Why did LAK let Matt Roy walk?

[WarriorofTime]

Righthanded Defensemen are like the hardest thing in the world to find in today's NHL. With analytics and heavy emphasis on possession, having defensemen that play their natural hand has been one of the biggest explosions in terms of the last 20 years or so. How LA went from having a loaded stable of RHD to their situation now is a bit of a head scratcher. With Roy in particular who is in his Defensemen prime (29) and not overly expensive, especially given they had already traded Faber.. what was going on there? Was he unhappy? Did they just not realize the value he brings? I feel like he's been a really 'unsung' hero of Washington's crazy turnaround this season.

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[ESH]

Making room for Spence and Clarke in the lineup

 

[Brodeur]

Kings had a stacked right side to the point where I think Sean Durzi was playing on the left for a bit if I recall correctly. With the salary cap it's difficult to keep everybody and they had Brandt Clarke (on a helpful ELC) on the verge of cracking the NHL lineup.

I miss CapFriendly, but according to CapWages the Kings would be just under the cap if Drew Doughty was healthy. So I'm not sure LA had the space to fit in Roy (5.75 mil) without a corresponding move or two.

 

[Lt Dan]

Because Rob Blake and Luc Robitaille are incompetent morons

 

[Faterson]

Righthanded Defensemen are like the hardest thing in the world to find in today's NHL.

Not for the Kings. It's the left-hand defense side they're struggling with.

 

[Osprey]

It's because he isn't worth $5.75M until he's 35 years old. So far, he has 10 points and the 6th-worst on-ice GF% and SAT% among Caps defenders. In comparison, Jordan Spence (who probably would've been the loser if Roy had been re-signed) has 13 points, the best on-ice GF% and the 3rd-best SAT% among Kings defenders, and he costs only $1.5M. Those are better stats for nearly a quarter of the cost. Their roles aren't identical, but I'd say that one is bringing more value than the other.

That said, letting Roy walk into unrestricted free agency was dumb. LA should've gotten something for him at the trade deadline. A team probably would've paid quite a bit, but Blake was afraid of trading him and then losing in the 1st round again, so he kept him and then lost in the 1st round again, instead.

 

[bland]

Not for the Kings. It's the left-hand defense side they're struggling with.

Plus all of the Kings LHD are stay at homers. If they had a young puck mover left shot, it's entirely possible that they may have gone in a different direction.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Making room for Spence and Clarke in the lineup

This

Because Rob Blake and Luc Robitaille are incompetent morons

But mostly this



They went from Doughty-Faber-Roy-Walker-Clarke-Spence-Durzi-Grans and I'm probably forgetting one to Doughty-Clarke-Spence in like two years flat with nothing to show for it but Kevin Fialiability and assets related to departures of Petersen and PLD

 

[Kalopsia]

It's because he isn't worth $5.75M until he's 35 years old. So far, he has 10 points and the 6th-worst on-ice GF% and SAT% among Caps defenders. In comparison, Jordan Spence (who probably would've been the loser if Roy had been re-signed) has 13 points, the best on-ice GF% and the 3rd-best SAT% among Kings defenders, and he costs only $1.5M. Those are better stats for nearly a quarter of the cost. Their roles aren't identical, but I'd say that one is bringing more value than the other.

That said, letting Roy walk into unrestricted free agency was dumb. LA should've gotten something for him at the trade deadline. A team probably would've paid quite a bit, but Blake was afraid of trading him and then losing in the 1st round again, so he kept him and then lost in the 1st round again, instead.

"Not identical" is an understatement. Matt Roy plays shutdown minutes against top lines on a team that has three high-end offensive guys in Carlson, Chychrun, and Sandin, while Spence gets sheltered minutes because Anderson and Gavrikov take the tough ones, plus second unit PP time. Spence turns a 55.6 OZ start% into 63.04 GF%, Roy turns a 28.4 OZ start% into a 53.7 GF%. The fact that Spence only has 3 more points in 6 more games really isn't that impressive.

I'm not trying to denigrate Spence here, just saying you were leaving out some really important context for that comparison.

 

[SeanMoneyHands]

The same reason they let go of Vilardi, dumb moves on their part.

 

[King'sPawn]

Both Clarke and Spence have shown the capability to play in the NHL is the biggest reason. The other issue is the pairing of Roy/Gavrikov just decreased in quality.

They reportedly tried to re-sign him, but the Kings have needed to get younger for quite some time. Ideally, they would have traded him in the offseason, but no team would reasonably trade valuable assets to retain the rights.

 

[syz]

Said it before, the Kings had the ~2017'ish Ducks problem of having a bunch of young D and having to make some choices. You aren't always going to make the right ones with dmen.

 

[NVious]

They knew he was a double agent for the Isles and his father.

 

[kingsholygrail]

The same reason they let go of Vilardi, dumb moves on their part.

Because they gas lit themselves into thinking they were getting a 30 goal second line center?

 

[Sol]

He wasn’t as good as people thought he was either. Regularly, and I mean regularly he had a huge problem with defending near the crease. Could not block the lane and had a massive problem covering his man near the goalie.

 

[Frolov 6'3]

Its ruled out a team trades one of their best defenders (Roy) at the trade deadline while actually going into the playoffs. I never understood that argument. When do you see that, never.

For $6M it was better to let him go and both Spence and Clarke are doing ok.

Odd topic.

 

[Miro4Norris]

It's because he isn't worth $5.75M until he's 35 years old. So far, he has 10 points and the 6th-worst on-ice GF% and SAT% among Caps defenders. In comparison, Jordan Spence (who probably would've been the loser if Roy had been re-signed) has 13 points, the best on-ice GF% and the 3rd-best SAT% among Kings defenders, and he costs only $1.5M. Those are better stats for nearly a quarter of the cost. Their roles aren't identical, but I'd say that one is bringing more value than the other.

That said, letting Roy walk into unrestricted free agency was dumb. LA should've gotten something for him at the trade deadline. A team probably would've paid quite a bit, but Blake was afraid of trading him and then losing in the 1st round again, so he kept him and then lost in the 1st round again, instead.

6th-worst defenseman of the team sounds pretty elite to me if you're playing in a Conference-leading team

 

[John Strachan]

Lol, the posters talking about how dumb mgmt was to move Roy to make space for Spence and Clarke when the Kings are the #1 defensive team in the league without having Doughty skate in a single game.

 

[BigKing]

He should have been traded at the TDL since there was no way they were going to bring him back on a big money contract extension. Everyone knew he was gone and the Kings were not contenders except for Blake and Luc.

 

[Osprey]

"Not identical" is an understatement. Matt Roy plays shutdown minutes against top lines on a team that has three high-end offensive guys in Carlson, Chychrun, and Sandin, while Spence gets sheltered minutes because Anderson and Gavrikov take the tough ones, plus second unit PP time. Spence turns a 55.6 OZ start% into 63.04 GF%, Roy turns a 28.4 OZ start% into a 53.7 GF%. The fact that Spence only has 3 more points in 6 more games really isn't that impressive.

I'm not trying to denigrate Spence here, just saying you were leaving out some really important context for that comparison.

Yeah, I realize that they're different roles. I probably shouldn't have compared the two this season. My point was more that Spence has adequately filled in for Roy on the Kings. His "sheltered minutes" are not too different from what Roy got behind Doughty and Anderson. Also, LA has the #1 defense in the league right now, so Roy's absence has been made up for, not by Spence, alone, but by committee. If you can replace a guy while getting better, younger and cheaper, you do it. That's the real answer to the OP's question.

6th-worst defenseman of the team sounds pretty elite to me if you're playing in a Conference-leading team

In that case, Logan Stanley is also elite.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Its ruled out a team trades one of their best defenders (Roy) at the trade deadline while actually going into the playoffs. I never understood that argument. When do you see that, never.

For $6M it was better to let him go and both Spence and Clarke are doing ok.

Odd topic.

Could they have traded him prior to last season or at the TDL? It's the "walk for nothing" I'm most curious about. Did they think they had a shot at the Cup?

 

[Frolov 6'3]

Could they have traded him prior to last season or at the TDL? It's the "walk for nothing" I'm most curious about. Did they think they had a shot at the Cup?

No they did not ( ) but neither have about 26 other teams.

You have a few contenders and the rest is league filling. With a bit of luck you hope at a cinderella run.

 

[WarriorofTime]

No they did not ( ) but neither have about 26 other teams.

You have a few contenders and the rest is league filling. With a bit of luck you hope at a cinderella run.

Fair point

 

[Jumptheshark]

Righthanded Defensemen are like the hardest thing in the world to find in today's NHL. With analytics and heavy emphasis on possession, having defensemen that play their natural hand has been one of the biggest explosions in terms of the last 20 years or so. How LA went from having a loaded stable of RHD to their situation now is a bit of a head scratcher. With Roy in particular who is in his Defensemen prime (29) and not overly expensive, especially given they had already traded Faber.. what was going on there? Was he unhappy? Did they just not realize the value he brings? I feel like he's been a really 'unsung' hero of Washington's crazy turnaround this season.

Backlog on the D. Kings had I think 2 D who no longer were waiver exampt and they had to decide who the could live without and Clarke was ready for the NHL

 

[Rorschach]

Bottom line, he was playing the wrong role (SAHD) for a RHsD and wanted veteran money when LA had two more younger defensemen playing a better role (PMD, 2-way) at more controlled cost and more upside. Spence is decent but when you have a top prospect and potential franchise player in Brandt Clarke, a solid but expensive player of the same position starts to look "expendable".

Considering last off-season we acquired Jeannot and Foegele, who have fit in quite nicely and even activated Byfield's play, and not say, trade a quarter of a franchise for a liability like PLD, I'm ok with these moves on a surface level.

The fact that the Kings are considered possible contenders already with Drew Doughty, their number 1 RHsD out of the lineup for half the season and they haven't missed a beat...it rather counters the argument that we needed to keep Roy.