DD article on NHL.com

J

jgs

TEAM LGK
Joined
Oct 7, 2013
Messages
1,640
LGKash:
$500.00
Has anyone read what DD stated in the article written on NHL.com. He wants Blake to trade the young assts that the Kings have inorde to support himself, Brown Kopitar and Quick. He says they are running out of time in regards to winning a Cup. Apparently he didn't get the memo that stated the Kings are in full rebiuld mode and are going to biuld around the young high picks they drafted. There isn't GM in the league that would biuld a team around old players like Quick, Brown, Kopitar and DD. Kopitar and Quick should have been traded 2 years ago for high picks or prospects. They would have been much farther along on the rebiuld.
 
When he starts playing like a Norris Trophy defenseman again, we can talk.
 
from everything we've heard, the Kings are not in full "rebuild" mode. They were hoping to retool and get another crack. I'd imagine that was the sale spitch to the players, and id imagine that is, to a certain extent, the plan.
 
Was going to start a thread about this exact thing. Generally, I love Doughty and for the first half of the season, I thought we had him back, but tbh I am not interested in hearing how the 11mil man is not happy. First of all, take care of your own game and lead the younger ones. Don't just show up when things are going well. The last half of this season, he was decent defensively most of the time, some lapses and he disappeared offensively. He also suggested that everything went wrong after Carter was traded - really? I'm all for players calling out management, but he's so off-base. He even said we don't need more defensemen at one point.

The next time anyone wants to crap on Kopi and say DD should be captain remember this cluelessness/arrogance. He's frustrated, I get it, but you know what? I'm frustrated, we're all frustrated - we're just not getting paid 95k per game to deal with it.
 
I'll say it again. Rob Blake of all people should know the best defensemen need to play with the best defensemen, IF they want to win some games. He even said as much way back when Norstrom had a brief training camp hold-out. "I can't play my game without him, they need to sign him now"

You can spin Doughty's comments a hundred ways. On one hand, MGMT needs to make moves. On the other hand, they don't need to add anymore d-men?

I know all perspective has been completely lost, but take this with a grain of salt.
 
Drew is not going to call out any of his teammates specifically. He raves about Anderson. Go back to this preseason, when he raved about Maatta. Go back to last year when he raved about Forbort. If you asked him about MacDermid, he'd rave about him too. It's okay, he doesn't have a say in personnel decisions.

Drew had a great season. He played huge minutes and had a strong +/- until the wheels fell off a few weeks ago. He's stung by the Carter trade because Carter was a great teammate and they had been through so much together. That clouds his judgment. But again, it doesn't matter because Drew isn't calling the shots.

I am fine with how the season turned out overall. The high point for me was not the 6-game winning streak, but the 7 games after that where we battled and went 2-3-3 with Roy and Walker out. I thought we were looking good, but when we got healthy we began the slow fade. The compact schedule is tough on the older vets and on the younger players who have never experienced any like that. I'm less concerned about the slow fade than I am about Petersen's performance, because he definitely regressed.

Hopefully, Anderson is a third-pairing d-man next year, paired with Walker or perhaps an upgrade. If Wagner, Lizotte, Maataa and MacDermid are off the NHL roster next season, and replaced by some skilled vets and prospects, I think I'm really going to enjoy next season, and I am still not expecting playoffs.
 
Drew seems to think they are in their prime, and that all 4 of them had "phenomenal seasons".

I think he's been hit in the head a few too many times.

side note: get him OFF the power play!
 
Maybe it's time to revisit the thought of trading Doughty to Toronto for one of their high scoring wingers (not Matthews, obviously, but one of the others)? After all, while Doughty is on the wrong side of 30, he's still an excellent, if not elite level, and I'm sure Toronto would love to have his services since they're in win-now mode.
 
if there is a way to move Drew, I would JUMP on it.

He started out the season playing at a Norris level, then dropped. His post game rants about the efforts of others is a bit hard to take when the previous couple of seasons he only seemed to get up for Calgary games.
 
05/29/93 said:
Maybe it's time to revisit the thought of trading Doughty to Toronto for one of their high scoring wingers (not Matthews, obviously, but one of the others)? After all, while Doughty is on the wrong side of 30, he's still an excellent, if not elite level, and I'm sure Toronto would love to have his services since they're in win-now mode.
Click to expand...

A number of teams would like to have him, but there's that salary hit.
 
No reason to trade the guy - but I'll try to remember these statements next year (or maybe this summer) when someone is saying you need a more vocal leader than Kopitar lol.
 
Illegal_Stick said:
He also suggested that everything went wrong after Carter was traded - really?
Click to expand...

I actually agree with him on that point. What he said was:
?I kind of feel like it happened after [Jeff Carter] got traded,? a pensive Doughty recalled. ?I don?t know if that?s when it did happen but it kind of seemed after that happened, everything just kind of went backward.?
Click to expand...

And it did. The team wasn't playing great, they were slipping out of the playoffs, and the team traded carter. And i think what happened was, the team realized that it was over at that point. Management traded Carter because they needed to recoup assets and they didn't believe the team was going to right the ship in time to make the playoffs. And then the team just went off the rails, and we saw a bunch of games that looked like guys were pretty disinterested. To me, he isn't so much blaming the trade, as he is noting it as a key turning point. Trading Carter wasn't the reason they missed the playoffs, but it was a turning point in the team's confidence and effort. They knew at that point, the season was over.

And it should be noted that the Kings have always framed this as a short rebuild/retool. Build up some assets and try and take another crack at it with the older core before they're done. And you'd have to assume that's the pitch the players were given too. We're going to bring in some young guys, and then use cap and assets to flesh out the roster. And the Kings have been rumored to be looking for a high end defenseman for a while now, so if im doughty, yeah... im holding management responsible too. The players didn't play as well as they should have, and they need to check that. But if management has a plan, and doesn't get it done, that has to be looked at too. Blake doesn't just get to throw his arms up and shrug. It's his job to find those trades and make those deals if that is in fact part of the plan.
 
Helvetica said:
I actually agree with him on that point. What he said was:


And it did. The team wasn't playing great, they were slipping out of the playoffs, and the team traded carter. And i think what happened was, the team realized that it was over at that point. Management traded Carter because they needed to recoup assets and they didn't believe the team was going to right the ship in time to make the playoffs. And then the team just went off the rails, and we saw a bunch of games that looked like guys were pretty disinterested. To me, he isn't so much blaming the trade, as he is noting it as a key turning point. Trading Carter wasn't the reason they missed the playoffs, but it was a turning point in the team's confidence and effort. They knew at that point, the season was over.

And it should be noted that the Kings have always framed this as a short rebuild/retool. Build up some assets and try and take another crack at it with the older core before they're done. And you'd have to assume that's the pitch the players were given too. We're going to bring in some young guys, and then use cap and assets to flesh out the roster. And the Kings have been rumored to be looking for a high end defenseman for a while now, so if im doughty, yeah... im holding management responsible too. The players didn't play as well as they should have, and they need to check that. But if management has a plan, and doesn't get it done, that has to be looked at too. Blake doesn't just get to throw his arms up and shrug. It's his job to find those trades and make those deals if that is in fact part of the plan.
Click to expand...

That’s fair on the Carter front. I wasn’t reading that way, but I see what you mean. Doughty just frustrates me because at the time, he was critical of the trade, as if it made any difference. I think that comes from the great side of Doughty, he’s a competitor who thinks they’re in it as long as it’s mathematically possible.

In terms of holding management accountable, my thing is I find it annoying that he shoots his mouth off, in that he is being well compensated to be patient. You’re saying maybe management made promises they aren’t keeping - you’re probably right. Doughty is probably my favourite King, this kind of talk just gets me nervous. I’d like to see Blake make some moves to get the proper d etc, but this sort of talk and pressure can lead to rash/bad decisions.
 
AngelEyes said:
A number of teams would like to have him, but there's that salary hit.
Click to expand...

Good point about the salary hit, but the Kings could alleviate that by retaining some. They certainly have the cap space to do it. A trade like this (and Toronto is but one example, I'm sure there are others) would be a great way to bring in high-end NHL players now. An analogy would be the Lubo / Stoll & Greene trade, though I don't mean to compare Doughty with Lubo. More recently, Nashville cutting bait with Shea Weber is another example.
 
He's talking about Eichel for prospects.
And if I thought the Kings were an Eichel away from a Cup next year, I'd agree with him
 
Illegal_Stick said:
That’s fair on the Carter front. I wasn’t reading that way, but I see what you mean. Doughty just frustrates me because at the time, he was critical of the trade, as if it made any difference. I think that comes from the great side of Doughty, he’s a competitor who thinks they’re in it as long as it’s mathematically possible.

In terms of holding management accountable, my thing is I find it annoying that he shoots his mouth off, in that he is being well compensated to be patient. You’re saying maybe management made promises they aren’t keeping - you’re probably right. Doughty is probably my favourite King, this kind of talk just gets me nervous. I’d like to see Blake make some moves to get the proper d etc, but this sort of talk and pressure can lead to rash/bad decisions.
Click to expand...

We've know for some time that he can let his emotions get the best of him, usually to ill effect. And if he had more time to consider his reply, maybe he'd word things differently. Also, i dont know for sure what Blake told the players, but i do know how he's framed this rebuild to the fans, and id have to expect that the pitches were similar. I dont think the team is a player or two away from being competitive in the playoffs, but i do think they are maybe behind the timeline a bit. They said the goal was playoffs, i have to think that wasn't just lip service to build hype. I said it about Vilardi, but i think its team wide, they under performed if the goal was to get into the playoffs. Whether thats accurate or fair... open to discussion. But to Doughty's point, if the goal is playoffs, they cant sit around waiting for guys to improve and they might need to take some of those assets and get somebody who's ahead of the curve. And that doesnt necessarily mean trade vilardi or trade byfield, but the KIngs do have a pretty massive log jam at center, and they do have a lot of assets that may not be part of this new team. SO, they have cap space and they have assets. If they dont use them this summer, i'd probably be a little upset too.

As to teh Carter trade and his frustration, i may have missed some comments, but what i saw from the team was, "this wasnt unexpected, but its a hard pill to swallow". And i took that like this was a close friend and somebody that was a valuable member of the team. It's hard to see him go.
 
It's understandable for Doughty to be frustrated. All season, almost as a mantra, we have heard from McLellan that the team simply isn't talented enough. In addition to that, the Kings failed to do anything significant to utilize their cap space in order to bring in talent which seems to point to a disconnect between coach and GM. When the Kings traded away Carter it showed two things 1) they gave up hope of making the playoffs 2) with how Carter played in Pitts it may be less about lack of talent and more about a lack of a decent system. Let's face it, the organization has not been trying to win.

I would respect Doughty more, however, if he became more a team first, rather than Doughty first, leader. Between his quotes about resigning Iafallo and articles referenced above he seems to be confusing himself for GM which can become dangerous. That said, I really think the players have lost faith in both the coach and GM and it's time to replace both (likely Luc as well).
 
No way in hell would I trade DD. He's the captain of the blue line, still one of the best in the game, and has been mentoring the rest of the D.

There's is no one in the system that has the potential to be in the same atmosphere as DD.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Now Chirping

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom