Disagree. Overall maybe but in terms of pure defense Stone isn’t Danault. Danault is legitimately the best defensive forward in the game. Stone doesn’t look great so far either. They don’t have the matchups or system play to give us fits like LA. LA is way harder to play against.
Takes a lot of looking at all the aspects to recognize Danaults game. Good job. A lot of people slept on his contributions during the Montreal run, or what he's been in LA. Really since LA got Danault they've suddenly been back to being a playoff caliber team. Not before that. The 1,2 of Kopitar, Danault, thats something and the player was the best add LA made. Even bigger than Fiala who is very good, but simply a high event player. Meanwhile Montreal cratered with Danault gone. People really minimize his contributions.
That said Stone is a very good player but runs hot cold and isn't as defensively reliable as Kopitar or Danault.
Where I'll differ is that LA for some reason was a fractured team at times. They aren't getting buy in from several players. Its an issue and I suspect starting to be an issue in the room as well. You can only wait on guys for so long. Kings had 6 players in the series that needed to make a far better contribution. That thing won't happen with Vegas. Everybody will be on board.
Kings have to make decisions on players like Kupari, Byfield, Grundstrom, Kaliyev, Lizotte, Durzi etc. All have taken major steps back and with the exception of Byfield its seeya time. Just not good enough. Oilers under Holland were smarter and just grabbed vet players like Bgugstad, Foegele, Ryan and they were better than the Kings depth all series. If a prospect is a nothing player you're better off just going with cheap vet fill that can play.
