Los Angeles Kings Mount Rushmore

[EpochLink]

Kings fan and I’m stuck. This one’s impossible to choose.

Gretzky is the most obvious, Dionne is a Kings legend, Lucky Luc was a stall worth with the Kings.

The 4th spot is a tricky one, you can go Kopitar/Quick/Doughty, then you have Dave Taylor, Rogie Vachon and Dustin Brown.

 

[wetcoast]

f***...this one is legit hard

Do I leave Wayne off this list?

Dionne, Luc, and Anze are stone cold locks. Then I get stuck.

Went Taylor. Doughty, Quick, Wayne, so many legit good options.

Weird, I saw the thread title and went this is going to be easy, put down Dionne then went OMG who am I going to leave out?

Went with Dionne, Kopitar and Doughty (2 SC's and huge reasons why) and then just by default I had to pick Gretzky but one could take 4 other guys in Dave Taylor, Luc, Dustin Brown and Vachon on how important they have been in the Kings history.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Bernie Nicholls is hardly a product of Gretzky. That's like saying Jari Kurri is a product of Gretzky. Considered the Kings best player the year before Gretzky came over even above Carson and Robitaille. His career took a nosedive because of the health issues and passing of his infant son in the early nineties but he got it back on track with Chicago in his mid thirties.

Yeah okay I'm not interested in having this discussion for the thousandth time

That season was fifty points above his second highest-scoring season

 

[Tkachuk4MVP]

Kopitar
Gretzky
Dionne
Robitaille

Feels wrong to leave Doughty off...

Same, and it was also tough to leave Doughty off.

Anyone who doesn’t have Gretzky on their list is taking crazy pills IMO.

 

[wetcoast]

Dionne (if he's not on your list, your list is wrong)
Gretzky
Robitaille
and I go Blake but I can understand Kopitar or Quick there.

Rob Blake over Doughty.....?

 

[Dr Pepper]

I had Luc, Kopitar, Dionne and Blake.

Thought the latter would get more love, guess not though.

For me, a player can only be on one Mt Rushmore, and Gretzky will always be an Oiler. Couldn't pick him here, though I see most did anyway.

 

[dire wolf]

Rob Blake over Doughty.....?

Definitely Doughty over Blake -- but it's not as crazy as it sounds. Blake scored at a higher rate than Doughty (0.61 pts./game) -- including on some pretty miserable Kings teams after the Gretzky years. He also played some hard hitting defense. His open ice hip checks were as good as anyone I've ever seen. Each of them has 1 Norris trophy and 4x all stars. But maybe I'm biased. I was a huge Blake fan

 

[Voight]

lmfao at the idea of leaving Gretzky off the list

The highest-scoring seasons by LA Kings players are as follows:

1. Gretzky
2. Gretzky
3. The product of Gretzky
4. Gretzky
5. Dionne
6. Dionne
7. Dionne
8. Gretzky
9. Dionne
10. Robitaille

This is Gretzky + Dionne and then whoever you consider to be the top-2 of Robitaille, Quick, and Kopitar

.... Doughty?

 

[goonybird]

Rob Blake over Doughty.....?

Doughty is a good player but for a mount Rushmore i think those other three are more important to the franchise

 

[Ratelleitlikeitis]

Not really tho. Robitaille only has ~200 more points in twice the amount of games

I just feel the six extra seasons he spent as a King, along with his prolific stats are deserving.

 

[Reaper45]

Dionne, Robitaille, Kopitar, Quick

 

[centipede2233]

gretzky, Dionne and kopitar are the locks for me. The last one comes down to doughty vs luc. Doughty has 2 cups, a Norris and will play his whole career in LA or most of it and plays on a more important position logging more minutes then luc as a winger. I initially chose luc but based on credentials, I go with doughty. I wouldn’t fault anyone taking luc in this M.Rushmore, he is synonymous with LA.

 

[Johnny Tomala]

Kopitar
Doughty
Robitaille
Dionne

 

[Ghetty Green]

Switched Kopi with Robitaille.

Not a chance. Kopi is and has been the Face of the Franchise for coming up on 20 years and delivered the first Cups I'm team history. Kopitar and Dionne are locks, then it gets tough.

 

[Golden_Jet]

I could be reading the room wrong. I just feel like people forget how much time Robitaille spent away from LA, and on and off rather than consecutively, as well.

I could be convinced to replace Dionne with Luc but the others are untouchable imo

Robitaille is first all time in goals, and second in points, he should be definitely there, as well as Dionne.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Robitaille is first all time in goals, and second in points, he should be definitely there, as well as Dionne.

Anze is likely to pass him in the next two years, not to mention adjusting for eras.

 

[Xspyrit]

3 locks :

Dionne
Robitaille
Kopitar

Several good options for the 4th one, went with Doughty

 

[Regal]

Robitaille is first all time in goals, and second in points, he should be definitely there, as well as Dionne.

He’s also a considerably worse all around player outside of production than Kopitar and Doughty and played the bulk of his LA career in a high scoring era.

 

[kilowatt]

Call me crazy, but I think Kopitar, Doughty, Brown, and Quick are the four most important Kings in the organization's history.

For starters, the two players with the most games played all time in a Kings sweater are Brown (1296) and Kopitar (1226), and Doughty's (1030) currently fifth on the list, about a hundred games (or two seasons) away from leapfrogging Robitaille and Taylor. So the games played argument is moot.

While we're at it, Quick holds every goalie record in LA. Games played, wins, shutouts, save percentage, saves, everything. No one even comes close to him. He has to be on this, regardless of anyone else.

Let's also not forget that these were the four most important players on the Kings' two cup-winning rosters. Quick won a Conn Smythe in 2012. Brown is the first Kings player to touch the cup. Kopitar and Brown led the playoffs in goals scored and points in 2012, Doughty was fifth, and Quick had an unbelievable .946 save percentage. Kopitar also led the 2014 playoffs in scoring.

Gretzky was Gretzky, but he was Gretzky before he came to LA. Robitaille, Taylor, Dionne, and Vachon were all great players, but none of them accomplished in LA what Brown, Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick accomplished. That's my LA Kings Mt. Rushmore.

 

[Albatros]

That season was fifty points above his second highest-scoring season

...of which Gretzky scored or assisted less than half. Jim Fox was more important when Nicholls scored 100.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

...of which Gretzky scored or assisted less than half. Jim Fox was more important when Nicholls scored 100.

Riiiiiiight.

So the following Bernie Nichols stat block...

1985 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.25
1986 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.21
1987 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.01
1988 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.20
1989 PPG (Gretzky): 1.90
1990 PPG (Gretzky): 1.60
1991 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.16
1992 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.03

...is just some kind of grand coincidence.

 

[Albatros]

Riiiiiiight.

So the following Bernie Nichols stat block...

1985 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.25
1986 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.21
1987 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.01
1988 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.20
1989 PPG (Gretzky): 1.90
1990 PPG (Gretzky): 1.60
1991 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.16
1992 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.03

...is just some kind of grand coincidence.

Already his rookie season he was 1.45 with no regular linemates.

 

[tabness]

Riiiiiiight.

So the following Bernie Nichols stat block...

1985 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.25
1986 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.21
1987 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.01
1988 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.20
1989 PPG (Gretzky): 1.90
1990 PPG (Gretzky): 1.60
1991 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.16
1992 PPG (No Gretzky): 1.03

...is just some kind of grand coincidence.

Is every player who had his stats boosted by another a "product" now? Not to mention Gretzky is clearly not the only variable here, you've got injuries, going from one of the most offensive teams to one of the more defensive teams in the early nineties, and the personal issues I mentioned above.

The easy availability of stats on the internet sure allows people to talk about players they don't know anything about confidently lol

 

[amnesiac]

Switched Kopi with Robitaille.

dunno bout that.... Kopitar 1C on 2 Cups wining teams, was Hart finalist, Selke winner

Luc never even got a vote for Hart, let alone anything else

Luc had more pts but played with LA but in some of the highest scoring eras ever, while Kopitar did not

 

[amnesiac]

Robitaille played 14 seasons with the Kings and scored an insane number of goals. He's the Kings' all-time leading goal scorer and No. 2 in points. He's now President of the team and has been an exec with the club for 15 years, including their 2 Cups. I don't see how you leave him off.

This is legit the hardest one of these surveys I've done. Very hard to leave off Kopitar or Doughty who were instrumental in bringing the team's only 2 Cups (and to a lesser extent Quick). On the other hand, how do you not have Wayne and Dionne?

At the end of the day, I'm going Dionne, Gretz, Robitaille and Kopitar. It's pretty crazy leaving Doughty off this list though. No right answer here.

1986-94 was some of the highest scoring eras ever. Very inflated numbers (not that they werent good)... I mean, the guy never even got a single vote for the Hart or any other award

Kings dont win their 2 Cups without Doughty, and is a Norris winner

But yes its close