Claimed off Waivers: [MTL] Kale Clague claimed off waivers by the Canadiens from the Kings

[GordonGraham]

New Gm still diving in the Bargain Bin

but seriously he will be able to get a full time spot once Chariot is traded for picks in the coming weeks

 

[1909]

New Gm still diving in the Bargain Bin

but seriously he will be able to get a full time spot once Chariot is traded for picks in the coming weeks

This, OR Petry is gone for quite a bit. Petry a was totally diffrent player since Game One of this season. Not only Edmundson and Weber absences. The guy was clearly struggling with an injury.

 

[funky]

I don’t really like Clague as much as the rest of my Kings fans. He is undersized, still lost in the defense of end, and for a guy being pegged as an offense of defenseman I didn’t see much of that..

Saying that he can still fill in on an NHL roster and contribute. He’s a good skater and can still make that outlet pass. I’m interested to see how he performs in another organization.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

New Gm still diving in the Bargain Bin

but seriously he will be able to get a full time spot once Chariot is traded for picks in the coming weeks

Say that Charoit and Kulak are traded Edmundson, Romanov, Norlinder and Niku should all be ahead of Clague on the Canadiens depth chart at LD once Edmundson returns, I would expect Clague to be back on waivers if Kale doesn’t preform in Montreal’s lineup.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Clague doesn’t have any goals as an NHL player, I wouldn’t have expected Clague to be a goal scorer, Clague needs to develop his defensive game if he wants to be a full time NHL players and needs to gain strength, gets pushed off easily.

Losing Clague isn’t that big of a deal anyways, the Kings currently have defenseman that are better in Anderson, Bjornfot and Durzi and Los Angeles has more prospects in the pipelines coming up that would have taken Clague’s spot anyway.

Maataa is a 7th defenseman at best which he is now. Blake should not resign Maatta, infact Blake should waive Maatta now and have Wolanen as 7th defenseman. It would save some salary.

Best part of the main forums is other fans telling LA fans what they're actually seeing

Durzi is not better. Durzi is more offense, but not even NHL caliber defense at this point. LA has plenty of prospects--but the VAST majority of them are RHD. In fact, the only even remotely close LHD la has in the system are Moverare (long shot, but just like the current LA LHD, vanilla two-way guys with average O and D), Nousiainen (not this year, probably not ever with LA due to size), Kirsanov (great, but not this year, and LA does awful things with Russians). Compare that with RHD where LA has Doughty, Roy, Walker, Strand at the ready then Clarke, Grans, Faber, Jordan Spence...and you'll see why it's annoying that LA was playing Clague at f***ing RHD with Maatta.

Maatta SHOULD be waived. That's exactly what I'm saying. It should easily be Clague > Wolanin > Maatta but Blake has it the opposite and instead of waiving the worthless vet he's waived the youngster that's performed and shown some upside. What the hell part of the rebuild does that happen in?

 

[Treb]

Clague doesn’t have any goals as an NHL player, I wouldn’t have expected Clague to be a goal scorer, Clague needs to develop his defensive game if he wants to be a full time NHL players and needs to gain strength, gets pushed off easily.

Losing Clague isn’t that big of a deal anyways, the Kings currently have defenseman that are better in Anderson, Bjornfot and Durzi and Los Angeles has more prospects in the pipelines coming up that would have taken Clague’s spot anyway.

Maataa is a 7th defenseman at best which he is now. Blake should not resign Maatta, infact Blake should waive Maatta now and have Wolanen as 7th defenseman. It would save some salary.

Offence includes assists, which Clague as a decent amount of.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I don’t really like Clague as much as the rest of my Kings fans. He is undersized, still lost in the defense of end, and for a guy being pegged as an offense of defenseman I didn’t see much of that..

Saying that he can still fill in on an NHL roster and contribute. He’s a good skater and can still make that outlet pass. I’m interested to see how he performs in another organization.

A 37 point pace from the depths of the depth chart while being horribly misused is pretty good offense.

 

[bsu]

Interesting decision from Los Angeles.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

Best part of the main forums is other fans telling LA fans what they're actually seeing

Durzi is not better. Durzi is more offense, but not even NHL caliber defense at this point. LA has plenty of prospects--but the VAST majority of them are RHD. In fact, the only even remotely close LHD la has in the system are Moverare (long shot, but just like the current LA LHD, vanilla two-way guys with average O and D), Nousiainen (not this year, probably not ever with LA due to size), Kirsanov (great, but not this year, and LA does awful things with Russians). Compare that with RHD where LA has Doughty, Roy, Walker, Strand at the ready then Clarke, Grans, Faber, Jordan Spence...and you'll see why it's annoying that LA was playing Clague at f***ing RHD with Maatta.

Maatta SHOULD be waived. That's exactly what I'm saying. It should easily be Clague > Wolanin > Maatta but Blake has it the opposite and instead of waiving the worthless vet he's waived the youngster that's performed and shown some upside. What the hell part of the rebuild does that happen in?

Other fans are allowed to watch Kings games, it’s good to study all players in the NHL not just one team, you’re also getting a non-bias reply from what this non-King fan seen in Clague’s game, it’s just my opinion of what I’ve seen watching Clague play before American Thanksgiving and looking deeper into the player that he is which is a good puck moving defenseman that does join the rush but hasn’t been very good in the defensive zone which kinda matters first since Kale is a defenseman.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

Offence includes assists, which Clague as a decent amount of.

3 of 5 Clague assists were on PP, Blake probably wanted more at even strength, Clague’s ATOI even increased slightly and Clague got worse defensively, turnovers at ES and being undersized Clague ain’t hitting anything.

Blake didn’t need to keep Clague in the lineup since Clague isn’t just a power play specialist or did Blake see Clague as just a power play specialist that wasn’t scoring enough to stay on an NHL roster?

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Other fans are allowed to watch Kings games, it’s good to study all players in the NHL not just one team, you’re also getting a non-bias reply from what this non-King fan seen in Clague’s game, it’s just my opinion of what I’ve seen watching Clague play before American Thanksgiving and looking deeper into the player that he is which is a good puck moving defenseman that does join the rush but hasn’t been very good in the defensive zone which kinda matters first since Kale is a defenseman.

i agreed with that. I disagree mightily with your roster/prospect evaluation WRT to Clague's situation. You're trying to make it seem like he was the 'expendable' one when it's actually an issue for la as well as a symbol of the bigger-picture problems in play.

 

[Treb]

3 of 5 Clague assists were on PP, Blake probably wanted more at even strength, Clague’s ATOI even increased slightly and Clague got worse defensively, turnovers at ES and being undersized Clague ain’t hitting anything.

Blake didn’t need to keep Clague in the lineup since Clague isn’t just a power play specialist or did Blake see Clague as just a power play specialist that wasn’t scoring enough to stay on an NHL roster?

6'0 Clague undersized ok...
Clague 5 assists in 11 games not enough offence ok...

Considering the only time a Blake team made the PO was his first year and the team barely got better, not sure he's the best to judge.

Not saying Clague is the best ever, but they do have Olli Maatta on their roster.

 

[FSL KINGS]

Other fans are allowed to watch Kings games, it’s good to study all players in the NHL not just one team, you’re also getting a non-bias reply from what this non-King fan seen in Clague’s game, it’s just my opinion of what I’ve seen watching Clague play before American Thanksgiving and looking deeper into the player that he is which is a good puck moving defenseman that does join the rush but hasn’t been very good in the defensive zone which kinda matters first since Kale is a defenseman.

So what are your thoughts on the Kings' lack of scoring from Defense? How do they match up against the rest of the league? Who are the leaders in defensive goals & points this year?

 

[Telos]

Not very happy about this; many Kings fans will likely be frustrated with this move. Although, I don't want to oversell Clague, he is potentially a 5-6, don't know if he will ever be a 3-4, but he has decent puck-moving ability and skating while being soft on the defensive side of things and a lightweight. The main frustrations Kings fans have with this is that he hasn't played too poorly for us, has paid his dues, and was waived while much bigger liabilities remain - mainly Ollie Maatta.

It is very possible that Clague wouldn't have what it takes to remain on the Kings for the long term. Especially given that they have Doughty, Walker, Roy, Clarke, Anderson, and Bjornfot locked long-term and a myriad of prospects and stopgaps in between to fill in the rest. It is clear that Kings management would rather have Durzi, Wolanin, or Strand as the 6-7th guy than Clague and was done waiting for him. In the end, the Kings aren't missing much by letting him go, but many who watch the team feel that Clague wasn't the one to waive or sit.

 

[MTL Dirty Birdy]

Other fans are allowed to watch Kings games, it’s good to study all players in the NHL not just one team, you’re also getting a non-bias reply from what this non-King fan seen in Clague’s game, it’s just my opinion of what I’ve seen watching Clague play before American Thanksgiving and looking deeper into the player that he is which is a good puck moving defenseman that does join the rush but hasn’t been very good in the defensive zone which kinda matters first since Kale is a defenseman.

Considering it takes an average of 300 games for defencemen to mature, I’ll take the offence for now as he matures I to his position.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

So what are your thoughts on the Kings' lack of scoring from Defense? How do they match up against the rest of the league? Who are the leaders in defensive goals & points this year?

Not having your best defenseman Doughty in the lineup for 16 games might hurt the scoring from the defense losing Walker for the season doesn’t help.

I don’t expect the Kings to compete for a playoff spot at this juncture in the season, Blake should keep the picks he has to keep building up the roster though the draft.

Brown, Maatta, Edler and Athanasiou are all UFA’s at seasons end and some of those players could be moved for more draft capital at the trade deadline. Carter’s retention also comes off the books as well.

Edler a 35 year old defenseman is the leading scorer for LA.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

6'0 Clague undersized ok...
Clague 5 assists in 11 games not enough offence ok...

Considering the only time a Blake team made the PO was his first year and the team barely got better, not sure he's the best to judge.

Not saying Clague is the best ever, but they do have Olli Maatta on their roster.

180lbs isn’t undersized at 6’0?

0 goals career at NHL level with 2 assists at ES in 11 games is not enough for an offensive defenseman at the NHL level.

Olli Maatta is to blame, I would have put Maatta on waivers or not reclaimed Wolanen before placing Clague on waivers again, but Blake probably thought Kale would get though waivers again but that wasn’t the case this time.

 

[Treb]

180lbs isn’t undersized at 6’0?

0 goals career at NHL level with 2 assists at ES in 11 games is not enough for an offensive defenseman at the NHL level.

Olli Maatta is to blame, I would have put Maatta on waivers or not reclaimed Wolanen before placing Clague on waivers again, but Blake probably thought Kale would get though waivers again but that wasn’t the case this time.

So it was a bad decision.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Absolutely no risk. Any defenseman going on waivers and Montreal is likely to claim them right now.

Weber: retired. Petry: injured. Edmundson: injured. Niku: Covid (quarantining for 10 days)

That leaves Chiarot who's likely on the trade block, Savard, Romanov, Wideman, Norlinder: a rookie who should be sent back to Sweden and Schueneman: an AHLer on recall.

There's absolutely nobody else to recall from Laval too.

We need bodies, and guys who can move the puck. Clague covers both those. At worst, he ends up on waivers again, but it's definitely worth it to claim him.

 

[TT1]

oh shit i've always liked Clague, was dissapointed when we didn't claim him earlier in the season

 

[HabsAddict]

Right now, the Habs can claim laundry equipment off waivers and it would help.

When your top 2 are Chiarot and Romanov, youze gots problems.....

 

[Maurice of Orange]

So it was a bad decision.

Some General Managers are dumb creatures that are uneducated in business and economics.

 

[bland]

3 of 5 Clague assists were on PP, Blake probably wanted more at even strength, Clague’s ATOI even increased slightly and Clague got worse defensively, turnovers at ES and being undersized Clague ain’t hitting anything.

Blake didn’t need to keep Clague in the lineup since Clague isn’t just a power play specialist or did Blake see Clague as just a power play specialist that wasn’t scoring enough to stay on an NHL roster?

This actually has nothing to do with the reason Clague never broke through.

The LA Kings have never really given up the ghost of their Cup runs. Having 25% of the team on retirement contracts and an organization steeped deeply in nepotism has prevented them from embracing the rebuild. They collected prospects,but have not committed to developing them for future success.

Everything in LA is gauged by how it will help the core make the playoffs, not preparing kids to move into prominent roles. As such, the young players are being coached to not hurt the team instead of accepting poor results and allowing the skilled kids to show their ability and learn how to improve their weaknesses on the job. The team still believes they can make the playoffs, hence the additions of Danault, Arvidsson and Edler.

The measuring stick isn't a player's individual progress for future success its how to keep Doughty and Kopitar happy while churning out neutered half-measures.

 

[Maurice of Orange]

Absolutely no risk. Any defenseman going on waivers and Montreal is likely to claim them right now.

Weber: retired. Petry: injured. Edmundson: injured. Niku: Covid (quarantining for 10 days)

That leaves Chiarot who's likely on the trade block, Savard, Romanov, Wideman, Norlinder: a rookie who should be sent back to Sweden and Schueneman: an AHLer on recall.

There's absolutely nobody else to recall from Laval too.

We need bodies, and guys who can move the puck. Clague covers both those. At worst, he ends up on waivers again, but it's definitely worth it to claim him.

Are Belpedio, Ouellet and Fairbrother all injured?

 

[unicornpig]

hope he gets a shot in montreal, the dumb brain trust in LA didnt.