Speculation: LA Kings Offseason Thread

[Herby]

The more I read/hear from John Hoven, the more I believe he is the perfect shill for the organization. In his chat on Sirius/XM, he spent a long time time defending the Petersen signing rather than acknowledging what a disaster the signing was for the team. No, Hoven, unproven goal tenders with little experience and no playoff wins are not signed for $5mm per year, that is not the going rate. And, having to eat part of Provorov's contract and giving up a prospect and a #2 pick are not things you want to do to get out from the mistake. And what is he smoking pegging JAD at $1.3 mm? Just because the guy is a teacher's pet does not mean he is getting more than Kupari who has already proven he can play solid D and kill penalties and who has much more upside. And, he seems to be in love with Iafallo and Moore while acknowledging they are redundant. When I read this, it makes me concerned as it indicates that Blake (who Hoven shills for) is in love with this roster. I have to agree with Johnny Utah after watching Florida manhandle more skilled teams, size does matter and our roster is not built for the playoffs. Hoven, like Blake, does not seem to recognize this.

The Kings have to have one of the worst media situations in the entire sports world.

I was actually listening to Hoven and DB's end of season podcast recently, I thought DB had some great points but Hoven was just completely out to lunch as usual, making excuses, shilling for the organization. DB made a comment about the Kings "Not being as good as the Oilers" and Hoven arrogantly called him out for his "hot take". Yeah sorry Hoven, how dare he say the Oilers who beat the Kings two straight years in the playoffs are better.

 

[SaltyElkHunter]

Hoven has to slob knob to get those 3-4 breaks a year he gets.

 

[AbsentMojo]

Will these f***ers ever let this kid develop. I dont want to hear how he was a liability.. he needs more time to work things out.. they let golden boy Durzi make a lifetime's worth of gaffes but Arty goes to the gulag for one bad shift.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Will these f***ers ever let this kid develop. I dont want to hear how he was a liability.. he needs more time to work things out.. they let golden boy Durzi make a lifetime's worth of gaffes but Arty goes to the gulag for one bad shift.

Seeing that list of names and associated TOI really puts in perspective the absolutely pathetic handling of youth in this org.

TM would have a fit trying to get Hughes to throw his body around at 12 min a game.

 

[Herby]

Kaliyev would go much higher. The second half of the 1st round in 2019 has ended up being really bad.

Hughes
Seider
Cozens
Zegras
Caufield
Boldy
Dach
Kakko
Pinto

Pretty confident all those guys still go before him. But then he is in a very large group of players including guys like Tomasino, Newhook, York, Knight, Podzolin, Broberg.

 

[johnjm22]

I think there's questions as to whether a player like Kaliyev is ideal on a modern NHL team, but I do think had he been given a significant role there's a good chance he'd already be a 20 goal scorer.

One of Iafallo/Moore/Arvidsson needs to go. Put a kid in a scoring role. Use the cap space to rework the 4th line and bottom D pair.

 

[tny760]

Hoven has to slob knob to get those 3-4 breaks a year he gets.

he did report the dollar figure pretty accurately for gavrikov the night before it happened when no one else was saying anything so he must have had the turbo gawk gawk 3000 going

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Kaliyev would go much higher. The second half of the 1st round in 2019 has ended up being really bad.

Hughes
Seider
Cozens
Zegras
Caufield
Boldy
Dach
Kakko
Pinto

Pretty confident all those guys still go before him. But then he is in a very large group of players including guys like Tomasino, Newhook, York, Knight, Podzolin, Broberg.

No Alex Turcotte?

He's the one player who seems to have a lot riding on his future with the upcoming season. The possibility of him finishing up his ELC while in the minors, and with the possibility of not even being worthy of a qualifying offer hangs over his head, and if that happens, it'll go down as one of the worst first round selections this team has made in quite some time.

 

[AbsentMojo]

You 'rebuild' and then go fill the top 9 with vets... You sign Fiala - so do we really need Moore AND Iafallo more than we need a 2 and 3LD... hard cap buddy - you need some ELCs in production.. even if you have to shoehorn them in there... so you stack your forwards and then use Durzi as 2LD, and Edler as 3LD.. fine - you half ass your d-corps for that season and be a work in progress and dont do anything stupid - ie. thats not the season you roll the dice at the deadline. The right thing to do is put Kaliyev in the top 6 as Blake said was going to happen and move some salary and fix your D.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Turcotte ending up a bigger bust than Hickey would definitely be something.

At least Hickey carved out some kind of NHL career, and was considered an off the board pick at the time of his selection.

 

[deaderhead28]

Byfield at center doesn't fix the 3C in the playoffs problem as he is unlikely to be able to defend other teams top lines on the road.

99 games into his NHL career, a low stress position on Kopi's wing is about the best place for him. Focus on his offensive zone skills, pick up info from Kopi & learn the wing position so when he moves to center Byfield has a better understanding of the forward positions.

Byfield looks to be a bust as a 1C. I have doubts he can play 3C at this point. I see Byfield as a winger more than a center. Maybe he is a late bloomer like Kempe, but Kings can't afford Byfield to develop like Kempe unfortunately.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Byfield looks to be a bust as a 1C. I have doubts he can play 3C at this point. I see Byfield as a winger more than a center. Maybe he is a late bloomer like Kempe, but Kings can't afford Byfield to develop like Kempe unfortunately.

Sure they can. Pick up a top6 center. Run New guy, Kopi, Danault down the middle. In the future as Byfield improves & Kopi slows down, slide Byfield to center & Kopi to wing.

Options at wing, Byfield, Kempe, Fiala, Vilardi, Kaliyev.

That allows other guys to be moved.

 

[FeartheFur]

Byfield is 20 f***ing years old fellas. Think about that before you start bitching about him.

 

[SaltyElkHunter]

he did report the dollar figure pretty accurately for gavrikov the night before it happened when no one else was saying anything so he must have had the turbo gawk gawk 3000 going

Edmonton won’t let me like posts but I had to give this response the respect it deserved.

In hindsight maybe they should have made sure Byfield was gonna be a 1 center. Like let him score 50 points at least before they called off the rebuild and went full send in trading 1st rounders. Lol

 

[deaderhead28]

Byfield is 20 f***ing years old fellas. Think about that before you start bitching about him.

He is 20 and a 2nd overall pick that isn't showing 1st line talent currently. I think he can be a third line center and his ceiling might be 2nd line center. Hope he wasn't another reach pick by Blake incorporated. I wanted the Kings to draft Tim Stützle cause I felt Byfield was a little but of a reach personally but wanted to root for the kid to succeed.

 

[tny760]

Byfield is 20 f***ing years old fellas. Think about that before you start bitching about him.

i'm not willing to sell yet but he really needs to a show lot this coming season

can't be getting cushy 1st line minutes with a horse like kopi and produce 3 goals

 

[Herby]

Byfield is 20 f***ing years old fellas. Think about that before you start bitching about him.

So? There are plenty of players who made an impact at his age. It's not an impossibility for young players to contribute.

Is next season, his age 21 season a reasonable time to expect him to even come close to living up to where he was drafted?

 

[Jungle Boy]

Calling Byfield and Turcotte a bust just shows some people never learn. Turcotte is in a similar spot Vilardi was a couple of years. Byfield is 20 with 99 NHL regular season games under his belt and 33 points plus 8 playoff games and 4 points. Both this guys had covid related issues derailing their development making it hard even to play the game during some time.

Sure it’s hard to see he not being able to score sometimes but he had his moments.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Byfield, more playoff points than strudel & zebra

COMBINED!

 

[Herby]

Calling Byfield and Turcotte a bust just shows some people never learn. Turcotte is in a similar spot Vilardi was a couple of years. Byfield is 20 with 99 NHL regular season games under his belt and 33 points plus 8 playoff games and 4 points. Both this guys had covid related issues derailing their development making it hard even to play the game during some time.

Alex Turcotte is only the 3rd player taken in the Top 5 in the past 24 years to not record a point in his first 4 seasons after being drafted. Two were huge busts (Hickey and Dal Colle) and the third (Blake Wheeler), stayed in college because he didn't want to sign with the Coyotes, and upon getting traded to Boston immediately jumped right in and scored 20+ goals and 45 points in year 5 (which would be this coming season for Turcotte). I just don't know how else to describe what has clearly been a terrible pick by the Kings.

Turcotte ending up a bigger bust than Hickey would definitely be something.

At least Hickey carved out some kind of NHL career, and was considered an off the board pick at the time of his selection.

I still think Turcotte could be a useful depth piece in the NHL, but usually when guys who don't live up to where they were drafted end up finding their roles in the NHL its on a different team. You just really don't see a Top 5 pick settle into a 4th line type role on the team that drafted them.

 

[Kingspiracy]

He is 20 and a 2nd overall pick that isn't showing 1st line talent currently. I think he can be a third line center and his ceiling might be 2nd line center. Hope he wasn't another reach pick by Blake incorporated. I wanted the Kings to draft Tim Stützle cause I felt Byfield was a little but of a reach personally but wanted to root for the kid to succeed.

I dont think you can call Byfield a reach pick, he was predicted to go top 3 in the draft wasnt he? Perhaps Stutzle was the right pick, we should know for sure in a couple of years.

 

[Jungle Boy]

I do think Bluc made some really bad choices but drafting Turcotte and Quinton was not one of them.

 

[deaderhead28]

I dont think you can call Byfield a reach pick, he was predicted to go top 3 in the draft wasnt he? Perhaps Stutzle was the right pick, we should know for sure in a couple of years.

Fair

 

[tny760]

I dont think you can call Byfield a reach pick, he was predicted to go top 3 in the draft wasnt he? Perhaps Stutzle was the right pick, we should know for sure in a couple of years.

i think that's kinda the key to this argument too, that he was drafted in the right slot, just the question remains whether he's gonna follow the "higher ceiling with more time required" trend he was projected to

probably no more than a season before the right/wrong is determined on that one in my opinion

 

[RocketKing]

Alex Turcotte is only the 3rd player taken in the Top 5 in the past 24 years to not record a point in his first 4 seasons after being drafted. Two were huge busts (Hickey and Dal Colle) and the third (Blake Wheeler), stayed in college because he didn't want to sign with the Coyotes, and upon getting traded to Boston immediately jumped right in and scored 20+ goals and 45 points in year 5 (which would be this coming season for Turcotte). I just don't know how else to describe what has clearly been a terrible pick by the Kings.



I still think Turcotte could be a useful depth piece in the NHL, but usually when guys who don't live up to where they were drafted end up finding their roles in the NHL its on a different team. You just really don't see a Top 5 pick settle into a 4th line type role on the team that drafted them.

Turc had hip surgery before the draft, and was a really small player. He was a bad pick, but people still say it wasn’t because he was rated so high. From day 1 I said it was a blown pick with all those other guys in the board and I’m sticking with that. He was damaged goods and Blake still took him. Unfortunately he’s really lived up to that injury reputation, I wouldn’t count on much if any contribution from him.