Thread: Kovalchuk is a NJ Devil. Now, get over it already.

Originally Posted by moontheloon23

Your getting fast and loose with language there, hombre.

There is precisely a value on post season experience and it's DL's job to figure out what it is.

Is it worth some guys who very well could be the bread and butter of this team for another 5-10 years? Hickey, Schenn, Simmonds, Moller, Tuebert, et al?

It'd be Lombardi's job to separate the wheat from the chaff... but you give up potential, sure.

Originally Posted by jt

I've said this so many times in 10+ yrs old LGK that I forget some people have never read it.

I don't believe you CAN'T win if you add a cornerstone player you didn't develop. I'm saying you have to develop your own first. Once you have your own...sure, you can add more. The Kings haven't developed their own...yet.

Show me ONE example of a team that's won a Cup without developing it's own cornerstone player first.

Well, I think the Kings are well on their way to developing a superstar in Doughty, and I do think there's still a decent possibility that Kopitar will develop into another. The question is - at what point in their development can you add another superstar? DL seems to believe "the room" is strong enough to absorb a Kovy type.

Originally Posted by Wolvie

It'd be Lombardi's job to separate the wheat from the chaff... but you give up potential, sure.

This post is so dead-on it ain't even funny.

Potential is what this organization is currently flush with. We're about to see if Lombardi can take his own version of the "next step." y'know that next step he's always talkng about in regards to his roster...

Originally Posted by Wolvie

It'd be Lombardi's job to separate the wheat from the chaff... but you give up potential, sure.

And for those folks that can't comprehend what Wolvie is saying here, basically its time in the development of these players to determine which ones Lombardi thinkgs WILL get to the NHL and have productive careers, and which ones won't. The latter will be recycled in some fashion.

In the end, they are still prospects until they prove otherwise. The only draft picks/acquisitions/developed players that seem to have definately made it are Simmonds and Quick. The others, including Johnson, still have question marks.

so apparently Waddell is at the Philly - Isles game today?

Originally Posted by Dominic Lavoie

so apparently Waddell is at the Philly - Isles game today?

If he is, he ain't scoutin' the Isles!

Originally Posted by Iron Duke

Excluding this season (where both teams are roughly in the same place in the standings, though the Kings a cushion), how exactly are the two franchises different since 2001?

Kings
-4 coaches
-0 playoff appearances
-attempted build through veterans failed, team blown up
-current build of the roster through youth acquired via pitiful on-ice performance
-well positioned to make the playoffs, several game cushion

Thrashers
-5 coaches
-1 playoff appearance (swept)
-team built through adding veteran players over prospects, failed, team blown up
-current system focusing on building through their prospects acquired via pitiful on-ice performance
-in the playoff hunt, little room for error down the stretch

Well, nit-picking here, but the Kings DID have a playoff appearance in 2002. 7 games against Colorado in the first round, which Deadmarsh only played 4 of because of injury. Another thing the Kings had that Atlanta DIDN'T have, were two straight record-setting seasons of man-games-lost due to injury...which included our entire top line.

As of right now...yes...Atlanta is in the playoff hunt, but it's not in the same way as the Kings are and that should be obvious. The Kings have sucked pretty bad over the last few seasons, but have been building from the bottom up. There has been improvement every season, the youth has been getting better and playing tighter together, there is still a pretty good prospect pool here, we are regularly beating the better teams in the league (San Jose, Pittsburgh, Washington, , etc...). Atlanta is in the playoff hunt still because...lets face it...the East sucks. Apart from a few great teams, it is a VERY weak Confrence, not to mention that Atlanta's Division is probably the WORST in the NHL. Hell, they have 56 points and are in 6th place. In the West, that would put them tied for 13th. Then when you actually look at it, even in the East they are 2 points out of 13th.

Atlanta is reaping the benefits of playing in a weak confrence, and Kovy HAS to know that. There is no bright future there, but Los Angeles has nothing but upside at this point. If you are looking strictly at numbers, such as the ones you posted, there is little difference. But if THAT is ALL you are looking at, then you will never understand the whole picture.

Originally Posted by Wolvie

If he is, he ain't scoutin' the Isles!

Maybe he's scouting their 2010 #1 draft pick.

Originally Posted by boy1der

Maybe he's scouting their 2010 #1 draft pick.

Wang would do it too. Trust me, Chinese guys know jack**** about hockey.