Finally some head way this this madness Ok from when he first got here His first game i seem to remember he played with kopitar. Then our depth at lw sucked so bad he ended up playing with richards i believe So with them thoughts i will say he played alot of top six before last year. It seemed that dean had to go out and get better lws to push him down the depth chart. aka penner and gaborik but both years he played top mins i recall At that point however there wasn't much depth in the organization so it was the best we had.
Sorry hit return there My point is hes a bottom 6 winger that played to much in the top 6. I also think its possible that he will get more mins then Pearson as he is trusted and Pearson isn't. Now with concern to your bigger point. I think King playing more mins then Pearson is bad for for his development in the long run. Pearson is the future lw not king imo. Now you keep bringing up how successful we were. You do realize it was against edmonton the 3rd worse team in the league and been there for years. Not exactly a hard measuring stick .
You can say that, but you're speculating, and you're flat out wrong. Unless you're arguing against yourself, because if you go by averages and season icetime, King has always gotten 3rd line minutes. If you're saying he's a top sixer because he's been bumped up and down because of injuries and play, then you're contradicting what you said earlier. You're also speculating that he's going to get more ice time hurting Pearsons development but you have literally no reason to believe that other than you feel like it. Last season Pearson was hurt for much of it and we didn't have Lucic, and King rotated into the top six because of uneven play by others as well as injuries. Really though using the **** show that was 2014 as a barometer of anything that came before and after is a major issue when trying to project where a guy is.
In addition to what was posted above, here's a summary of King's career thus far:
2012--you may be forgetting Gagne's injury making this an issue, but Gagne-Penner-Brown were all playing LW ahead of King on the depth chart. 8th most TOI/G amongst forwards, Gagne and Brown ahead, Penner only seconds behind.
2013--Again behind Gagne-Penner-Brown, but both Gagne and Penner spent time being hurt. 9th most TOI/G amongst forwards, same situation as previous season.
2014--Lined up behind Brown, smattering of Pearson/Gaborik/Carcillo ahead of him, got more minutes as we were figuring out the roster for much of the season with rookies like TT/TP and even Linden Vey, but still 8th most TOI/G amongst forwards, and when Gaborik was here, there wasn't a question, Gaborik, Pearson were ahead of him and sometimes Brown though this is when Brown hopped wings frequently.
2015--we know the story here, nightmare season, Pearson injury, but he STILL got the 8th most icetime amongst forwards, everyone masqueraded as top sixers as one point, including Trevor Lewis.
This season--one game sample size but guess what--even if he played more than others the other night, he STILL ends up with an average of the 9th ice time amongst forwards, showing if anything, we have more depth than before and there's LESS reason to worry that he'll be a top sixer with Lucic and Pearson CLEARLY over him and the potential for Gaborik/Brown et. al. to jump up into a scoring role if someone on a wing gets hurt.
Let's put this myth to bed. You've been debunked several times over across several threads. Trevor Lewis has the same versatility to pop up and down in the lineup as the game situation dictates; that's ALL King has done outside of a short stint higher last year dictated by injury and gameplay situations. He's a trustworthy guy that you can put out in any situation, and his icetime being middle of the pack proves it.
