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The Los Angeles Kings all-time best free agent

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I think his response about Steve Heinze was sarcastic.

I remember when Leiweke being the tightwad that he was let Luc Robitaille go to Detroit, and in his place, they signed Steve Heinze.

What a great move that turned out to be. Luc would go on to score 30 goals and 50 points while playing a depth role on Detroit (and he was coming off a 37 goal, 88 point season with the Kings). Meanwhile, Heinze scored 15 goals and 31 points with the Kings, and in his second year he was demoted to Manchester, and that was it for him.

Heinze was one of many underachievers to play for the Kings during those dark times. I'm surprised someone out there has fond memories of him.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
I think his response about Steve Heinze was sarcastic.

I remember when Leiweke being the tightwad that he was let Luc Robitaille go to Detroit, and in his place, they signed Steve Heinze.

What a great move that turned out to be. Luc would go on to score 30 goals and 50 points while playing a depth role on Detroit (and he was coming off a 37 goal, 88 point season with the Kings). Meanwhile, Heinze scored 15 goals and 31 points with the Kings, and in his second year he was demoted to Manchester, and that was it for him.

Heinze was one of many underachievers to play for the Kings during those dark times. I'm surprised someone out there has fond memories of him.
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During that era I was under the impression every move the Kings made was to trick the less knowledgable fans into thinking the team was trying to win. Nothing more than a cash grab and each move was a bigger slap in the face than the previous. Steve Heinze, Randy Robitaille and Rob Valisevic were all the same summer, correct? What a free agent haul!
 
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The Tikkanen said:
During that era I was under the impression every move the Kings made was to trick the less knowledgable fans into thinking the team was trying to win. Nothing more than a cash grab and each move was a bigger slap in the face than the next. Steve Heinze, Randy Robitaille and Rob Valisevic were all the same summer, correct? What a free agent haul!
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That is correct. They also signed guys who left a mark on this team with the likes of Jason Holland, Brett Hauer, Derek Bekar and Ken Belanger.

That's considered an active summer for Dave Taylor.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
That is correct. They also signed guys who left a mark on this team with the likes of Jason Holland, Brett Hauer, Derek Bekar and Ken Belanger.

That's considered an active summer for Dave Taylor.
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Luckily Dean Lombardi was hired and made some slam dunk free agent signings right awayto make us all forget Dave Taylor:sarcasm:
 
The Tikkanen said:
Luckily Dean Lombardi was hired and made some slam dunk free agent signings right awayto make us all forget Dave Taylor:sarcasm:
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I remember getting so excited when I saw Chara had signed with the Kings on the front page of TSN.

And minutes later, it was updated with Chara signing with Boston. That was like a kick in the nuts. Not long after that the Kings made the Rob Blake signing official.

Who knows how the future would've changed had they signed Chara though. Chances are they wouldn't have been in a position to draft Drew Doughty.

Lombardi was quite active his first year on the job when it came to signing UFAs, but as he stated, he had holes to fill. In the summer of 2006 Deano signed...

Rob Blake, Scott Thornton, Alyn McCauley, Brian Willsie, Raitis Ivanans, Kevin Dallman and Matt Moulson.

He also dealt Pavol Demitra for Patrick O'Sullivan and Minnesota's 1st (Trevor Lewis), and dealt Tim Gleason and Eric Belanger to Carolina for Jack Johnson and Oleg Tverdovsky.

At least those trades worked out given that O'Sullivan resulted into Justin Williams and Jack Johnson resulted into Jeff Carter. I almost forgot, he did trade for Dan Cloutier as well. That sure worked wonders in securing a top draft pick. The free agent signings, not so much.
 
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Man I remember being in junior high watching Kyle Calder on the 1st line with Kopitar and Brown thinking what the **** is this guy doing anchoring down our two best players?
 
BigKing said:
How about the big haul of Kyle Calder, Ladislav Nagy, Tom Preissing and Zeus?

At least Handzus worked out.
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Don't forget Brad Stuart. Given he was later traded for the 2nd round pick used to acquire Brad Richardson, he was an instrumental blah blah blah too.
 
The Tikkanen said:
Tom Preissing was just painful to watch. He was a poor mans Stve Duchesne and I mean Duchesne Part Deux.
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But he led the league in +/- so he must be a stud!

I feel like Preissing is totally forgotten about, like a fart in the wind. I'm pretty locked in on the Kings roster history from 98-to-present, including jersey numbers but I can't seem to recall one play of his.

Was he #42? Seems like a strange number for a defenseman but that's where my mind goes.
 
I believe he was 42. Both Calder and Heinze are still around the Kings. Calder coaches teams during the Kings kids camps(and also does demolition derby now) and Heinze coaches one of the hs hockey league teams.
 
Yep, Preissing did wear 42, as did Gleason before him.

I seem to recall Preissing having a two goal game with the Kings, and that's the only positive memory I have of him. Similar with Nagy and his hat trick as a King. Can't recall anything else from either player. That's how much of a non-factor both players were.

Here's Preissing's two-goal, three-point game:


And Nagy's hat trick:
 
Preissing had 43 and 38 point seasons just prior to signing with the Kings. He then apparently really enjoyed the weather, the beach, the lifestyle and the lack of media and produced a 24 point season with the Kings. He went from a plus 40 with Ottawa to a minus 6 with the Kings, that's a pretty big swing. You know when you want to pick the best free agent signing for a team that's been around for 50 years and the argument is between Charlie Simmer and Willie Mitchell just how painful it has been for really long time King fans.
 
Ziggy Stardust said:
I think his response about Steve Heinze was sarcastic.

I remember when Leiweke being the tightwad that he was let Luc Robitaille go to Detroit, and in his place, they signed Steve Heinze.

What a great move that turned out to be. Luc would go on to score 30 goals and 50 points while playing a depth role on Detroit (and he was coming off a 37 goal, 88 point season with the Kings). Meanwhile, Heinze scored 15 goals and 31 points with the Kings, and in his second year he was demoted to Manchester, and that was it for him.

Heinze was one of many underachievers to play for the Kings during those dark times. I'm surprised someone out there has fond memories of him.
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I was sort of sarcastic, because he turned out to be a flop but Steve Heinze was a highly coveted FA that year coming off a 27 goal season and good playoff performance with Buffalo.

I would say Mitchell is probably the best performing player for the Kings, but I think Heinze was close to the most sought after FA that the Kings have ever signed.

Ziggy Stardust said:
Yep, Preissing did wear 42, as did Gleason before him.
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Mikko Eloranto
 
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In terms of most sought after free agent that the Kings signed, Steve Duchesne was considered that in 1998, coming off a 56-point season with the Blues.

He was also the most disappointing free agent signing for the Kings.

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/24/sports/sp-20565
"It was our opinion when we signed Steve Duchesne that we were getting a gifted offensive player who could help us on the power play," he said. "I don't think it was working from the get-go. I don't think Steve played the game he's capable of and I think he will agree."
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Ziggy Stardust said:
In terms of most sought after free agent that the Kings signed, Steve Duchesne was considered that in 1998, coming off a 56-point season with the Blues.

He was also the most disappointing free agent signing for the Kings.

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/mar/24/sports/sp-20565
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IIRC Duchesne was the guy who introduced the new Kings jerseys at a presser. Here's our big free agent and our new jerseys! Didn't work out that well for either.
 
I want to say it was at Calgary, but my memory of Duchesne Part II is him falling down during OT, leading to a break away and a loss.

Pretty much summed it up.
 
Dominic lavoie 8 games one hat trick six points and has nothing to prove anymore
 
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