made, the piece that they end up missing is a franchise center. If Byfield isn't that guy it's going to be a problem because it's becoming increasingly probable neither Turcotte or Vilardi are going to fill that role either. Kaliyev seems to be the forward prospect doing the best so far and he is pretty similar to one of the few top line forwards they have developed in Toffoli in that they both had natural and complete offensive games but lacked in the overall game and footspeed departments. My theory is that the Kings development is good at giving structure and improving the details of overall game, which is why so many defensemen develop nicely and forwards who already boast complete or special offensive skillsets (both Kaliyev and Toffoli are great shooters with great offensive instincts) but lack the polish to make it work at pro-level. The Kings develop those players well, but don't seem to be able to draw out offense out of different offensive players who might have needed a different approach. In my opinion, Turcotte is being bred for a depth character player rather than a Justin Williams or Mike Richards type. A player who thrives on energy and responsibility, should probably be pushed in that direction, he doesn't need "detail" work or "figuring things out" playing behind vets in AHL. I think this is the year where Ontario should have been Turcotte's team but that hasn't materialized and then he has injury issues as well which is obviously a concern. I'm not sure they will be able to handle Byfield the correct way either and keep his confidence up when the results aren't coming. Not sure Vilardi was handled correctly either, they will need to make a decision on him soon and they didn't even try him at RW with the team's top talent, which I think is something Vilardi could benefit from as a highly cerebral offensive player that seems to think the game at a very high level and utilizes his skill to take advantage, he seems to get down on himself when he can't play his way and make it work and he obviously can't play that game on 3rd line with 3rd line talent. He's just not that type of player.

I hope Byfield turns into a beast, otherwise this is probably going to turn into one of those Nashville Predators teams or similar: a strong defensive and checking team that's good for a playoff round or two but lacks a creative and dominant offensive touch. But what I think it really boils down to is that they really needed at least one franchise piece and I'm not sure they got one. Could still be a very good team.

Really good post.

I think what ended up happening was that Blake was set on this year being his "Ryan Smyth" year, where they were going to try and make the playoffs and give up on Top 5 picks, I think the hint that route was being taken was when they re-signed Iafallo instead of trading him for what likely would have been a late 1st from a contender at last years TDL. I think the big difference between DL's Ryan Smyth year and this years is that DL had his young superstars, he didn't need anymore Top 5 picks. I think even the biggest Alex Turcotte and Gabe Vilardi fans would admit that neither one is going to be the type of franchise building players you maybe hope to get with picks that high. So that means if you are going to follow the proven models to rebuilding a team you probably need all of QB, Kaliyev and Clarke to be massive homeruns. There is just no wiggle room at all to have a Thomas Hickey or even a Brayden Schenn type, the Kings need all these guys to hit huge.

I wish Blake had evaluated where they were last year, realized that some of the picks have kind of dudded in the years since picking them and been honest with the fan base. Say we are going to play the youth we have a lot, we aren't bringing in any veteran players to try and sneak into the playoffs or finish in the black hole. We need to know what we have in these guys. The results would either be the players here either stepped up and showed their worth, or they struggled and it resulted in more high picks that hopefully resulted in more impactful players. I would have done that for this year and next year. That leaves you entering the 2023-2024 season with Byfield (21), Clarke(20), Kaliyev(22), Faber(22), Grans(21),Turcotte(22), Kupari (23), Vilardi (24) and most importantly very likely Top 5 picks in 2022 and 2023 (2023 in particular is a loaded draft). You have Kopitar on an expiring contract as a solid veteran presence and (assuming he stayed) you also have Doughty. Drew may have wanted out, and that would have been fine, the Kings could have traded him for even more high end young pieces or a d-man perhaps 6-10 years younger who could still be useful once the rebuild ended Now suddenly your rebuild has 5-6 pieces with star potential instead of 3. Now if QB takes 5 years to turn into Olli Jokinen or Tage Thompson your rebuild isn't torpedoed because you have multiple elite pieces. Now I proposed this over the summer before the Kings moves and the attitude generally was you don't want to subject young players to this type of rebuild and constant losing, but now here we are a full season later and despite having a playoff caliber team due to the additions, the three players the Kings used a 2, 5 and 11 pick on have a combined 5 points in 45 games this season. Could it have been any worse in their development had QB been centering line 2 with Vilardi on his wing and Turcotte centering line 3 with Kupari on his wing?

If the Kings make the playoffs and lose in round 1 or 2, end up with the #19 pick and most of these highly drafted forwards end up having poor years (which it looks like all those things will be true), was this season an overall good for the Kings rebuild?

Let's just say, for argument's sake, that we absolutely screwed up drafting Vilardi, Kupari, Turcotte, and Byfield. Four blue-chip centers that were just the wrong picks. Does that mean that if we had chosen other players in those slots, they'd be thriving here in LA? Because I'm not sure that's the case. Here are some alternative forward selections in the next ten picks since 2017:

2017: Necas, Suzuki, Norris, Thomas, Chytil
2018: Bokk, Veleno
2019: Cozens, Zegras, Podkolzin, Boldy, Caufield
2020: Stutzle, Raymond, Holtz, Quinn, Rossi, Perfetti

Does anyone think any of these players would be doing well in LA right now? Could we have developed any of them correctly?

I need questions answered on some of these.

Josh Norris, do the Kings make the logical choice and return him to college for his sophomore year like the Sharks did or would they have prematurely pulled him out of school a year early to "get him accumulated to the system" like they did with Turcotte. If they had put Norris on the same development path both the Sharks and Sens did it's very likely he would be scoring a decent amount of goals in LA this season. Just a world class shot, you don't score at a 46 goal pace in this league at 22 unless you are an elite player. He probably would have established himself as LA's 2C last season when he was one of the best rookies in the NHL.

Suzuki and Thomas would be our elite 2C now and would be (if the rebuild went right) an elite 2C once it was over. The CHL agreement would have prevented the Kings from hurting their development by putting them in the AHL as teenagers.

Zegras, he was ready for the NHL last year. I assume Zegras would have been our 2C last season and would be in that role again this season and he and QB would be our much envied young center duo for the future.

Boldy and Caufield same questions as Norris, would the Kings have let both players return to college and become dominant offensive players ready to basically seamlessly jump into the NHL at 20 or would they have had them riding busses in the AHL as teenagers and neutering their offensive game and slowing their development? Had they been developed the same way Montreal and Minnesota did it's hard to imagine both guys wouldn't be producing offense in LA.

Stuzle, same questions. Would the Kings have had Stutzle in the NHL in year 1 or would they have had him riding busses in the AHL "Learning the system" last year?

I think most of the concerns are developmental more so than evaluation. Even with the Turcotte pick, it is fair to say that none of the scouting services saw his offensive ceiling being as limited as it has been.

 

[kingsfan28]

When a team isn't winning, or winning enough, fans can drive themselves nuts with the details. Every missed pick, every past trade, every minor choice a coach makes, get the microscope treatment. I like picturing all of us in lab coats, in some sort of 80's montage. One with the crazy hair, someone else with glasses half way down their nose, a quick shot of something exploding and everyone having a chuckle, except that one guy who has a face full of dust and grime shaking his head in disbelief.

And there's a token hot blonde, with a clipboard and charts, pointing out how well the guys down the hall are doing with the same experiment,

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Newhook would be our 3C right now. His style of play fits what we are doing here. So I would yes we could of done better. I mean al least take healthy players with some durability. Some of those are all star players.... let's face it...we screwed up

Newhook has 15 5v5 points in 53 games on an absolute powerhouse team that is scoring more than one goal a game more than we are.

I have a hard time pretending a healthy Turcotte couldn't be bringing us similar in production and all around play if he weren't injured AND getting jerked around constantly. Do you really think Newhook would be getting a different situation than Turcotte, Vilardi, Byfield?

I think it's fair to be critical of our own players but we're stretching for reasons to hate them now beyond what's necessary or even really rational.

 

[Kurrilino]

Yes and we’re still at $20 mill in cap space..
You can resign Kempe and all the RFA and still have money to add someone..

$20 mill between Durzi, Anderson, Vilardi, Kempe, Lemieux, Grundstrom will not leave a single cent to add someone.
It really pushed the boundaries of our cap considering that would just barely fill out the players on the field

 

[kilowatt]

Peterson is jumping from 800K to 5 mill
Lizotte doubles from 800K to 1.6 mill

We are pretty much against the Cap not including whatever Durzi will get who also is on 800K right now

We have $20,263,333 in cap space next season with the following players to re-sign:

• Adrian Kempe
• Gabriel Vilardi
• Lias Andersson
• Carl Grundstrom
• Dustin Brown (hopefully not?)
• Andreas Athanasiou (maybe?)
• Brendan Lemieux
• Alex Edler (maybe?)
• Olli Maatta (hopefully not?)
• Troy Stetcher (probably not?)
• Sean Durzi
• Austin Strand
• Jacob Moverare
• Mikey Anderson

Plus several minor league deals that I don't feel the need to add.

Let's focus on filling out the roster. I'm going to take some wild guesses at what some of our free agents will cost:

Kempe (5.5) - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Iafallo - Byfield - Vilardi (1.5)
Lemieux (1.8) - Lizotte - Kupari
Grundstrom (.9), Andersson (.9)

Anderson (2) - Doughty
Durzi (2) - Roy
Bjornfot - Walker
Spence

Quick
Petersen

I'm overestimating salaries on purpose, just in case. You could swap out guys like Kupari, Grundstrom, Andersson, and JAD if you want, we'll probably end up losing someone (or maybe Kupari starts the year in Ontario, who knows) but it's all relatively the same cost. Similarly, odds are Spence isn't going to be the seventh defenseman, but for salary's sake it's fine to leave him there.

This roster comes in at $75,911,667, leaving $5,588,333 in cap space.

That's not to say that my numbers are completely accurate or that this is what our roster will look like next season, but we definitely are not "pretty much against the cap".

 

[kilowatt]

Really good post.

I think what ended up happening was that Blake was set on this year being his "Ryan Smyth" year, where they were going to try and make the playoffs and give up on Top 5 picks, I think the hint that route was being taken was when they re-signed Iafallo instead of trading him for what likely would have been a late 1st from a contender at last years TDL. I think the big difference between DL's Ryan Smyth year and this years is that DL had his young superstars, he didn't need anymore Top 5 picks. I think even the biggest Alex Turcotte and Gabe Vilardi fans would admit that neither one is going to be the type of franchise building players you maybe hope to get with picks that high. So that means if you are going to follow the proven models to rebuilding a team you probably need all of QB, Kaliyev and Clarke to be massive homeruns. There is just no wiggle room at all to have a Thomas Hickey or even a Brayden Schenn type, the Kings need all these guys to hit huge.

I wish Blake had evaluated where they were last year, realized that some of the picks have kind of dudded in the years since picking them and been honest with the fan base. Say we are going to play the youth we have a lot, we aren't bringing in any veteran players to try and sneak into the playoffs or finish in the black hole. We need to know what we have in these guys. The results would either be the players here either stepped up and showed their worth, or they struggled and it resulted in more high picks that hopefully resulted in more impactful players. I would have done that for this year and next year. That leaves you entering the 2023-2024 season with Byfield (21), Clarke(20), Kaliyev(22), Faber(22), Grans(21),Turcotte(22), Kupari (23), Vilardi (24) and most importantly very likely Top 5 picks in 2022 and 2023 (2023 in particular is a loaded draft). You have Kopitar on an expiring contract as a solid veteran presence and (assuming he stayed) you also have Doughty. Drew may have wanted out, and that would have been fine, the Kings could have traded him for even more high end young pieces or a d-man perhaps 6-10 years younger who could still be useful once the rebuild ended Now suddenly your rebuild has 5-6 pieces with star potential instead of 3. Now if QB takes 5 years to turn into Olli Jokinen or Tage Thompson your rebuild isn't torpedoed because you have multiple elite pieces. Now I proposed this over the summer before the Kings moves and the attitude generally was you don't want to subject young players to this type of rebuild and constant losing, but now here we are a full season later and despite having a playoff caliber team due to the additions, the three players the Kings used a 2, 5 and 11 pick on have a combined 5 points in 45 games this season. Could it have been any worse in their development had QB been centering line 2 with Vilardi on his wing and Turcotte centering line 3 with Kupari on his wing?

If the Kings make the playoffs and lose in round 1 or 2, end up with the #19 pick and most of these highly drafted forwards end up having poor years (which it looks like all those things will be true), was this season an overall good for the Kings rebuild?



I need questions answered on some of these.

Josh Norris, do the Kings make the logical choice and return him to college for his sophomore year like the Sharks did or would they have prematurely pulled him out of school a year early to "get him accumulated to the system" like they did with Turcotte. If they had put Norris on the same development path both the Sharks and Sens did it's very likely he would be scoring a decent amount of goals in LA this season. Just a world class shot, you don't score at a 46 goal pace in this league at 22 unless you are an elite player. He probably would have established himself as LA's 2C last season when he was one of the best rookies in the NHL.

Suzuki and Thomas would be our elite 2C now and would be (if the rebuild went right) an elite 2C once it was over. The CHL agreement would have prevented the Kings from hurting their development by putting them in the AHL as teenagers.

Zegras, he was ready for the NHL last year. I assume Zegras would have been our 2C last season and would be in that role again this season and he and QB would be our much envied young center duo for the future.

Boldy and Caufield same questions as Norris, would the Kings have let both players return to college and become dominant offensive players ready to basically seamlessly jump into the NHL at 20 or would they have had them riding busses in the AHL as teenagers and neutering their offensive game and slowing their development? Had they been developed the same way Montreal and Minnesota did it's hard to imagine both guys wouldn't be producing offense in LA.

Stuzle, same questions. Would the Kings have had Stutzle in the NHL in year 1 or would they have had him riding busses in the AHL "Learning the system" last year?

I think most of the concerns are developmental more so than evaluation. Even with the Turcotte pick, it is fair to say that none of the scouting services saw his offensive ceiling being as limited as it has been.

They ride buses in college too

Would they have been in the idyllic utopia that is college or the nightmarish hellscape that is the AHL

 

[Kurrilino]

We have $20,263,333 in cap space next season with the following players to re-sign:

• Adrian Kempe
• Gabriel Vilardi
• Lias Andersson
• Carl Grundstrom
• Dustin Brown (hopefully not?)
• Andreas Athanasiou (maybe?)
• Brendan Lemieux
• Alex Edler (maybe?)
• Olli Maatta (hopefully not?)
• Troy Stetcher (probably not?)
• Sean Durzi
• Austin Strand
• Jacob Moverare
• Mikey Anderson

Plus several minor league deals that I don't feel the need to add.

Let's focus on filling out the roster. I'm going to take some wild guesses at what some of our free agents will cost:

Kempe (5.5) - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Iafallo - Byfield - Vilardi (1.5)
Lemieux (1.8) - Lizotte - Kupari
Grundstrom (.9), Andersson (.9)

Anderson (2) - Doughty
Durzi (2) - Roy
Bjornfot - Walker
Spence

Quick
Petersen

I'm overestimating salaries on purpose, just in case. You could swap out guys like Kupari, Grundstrom, Andersson, and JAD if you want, we'll probably end up losing someone (or maybe Kupari starts the year in Ontario, who knows) but it's all relatively the same cost. Similarly, odds are Spence isn't going to be the seventh defenseman, but for salary's sake it's fine to leave him there.

This roster comes in at $75,911,667, leaving $5,588,333 in cap space.

That's not to say that my numbers are completely accurate or that this is what our roster will look like next season, but we definitely are not "pretty much against the cap".

I doubt that Durzi and Anderson play for 2 mill and Vilardi for 1.5.
I would be thrilled if Anderson and Durzi sign for as low as 5mill long term. Those guys are our top line defenders who showed that they can play.
Vilardi will also be more in the 3 mill range

I really hope that you are right though, if not we can easily skip the next 3 seasons

 

[kings11]

We have $20,263,333 in cap space next season with the following players to re-sign:

• Adrian Kempe
• Gabriel Vilardi
• Lias Andersson
• Carl Grundstrom
• Dustin Brown (hopefully not?)
• Andreas Athanasiou (maybe?)
• Brendan Lemieux
• Alex Edler (maybe?)
• Olli Maatta (hopefully not?)
• Troy Stetcher (probably not?)
• Sean Durzi
• Austin Strand
• Jacob Moverare
• Mikey Anderson

Plus several minor league deals that I don't feel the need to add.

Let's focus on filling out the roster. I'm going to take some wild guesses at what some of our free agents will cost:

Kempe (5.5) - Kopitar - Kaliyev
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Iafallo - Byfield - Vilardi (1.5)
Lemieux (1.8) - Lizotte - Kupari
Grundstrom (.9), Andersson (.9)

Anderson (2) - Doughty
Durzi (2) - Roy
Bjornfot - Walker
Spence

Quick
Petersen

I'm overestimating salaries on purpose, just in case. You could swap out guys like Kupari, Grundstrom, Andersson, and JAD if you want, we'll probably end up losing someone (or maybe Kupari starts the year in Ontario, who knows) but it's all relatively the same cost. Similarly, odds are Spence isn't going to be the seventh defenseman, but for salary's sake it's fine to leave him there.

This roster comes in at $75,911,667, leaving $5,588,333 in cap space.

That's not to say that my numbers are completely accurate or that this is what our roster will look like next season, but we definitely are not "pretty much against the cap".

That’s about where I landed, keep in mind if they make a big trade or try to sign a big name like Forsberg… they could always move Walker or Iafallo or both really.. We also don’t know how impressive or not, guys like Clarke, Faber, Spence and Grans might be which could make Roy expendable.. point is, this team is in a great position asset wise and cap wise..

 

[kings11]

I doubt that Durzi and Anderson play for 2 mill and Vilardi for 1.5.
I would be thrilled if Anderson and Durzi sign for as low as 5mill long term. Those guys are our top line defenders who showed that they can play.
Vilardi will also be more in the 3 mill range

I really hope that you are right though, if not we can easily skip the next 3 seasons

Right, if Durzi was asking for $5 mil per he’d just get moved and replaced by Spence or Clarke or Walker or Faber or Grans

 

[Peter James Bond II]

Very good....very good.

 

[kilowatt]

I doubt that Durzi and Anderson play for 2 mill and Vilardi for 1.5.
I would be thrilled if Anderson and Durzi sign for as low as 5mill long term. Those guys are our top line defenders who showed that they can play.
Vilardi will also be more in the 3 mill range

I really hope that you are right though, if not we can easily skip the next 3 seasons

Anderson's the only one I can see getting more than $2 million, if we for some reason were to long him up long term around $3 million or so. There's just no way Durzi or Vilardi are getting more than $2 million on bridge deals. Hell, Kempe signed a three-year deal at $2 million per year in 2019-20 after scoring 37 and then 28 points. Both Durzi and Vilardi have shorter track records than that.

Right, if Durzi was asking for $5 mil per he’d just get moved and replaced by Spence or Clarke or Walker or Faber or Grans

Yep. Durzi's fighting for his life right now (and doing a great job), but LA has a lot of leverage here given their depth on the right side. Which isn't to say that the Kings should lowball him or anything, but I just don't see him asking for the moon. It wouldn't surprise me if Vilardi and JAD extend for around a million for a year or two either.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

How long till Durzi gets his own sword in the back picture