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Prospect Info: Who does LA pick #2? Part 2 To Byfield or to Stutzle? That is the question

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And all this segues into the topic at hand ...

Who in their right mind is gonna gamble the 2OA pick on a overhyped periphery big ice speed skater with a muffin shot over a fast agile mountain of a teenager that’s been elbows n hip-pads in the crease on small ice and stuffing the biscuit in the basket? ;)

Yeah, Kupari could become the next Kempe, but there’s still time.
 
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Vino said:
Really? I've seen him play Liiga, WJC U18, WJC U20 and the in AHL and I have not seen any signs, that he will be top6 player in the NHL. If everything goes really well he's next Joonas Donskoi, nothing more.
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Dammit, we should have drafted Heponiemi!

That kid scores!

;)
 
cyclones22 said:
Kupari is kind of a sub-optimal example considering he tore his ACL before his first NA pro season even came to an end when he was just starting to be receptive to Stothers' coaching. But he was a good example of being a great skater on European ice and having to learn to adapt to smaller rinks. If he had finished the season at around 15 goals as a rookie in the AHL, that would've been pretty good. Most of the doubts about him now is because of the ACL concerns. Sans the injury, he still projects to top 6 IMO.
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That's exactly the point, though. Prospects get injured all the time and never properly develop because of it.
 
Token said:
Where did you get that? Who is writing off Kupari?
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No one is "writing him off." But expectations for Kupari have changed significantly over the past couple of years. People were calling him a future top line 30 goal scorer during his draft year. Now people are projecting him to be a fringe top six/top nine depth forward.
 
SettlementRichie10 said:
No one is "writing him off." But expectations for Kupari have changed significantly over the past couple of years. People were calling him a future top line 30 goal scorer during his draft year. Now people are projecting him to be a fringe top six/top nine depth forward.
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I get your points on injuries and expectations changing, but that's a little much on the Kupari projections. We of all people know how difficult it is to score 30 goals in the NHL wearing a Kings crest, 20 goals would've probably been the reasonable "he turned out" kind of goal production. Now, people had/have high hopes because of his skating and stickhandling ability which at the time was a DIRE need for the Kings. So there was a lot of wishing and hoping. Even then, Kupari was never projected by any scouts as being a top end prospect in terms of talent. Not like Vilardi was or Turcotte was or Byfield/Stutzle are.

In regards to injuries to prospects, of course stuff like that happens. Some folks on this board were completely writing off Vilardi a year ago. I mean some were so sure he was never going to play again and it was a wasted pick and that's no exaggeration. Those same posters complained when called out on it during Vilardi's re-emergence. Now he's come back from the dead and is currently #1 on our prospect board and penciled in to center the 2nd line on the Kings next season. ACL injuries aren't the death knell to hockey players, but missing a season of development hurts Kupari, but the development staff will give him the attention he needs as they did with Vilardi.

The point is that the excitement is not that the Kings have highly regarded prospects, it's they have a lot of them and this pool is deep. Legit deep, not squint and do a side-eye and it looks deeper than it actually is deep. That's what makes the projection of Kupari of being a fringe middle-sixer acceptable to some now. Or Akil Thomas being a valuable 3rd liner. It's in comparison to other prospects in the pipeline. In the past we needed prospects to exceed their draft position, third liners to be second liners, second liners to be first liners. Now the need is for guys drafted in the top 10 to play like top 10 guys. Who knows what's going to happen with those 3 second rounders and 2 third rounders? 5 of the top 80ish picks in less than 30 days to add to the collection. I'm freaking excited.
 
SettlementRichie10 said:
No one is "writing him off." But expectations for Kupari have changed significantly over the past couple of years. People were calling him a future top line 30 goal scorer during his draft year. Now people are projecting him to be a fringe top six/top nine depth forward.
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*citation needed*
 
Raccoon Jesus said:
I guess I was supposed to call them, I hope they're not still waiting. Sorry, boo.
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Funny you use that phrasing because I remember a thread on the main board where the subject was young cores who would win a Cup over the next few years. It was just before the 2012 season and a ton of fans of other teams mentioned the Kings. Fans of our conference rivals more than once in that thread said "Call me when the Kings win something" or "Call me when the Kings win a round in the playoffs". Imagine their dread as the Kings steamrolled their way through the playoffs :laugh:.
 
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Raccoon Jesus said:
*citation needed*
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I don't know about the 30 goal thing but I know there were people penciling him in for the Kings 2019-20 Top 6. Then he goose-egged the playoffs and that drumbeat slowed a bit but there was still hope on that front.

I get it: I want all of these guys to pan out just as much as everyone else. I've also been on this site and LGK before it for far too long to get overly excited about anyone for the most part because most of these guys don't make it.

That being said, I'm still holding out hope for Scott Parse.
 
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SettlementRichie10 said:
No one is "writing him off." But expectations for Kupari have changed significantly over the past couple of years. People were calling him a future top line 30 goal scorer during his draft year. Now people are projecting him to be a fringe top six/top nine depth forward.
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Projections and expectations for prospects change year to year. Some guys stocks rise and some guys stocks fall. This seems to be a difficult concept for some to grasp, especially when it comes to downgrading a prospect, they think when you say Kupari or Turcotte's stock is down or they aren't what people might have thought that you are calling them a bust. Kempe never really developed into what the Kings had maybe hoped he would have after his D+1 season, but it doesn't mean he is a bust. The same will likely be true for Kupari and Turcotte. While guys like Kaliyev, Bjornfot and Fagemo look like they have a pretty good chance of exceeding those expectations.
 
BigKing said:
I don't know about the 30 goal thing but I know there were people penciling him in for the Kings 2019-20 Top 6. Then he goose-egged the playoffs and that drumbeat slowed a bit but there was still hope on that front.

I get it: I want all of these guys to pan out just as much as everyone else. I've also been on this site and LGK before it for far too long to get overly excited about anyone for the most part because most of these guys don't make it.

That being said, I'm still holding out hope for Scott Parse.
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I've had the opposite experience. I don't know how many times I've argued with people over the last few years about the "normal" trajectory for prospects and that we aren't likely to see anyone but the best of the best in the lineup regularly until they're 21 at soonest, I guess that's why the people putting the lid on the optimism suddenly is strange to me, because it's pretty normal for the guys in the D+1 and even D+2 years to only see modest gains at slightly higher levels. I think we all know better at this point than to assume all the prospects we are penciling into 2021 lineups are going to stick as studs and that even on a roster with a lot of turnover 6 rookies is a f***ton anyway, and they're not all likely to pan out. But I don't see why people expecting Kupari, a #20 pick, to put up Pearson #s is so absurd that people need the collective force of the forum yelling PUMP THE BRAKES.
 
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Really interesting and good to see a report based on actually watching games and not highlight reels. I have never seen a Scouching Report before but I will definitely be watching more of them.

As far as Byfield goes, I think that was pretty fair and certainly does little to change my view. If anything I’ve moved from 80% to 90% to wanting him at #2. If anything it’s slightly increased my worry that he goes 1OA :laugh:.
 
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Statto said:
Really interesting and good to see a report based on actually watching games and not highlight reels. I have never seen a Scouching Report before but I will definitely be watching more of them.

As far as Byfield goes, I think that was pretty fair and certainly does little to change my view. If anything I’ve moved from 80% to 90% to wanting him at #2. If anything it’s slightly increased my worry that he goes 1OA :laugh:.
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Worry ? If the Rangers decide that Byfield is worthy of being their pick and their more important need ( a #1 center ) then the Kings also get their #1 need in a high impact winger ( no i don't see this happening ).
 
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Statto said:
Really interesting and good to see a report based on actually watching games and not highlight reels. I have never seen a Scouching Report before but I will definitely be watching more of them.

As far as Byfield goes, I think that was pretty fair and certainly does little to change my view. If anything I’ve moved from 80% to 90% to wanting him at #2. If anything it’s slightly increased my worry that he goes 1OA :laugh:.
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Don't worry, it's a lock we're taking Laf minus a stupid trade offer at the last hour.
 
Raccoon Jesus said:
I've had the opposite experience. I don't know how many times I've argued with people over the last few years about the "normal" trajectory for prospects and that we aren't likely to see anyone but the best of the best in the lineup regularly until they're 21 at soonest, I guess that's why the people putting the lid on the optimism suddenly is strange to me, because it's pretty normal for the guys in the D+1 and even D+2 years to only see modest gains at slightly higher levels. I think we all know better at this point than to assume all the prospects we are penciling into 2021 lineups are going to stick as studs and that even on a roster with a lot of turnover 6 rookies is a f***ton anyway, and they're not all likely to pan out. But I don't see why people expecting Kupari, a #20 pick, to put up Pearson #s is so absurd that people need the collective force of the forum yelling PUMP THE BRAKES.
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Pearson graduated to the NHL on a much deeper and better team only one year after he was drafted. Kupari is already behind Pearson's development track. Pearson was an older draftee, though, so maybe that doesn't matter.

Personally, I think Byfield, Kaliyev, and ONE of Vilardi/Turcotte will become true impact players at the NHL level.

Kupari, Bjornfot, Fagemo, etc. all have an outside chance, and some of them will very likely carve out NHL careers, but they will be depth players.
 
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SettlementRichie10 said:
Personally, I think Byfield, Kaliyev, and ONE of Vilardi/Turcotte will become true impact players at the NHL level.

Kupari, Bjornfot, Fagemo, etc. all have an outside chance, and some of them will very likely carve out NHL careers, but they will be depth players.
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I think your a bit too negative here with the outlook. It's been quite a long time since we've had very much talent in the system, so it's understandable. Byfield (if we draft him), Vilardi, Turcotte and likely Kaliyev all should be impact players IMO. They are so much more talented than what we have seen for the last 10 years come into the system. Just watching Vilardi come start at the AHL level when he joined the Reign, from the very first game, you could see what we have been missing all these years. Other than conditioning, it looked like he never skipped a beat despite missing a season and a half. Yes, all of the players will have some things to overcome (Kaliyev and Vilardi with their skating and consistent effort on both sides of the puck, Turcotte with his injury history, Byfield with the maturity of his game and structure). I'm also very high on Bjornfot after watching him break into the AHL at the ripe age of 18. I could see why Doughty was raving about him. No one has come close (outside of Anderson who was two years older than Bjornfot, and IMO Bjornfot was better than Mikey last year at the AHL level) to looking as good as Tobias did as a defense rookie, especially as an 18 year old. He's got more offensive upside to go too. He's going to be a top 4 defender for a long-time in the NHL, you can bookmark this post.
 
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