Roster Talk: Nearing the 20 game mark

[rajuabju]

Agreed. I was pretty critical of him earlier, but he's turning into at least a solid defensive minded 3C that can win faceoffs. Hopefully he can net some more points, that would be huge. I do think he's an improvement over Stoll from last year, who was just godawful.

Better than 2014-2015 Stoll. Not better than the Stoll who was on 2 cup winning teams and was able to put up 20+ points in his 3rd line role. Thats what we need from our 3C, and I'm very concerned Shore isnt going to provide enough offense. Granted, some of it is cause he has wingers that have hands of stone.

Shore is a defensive monster and is looking more and more like a keeper; his 'problem' is lack of production, but that problem would be minimized if the bottom six wasn't full of redundancies like him. He's the ideal 4C right now, ideal 3C if his wingers could score too...I hope the player I'm about to mention NEVER leaves, but I wonder if Shore is the Lewis replacement...in a perfect world though I see Clifford-Shore-Lewis as the most beastly 4th line ever.

Agreed 100%. I would love Shore as our 4th line C with Clifford and Lewis and/or Andreoff. Now lets find a 3C to center Brown and King.

For someone who starting believing in the Weal hype(i.e. me) I don't think he will stick with LA. He hasn't been placed in a great position to succeed, but he has looked slow to me in his few shifts a game. Smaller guys need to have quick wheels in the NHL.

I am re-evaluating my opinion of the AHL lately.

Hoping Weal can be effective but I think he will be sent back down when King returns.

Have to agree. Although last night was his best game by far. But for as much as I was on the Weal is our Real 3C train for a while, I dont think he's going to be here long-term.

I can DL looking outside the organization for a 3C at the deadline (or earlier), and offering some mix package of Andreoff, Weal, Nolan and mid-level picks/prospects to get it done.

And I'm still hopeful (more like prayful) DL finds a way to move Brown. Use part that cap space for a 3C to then center Lewis/King on the 3rd line and have Shore centering Andreoff and Clifford on the 4th line.

 

[cali101]

Hoping Weal can be effective but I think he will be sent back down when King returns.

to the AHL? you dont think kings would trade him?

I sat front row at the game last night and thought Weal looked better.

lucky you. yep you could see it on t.v. too. he also won almost all his faceoffs.

Shore is a defensive monster and is looking more and more like a keeper; his 'problem' is lack of production, but that problem would be minimized if the bottom six wasn't full of redundancies like him. He's the ideal 4C right now, ideal 3C if his wingers could score too...I hope the player I'm about to mention NEVER leaves, but I wonder if Shore is the Lewis replacement...in a perfect world though I see Clifford-Shore-Lewis as the most beastly 4th line ever.

shore and andreoff had that nice assist-goal last night but unfortunately shore had a bad night in the faceoff circle. he's usually very solid there though. i don't know if i see him as a 4th liner or not. in the AHL he was much more effective offensively. it just hasnt translated yet. but i wonder if that is because of the coaching shift and what's being emphasized?

 

[Trolfoli]

Shore: Regular season doesn't matter. Can he go up against other teams top lines and hold his own or will the team bleed chances against in the playoffs. This is the only question that matters. If the answer is no, then Lombardi needs a 3C. I have my doubts about Shore when it comes to the playoffs when teams really focus in on exploiting weaknesses.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Stoll has 1 goal, 2 assists in 27 games but he is a +5.

Shore has 2 goals, 2 assists in 26 games and is a -7.

 

[LAKings88]

to the AHL? you dont think kings would trade him?

Maybe at the deadline. Be lucky to get a second for him imho.

 

[rajuabju]

Maybe at the deadline. Be lucky to get a second for him imho.

Lindey Vey part deux

I'm sure Vancouver needs Weal. I'm sure of it.

 

[Mattias]

My thought with Weal has always been LA should have tried to package him with someone while he had a lot of value to either a) upgrade the defense or B) clear cap space

I read in the past DL was offering to package Weal with Richards to help with trades.

 

[driller1]

We have one extra roster spot, so we don't have to do anything to Weal when King returns. He'll simply be glued that much tighter to the bench.

 

[Ollie Weeks]

Stoll has 1 goal, 2 assists in 27 games but he is a +5.

Shore has 2 goals, 2 assists in 26 games and is a -7.

Sounds perfectly fine to me.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Stoll has 1 goal, 2 assists in 27 games but he is a +5.

Shore has 2 goals, 2 assists in 26 games and is a -7.

Shore has a 64.6CF%, literally best in the NHL with no filtering needed (i.e. even players that have played one game padding their stats are not better). If you filter that into 'rates', remember that his CA/60 is literally third in the league, only behind two players who haven't even played double-digit games.

Stoll is at 39%, 632nd out of 647 players who have NHL minutes this year, continuing a pattern of being a possession black hole he had even in LA. Filtering for rates like above, he improves...to 398.

Literally the only thing Shore can do better at this point is produce (or I guess put on 40 lbs. and start crushing #1 centers), but I'm not sure even Carter produces with Brown and Lewis driving possession but being scoring black holes at the moment.

Keep in mind I was one of his biggest critics before the season but the guy is clearly a player and getting better every game. I just said right now he'd be a perfect 4C due to lack of production; if his production even remotely catches up with his brain, I think we're fine at 3C. The argument is "will fine be enough in the playoffs" for a team whose legendary depth forced it to a championship, or does Shore improve enough by then?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Stoll has 1 goal, 2 assists in 27 games but he is a +5.

Shore has 2 goals, 2 assists in 26 games and is a -7.

Are you suggesting you'd rather have Stoll? If so, go ask Rangers fans what they think of him. Rather than scoreboard watching, try watching some Rangers games. Stoll has one foot already in the grave with his playing career.

 

[Reclamation Project]

What are we getting at regarding Stoll? Who cares what he's doing.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I just want to reiterate that we're talking about LITERALLY THE BEST and ALMOST LITERALLY the worst CF% players in the league...that's pretty funny.

Someone astute also pointed out to me that Shore's PDO has actually gone DOWN to insanely unlucky levels, dude is primed for a breakout imo.

 

[Reclamation Project]

I bet he's a better mule too.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I just want to reiterate that we're talking about LITERALLY THE BEST and ALMOST LITERALLY the worst CF% players in the league...that's pretty funny.

Someone astute also pointed out to me that Shore's PDO has actually gone DOWN to insanely unlucky levels, dude is primed for a breakout imo.

His offensive numbers just won't look impressive playing with the black hole of offense known as Brown and Lewis.

 

[Ron*]

We have one extra roster spot, so we don't have to do anything to Weal when King returns. He'll simply be glued that much tighter to the bench.

Don't care if the Kings have an extra roster spot or not. This guy is not ready for prime time. Running into McBain yesterday in front of the goal was absolutely ridiculous, truly a Keystone Kops episode, and convinced me that the Kings may need another doctor on staff to extract the splinters from his ass over the entire season.

Rather see Mersch come up. If Weal continues to play as poorly as he has, put him on the waiver wire and cut our losses.

 

[driller1]

Don't care if the Kings have an extra roster spot or not. This guy is not ready for prime time. Running into McBain yesterday in front of the goal was absolutely ridiculous, truly a Keystone Kops episode, and convinced me that the Kings may need another doctor on staff to extract the splinters from his ass over the entire season.

Rather see Mersch come up. If Weal continues to play as poorly as he has, put him on the waiver wire and cut our losses.

Meh. If we had cut Amart, Muzzin, King, Nolan, Pearson, etc when they first came up, we'd be screwed. All of them took a long while to establish themselves and screwed up plenty while doing so.

We've had incredible injury luck this year, but if a couple guys go down, I'd rather have the option of playing Weal AND Mersch rather than simply cutting Weal. Same goes for Andreoff. Finally, there's no point in having Mersch up riding the bench. Rather have him develop further with all situation experience.

 

[damacles1156]

Stoll has 1 goal, 2 assists in 27 games but he is a +5.

Shore has 2 goals, 2 assists in 26 games and is a -7.

Stoll has been one of the worst possession forwards in the entire NHL this year.

He is terrible.

 

[AmadiosAmigos]

From a pure speculation standpoint: any idea of Top 4D targets DL would have in mind?

 

[Fishhead]

Weal would have to have an incredible amount of talent to overcome his physical size. It's not that players his size can't be impact guys, or make it in the league, it's that guys his size just don't make it on the Kings. The smallest regular the Kings have had in quite a while is Mike Richards, but he has 30 pounds on Weal and played with nads the size of basketballs for most of his career.

The style doesn't suit him, and it's never going to. The best thing for him would be to get traded to a team that plays a more east coast style.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

From a pure speculation standpoint: any idea of Top 4D targets DL would have in mind?

Not these guys necessarily, but a Byfuglien/Shattenkirk type--long term 2D/3D, preferably right-handed, that can handle big minutes to reduce Doughty's.

I don't think we'll have the assets to make a deadline trade...unless we want to kiss Kempe goodbye.

 

[HYORI 1963]

Weal would have to have an incredible amount of talent to overcome his physical size. It's not that players his size can't be impact guys, or make it in the league, it's that guys his size just don't make it on the Kings. The smallest regular the Kings have had in quite a while is Mike Richards, but he has 30 pounds on Weal and played with nads the size of basketballs for most of his career.

The style doesn't suit him, and it's never going to. The best thing for him would be to get traded to a team that plays a more east coast style.

Closer to 10-15 lbs.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Weal would have to have an incredible amount of talent to overcome his physical size. It's not that players his size can't be impact guys, or make it in the league, it's that guys his size just don't make it on the Kings. The smallest regular the Kings have had in quite a while is Mike Richards, but he has 30 pounds on Weal and played with nads the size of basketballs for most of his career.

The style doesn't suit him, and it's never going to. The best thing for him would be to get traded to a team that plays a more east coast style.

Might be splitting hairs here but Weal is plenty gritty, we just don't know how much of it will translate. It's like Kozun, it's not that they don't HAVE the moxie, the question is does that overcome the physical limitation.

Last night, I saw Weal check Brian Boyle--who Kopitar was having trouble handling--right off the puck and skate away. He has some of that--we just need to see the consistency.

 

[HYORI 1963]

Might be splitting hairs here but Weal is plenty gritty, we just don't know how much of it will translate. It's like Kozun, it's not that they don't HAVE the moxie, the question is does that overcome the physical limitation.

Last night, I saw Weal check Brian Boyle--who Kopitar was having trouble handling--right off the puck and skate away. He has some of that--we just need to see the consistency.

Yep, and unlike Richards, Weal's quite a gym rat, and is always looking to improve upon his game. He has the right mindset, and attitude. He just needs the right situation to get his game going.

 

[Fishhead]

Closer to 10-15 lbs.

Well, Richards has always been right about 200, most sites list him as 199lb. I do see the Kings site has upped him to 179 pounds, up from the 171 usually reported, but MR certainly played at least 20lbs more, which is substantial.