Rumor: Planning Ahead: 2019 Off-Season

[cyclones22]

I may need to get the athletic

It's absolutely worth it. Especially if you follow more than just hockey and one sports team. By far it has the most coverage for the Kings and it's not even close with multiple sportswriters and columnists covering them. And that's on top of Craig Custance, Pierre LeBrun and others covering nationally. You can probably find a coupon code out there on Facebook for a discount as well. I know I didn't pay the base price for my year subscription.

 

[kings11]

It's absolutely worth it. Especially if you follow more than just hockey and one sports team. By far it has the most coverage for the Kings and it's not even close with multiple sportswriters and columnists covering them. And that's on top of Craig Custance, Pierre LeBrun and others covering nationally. You can probably find a coupon code out there on Facebook for a discount as well. I know I didn't pay the base price for my year subscription.

Hope you dont mind me asking, but how much do you pay?

 

[cyclones22]

Hope you dont mind me asking, but how much do you pay?

I subscribed it at 50% off from a Facebook offer. I just checked and it actually expires next month, so I had it for a year at $29.99.

 

[kings11]

I subscribed it at 50% off from a Facebook offer. I just checked and it actually expires next month, so I had it for a year at $29.99.

That's not bad.. I use to pay way more for my newspaper

 

[BigKing]

It's evident that guys like Kopitar and Carter are missing the leaders that they leaned on in the locker. They're not like Richards or Regehr or Williams or Mitchell or Greene or Stoll. Those guys carried were the vocal leaders. That's not Kopitar, or Carter, or Toffoli. The team failed to groom anyone to replace those veterans who have been long gone.

The team didn't fail to groom the replacements: Kopitar and Doughty were supposed to become those guys and then teach the young guys to be them etc.

Lombardi went out and made all kinds of moves to surround what he inherited with leaders: Stoll/Greene/Handzus/Scuderi/Williams/Mitchell. Takes a guy like Clifford earlier than expected. Hell, even his cap-strapped moves for Vinny and Iginla involved leaders.

Unfortunately, it is harder to draft leaders as opposed to identifying them after they've already proven it at the NHL level. At the end of the day though, 11 and 8 have to be those guys. It is why I'm so f***ing hard on Doughty and continually deride him for not fighting Tkachuk.

There's our $11MM assistant captain getting punked, again, after running his mouth. Maddening.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Coopers article in The Athletic about the lack of leadership was a great read. Wouldn’t be surprised if management plays games with which players wear the A on their jersey. Maybe one of Carter or Doughty loses their letter. Or maybe they expand it and rotate the A’s among Carter, Doughty, Martinez and Brown.

 

[Choralone]

Coopers article in The Athletic about the lack of leadership was a great read. Wouldn’t be surprised if management plays games with which players wear the A on their jersey. Maybe one of Carter or Doughty loses their letter. Or maybe they expand it and rotate the A’s among Carter, Doughty, Martinez and Brown.

Clifford is a good add, too, as long as he's in their plans for the next couple of years.

 

[kilowatt]

if the kings were serious about leadership theyd give brown the C back and give the As to clifford and quick

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The team didn't fail to groom the replacements: Kopitar and Doughty were supposed to become those guys and then teach the young guys to be them etc.

Lombardi went out and made all kinds of moves to surround what he inherited with leaders: Stoll/Greene/Handzus/Scuderi/Williams/Mitchell. Takes a guy like Clifford earlier than expected. Hell, even his cap-strapped moves for Vinny and Iginla involved leaders.

Unfortunately, it is harder to draft leaders as opposed to identifying them after they've already proven it at the NHL level. At the end of the day though, 11 and 8 have to be those guys. It is why I'm so ****ing hard on Doughty and continually deride him for not fighting Tkachuk.

There's our $11MM assistant captain getting punked, again, after running his mouth. Maddening.

Kopitar was already wearing a letter, so he was already in a leadership role. Doughty has a loud mouth but he at the very least displays passion. And Iginla and Lecavalier were both short term moves who weren't going to be here for a long time.

Clifford is the only one mentioned who's stepped it up when it comes to being a leader by example. Not a single player has assumed the leadership of the 5+ players this team lost who were considered "heart and soul" types. I guess Trevor Lewis and Alec Martinez can be slotted in there as well, but they're not vocal leaders like the previous leadership group.

That's both on the players and on management. Toffoli hasn't shown any shred of responsibility or leadership, and they still haven't been able to fill all those holes from the departures of the players listed.

 

[Reaper45]

Should've never stripped the C off of Brown.

 

[BigKing]

Kopitar was already wearing a letter, so he was already in a leadership role. Doughty has a loud mouth but he at the very least displays passion. And Iginla and Lecavalier were both short term moves who weren't going to be here for a long time.

Clifford is the only one mentioned who's stepped it up when it comes to being a leader by example. Not a single player has assumed the leadership of the 5+ players this team lost who were considered "heart and soul" types. I guess Trevor Lewis and Alec Martinez can be slotted in there as well, but they're not vocal leaders like the previous leadership group.

That's both on the players and on management. Toffoli hasn't shown any shred of responsibility or leadership, and they still haven't been able to fill all those holes from the departures of the players listed.

Kopi had the "A" because he was the best player on the team and was being groomed to be the C eventually under the premise of best player/most money.

End of the day, all these leadership types were older and were going to fade away. DL thought he would have Richards for a long time but, still, it was going to become Kopitar and Doughty's team.

If you want to put it on management, well, it seems you are just criticizing the drafting in general. They haven't drafted well enough to place impact NHL'ers on the roster, never mind if they are good leaders. They thought that the guys that would remain on this team and went through the wars of 2012 - 14 would be leaders.

Those guys got complacent and entitled. We can criticize Management for allowing some of the complacency since the players sucked, got the best coach and GM in team history fired, and then Management brought them all back for two years in a row while adding a shiny toy for them in Kovalchuk but, at some point, it is the players who are accountable.

What we saw last season was unacceptable. It wasn't Dean's or Blake's fault. Blame for not being a legit contender can be laid at their feet but mailing it in since pre-season is on these high-paid players who know what it takes to win at the highest level and didn't want to put forth the effort.

This season was the epitome of Dean's "beach culture" fear. Fat and happy.

 

[KingsFan7824]

So what happened in 14-15, when they had all their leaders other than Mitchell? Can't say it was all Mitchell, because they didn't have Mitchell, or Greene for that matter, in 2013. What happened in 14-15 that the great leadership couldn't overcome? Was it the loss of talent in Voynov? Was it the decreased ability of most of the leadership? Richards was long done as a viable player. Stoll wasn't what he was. Regehr retired, so close to the end of the line all year. Greene, never played much after 14-15, so that was basically his last year. The only guy still playing and doing well in the league is Williams, and he was fully there in 14-15. Although maybe had one foot out the door already because...

Everyone knew that.. Brown and Kopitar were never vocal guys.. Doughty talks too much **** and is too emotional, that leaves Quick as the only vocal guy, at least from what i've seen at the games i went to..I actually wanted JDub to stay but he was let go and our last locker room leader with him.. People need to quit correlating salary to leadership! hockey is like baseball in regards to leaders.. they're almost never your Stars or highest played players.

He chose to leave.

 

[Crownroyal21]

Kopi had the "A" because he was the best player on the team and was being groomed to be the C eventually under the premise of best player/most money.

End of the day, all these leadership types were older and were going to fade away. DL thought he would have Richards for a long time but, still, it was going to become Kopitar and Doughty's team.

If you want to put it on management, well, it seems you are just criticizing the drafting in general. They haven't drafted well enough to place impact NHL'ers on the roster, never mind if they are good leaders. They thought that the guys that would remain on this team and went through the wars of 2012 - 14 would be leaders.

Those guys got complacent and entitled. We can criticize Management for allowing some of the complacency since the players sucked, got the best coach and GM in team history fired, and then Management brought them all back for two years in a row while adding a shiny toy for them in Kovalchuk but, at some point, it is the players who are accountable.

What we saw last season was unacceptable. It wasn't Dean's or Blake's fault. Blame for not being a legit contender can be laid at their feet but mailing it in since pre-season is on these high-paid players who know what it takes to win at the highest level and didn't want to put forth the effort.

This season was the epitome of Dean's "beach culture" fear. Fat and happy.

Give Clifford an A. Brown should be captain. Other A goes to Kopi.

 

[Reclamation Project]

I've never understood the amount of importance given to fabric letters. Good leaders simply lead.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Whatever happens in the upcoming months, the one thing everyone here can agree on is that there is something internally wrong within that locker room, and there’s no coach for these pissants to place the blame on.

 

[Sol]

Whatever happens in the upcoming months, the one thing everyone here can agree on is that there is something internally wrong within that locker room, and there’s no coach for these pissants to place the blame on.

Undoubtedly wrong and beyond repair. All you can do is add better players and people. But the fact this lack of leadership is undoubtedly from the Core, then there is nothing you can do to fix their old asses.

 

[Steve Zissou]

Have to have the youth develop, leaders lead (ugh), sign some bridge players, and re-establish the winning culture we once had after losing a bunch and drafting. We're back at square one, folks.

 

[kingsfan28]

Should've never stripped the C off of Brown.

This is when things really went south with the team IMO. The moment your coach decides he no longer want your captain as captain because he's fallen out of favor with him, you're screwed. Lombardi signed off on this too after giving it to him in the first place. I believe this was one of the things Sutter asked for before resigning. Kopitar has proven he's not a leader and has shown at times to crack under the weight.

 

[kingsfan28]

Coopers article in The Athletic about the lack of leadership was a great read. Wouldn’t be surprised if management plays games with which players wear the A on their jersey. Maybe one of Carter or Doughty loses their letter. Or maybe they expand it and rotate the A’s among Carter, Doughty, Martinez and Brown.

Was this from earlier in the year or a new article?

 

[Bandit]

I've never understood the amount of importance given to fabric letters. Good leaders simply lead.

That’s not the problem. The problem is when those who cannot lead are anointed the leaders. THAT is the importance of a fabric letter: don’t give it to the wrong people.

 

[Herby]

I agree that The Athletic is worth every dime if you are a sports fan. Great coverage of every team (atleast that I follow) and they are aggressively trying to improve. Do a little searching and you can find some nice deals. My original one was a 90 days free and I was happily willing to pay for the full year after that. Not just team coverage, but good podcasts, good draft coverage of all the sports and good fantasy coverage for all sports.

As far as the leadership stuff, good leadership needs to go hand in hand with a good roster. The Kings have sucked for the last five years because the roster has sucked, awful drafting, awful trades, awful contract signings. The apparent lack of leadership just adds to the mess, but it's not as if having a couple of Mitchell, Stoll, Richards or Greene still playing would have made a difference on how the Kings finished in the standings.

 

[BigKing]

I agree that The Athletic is worth every dime if you are a sports fan. Great coverage of every team (atleast that I follow) and they are aggressively trying to improve. Do a little searching and you can find some nice deals. My original one was a 90 days free and I was happily willing to pay for the full year after that. Not just team coverage, but good podcasts, good draft coverage of all the sports and good fantasy coverage for all sports.

As far as the leadership stuff, good leadership needs to go hand in hand with a good roster. The Kings have sucked for the last five years because the roster has sucked, awful drafting, awful trades, awful contract signings. The apparent lack of leadership just adds to the mess, but it's not as if having a couple of Mitchell, Stoll, Richards or Greene still playing would have made a difference on how the Kings finished in the standings.

They wouldn't have dropped from 98 points to 17 or whatever the hell it was this year.

True it doesn't mean they would have been a contender, but hockey is still such an effort sport. There was no effort this season and that falls on the guys that are supposed to be leaders now.

 

[kilowatt]

i hate to say it but i hope the kids (vilardi, kupari, jad, thomas) arent on the kings next year. id like them to learn in the ahl and not play on this garbage kings team

carter - kopitar - brown
kovalchuk - prokhorkin - grundstrom
wagner - kempe - luff
clifford - amadio - iafallo

clague - doughty
forbort - roy
macdermid - walker

quick
campbell

i feel like we have the makings of a really solid bottom six and a big fat turd everywhere else

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

They wouldn't have dropped from 98 points to 17 or whatever the hell it was this year.

True it doesn't mean they would have been a contender, but hockey is still such an effort sport. There was no effort this season and that falls on the guys that are supposed to be leaders now.

Legit made me spit out my coffee, sure felt like that at times. Blows my mind that someone finished lower.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Was this from earlier in the year or a new article?

New article with a bunch of quotes from former players like Richards, Stoll and Regehr