FA 2025 (lets get the discussions in one thread)

[Statue4Deano]

Finally watching Mitch Marner’s intro presser with Vegas. The guy mentioned how much he was impressed by Vegas’ commitment to winning constantly.

The Kings front office is such an embarrassment.

 

[DarkLeftHand]

Byfield led the team in scoring after Jan 1. He played the most minutes of any forward in the playoffs. He already is a #1 C. The next step in his development is consistency. He’ll be fine. 70-75 points next season assuming he’s healthy.

If that’s what you truly believe, then what’s with all the hand wringing about managements plan post-Kopitar? In your eyes, we’ve got a future #1 center, a former #1 center, and several 3/4C types.

 

[DarkLeftHand]

Sorry but if you think Byfield is a "dud" you sorely mistaken. Byfield is already a 70+ point player if given consistent PP1 time. On that top of that he has elite skating, size and two-way play. Extremely lucky to be a 2nd line center in the NHL? No... he's already a 1st line center on the majority of teams. What he is not, as of yet, is a superstar. Good news is he hasn't hit is peak yet.

Turcotte falls into the 2nd line / 3rd line center bracket, I agree, but mainly because of his injury history and lost development time therein. He has the makings of anything from a 1st line wing, to a 3rd line center. This, however, is not a "dud" by any means. That reminds me of the camp of fans who considered Kempe a "dud" for several seasons until they wised up. Sometimes you need to give players time, and opportunity to grow.

When the Kings org says they do not have a replacement for Kopitar, they are not saying that Byfield is not their L1 center going forward or that he projects to fall short. Byfield is already factored into the eqauation.

We’ll see.

 

[Statue4Deano]

If that’s what you truly believe, then what’s with all the hand wringing about managements plan post-Kopitar? In your eyes, we’ve got a future #1 center, a former #1 center, and several 3/4C types.

#2 and #3 Centers are pretty important. Turcotte is still battling to be a full time NHL player. Nobody should be penciling him in for anything beyond next season.

Kopitar is done after this upcoming season. Danault’s contract ends after the following season. Beyond those two there’s Turcotte and Helenius. That’s it. There’s nothing in Ontario. There’s only long shot prospects in the cupboard.

In the best case scenario Holland will have to trade for a long term fix for the #2 slot. Then he’ll have to sign a 3rd line C.

 

[DarkLeftHand]

#2 and #3 Centers are pretty important. Turcotte is still battling to be a full time NHL player. Nobody should be penciling him in for anything beyond next season.

Kopitar is done after this upcoming season. Danault’s contract ends after the following season. Beyond those two there’s Turcotte and Helenius. That’s it. There’s nothing in Ontario. There’s only long shot prospects in the cupboard.

In the best case scenario Holland will have to trade for a long term fix for the #2 slot. Then he’ll have to sign a 3rd line C.

I def recognize the importance of 2 and 3C. It’s what my ears perked when I heard rumblings about Kadri, although he’s already 34, so there’s no telling how his game looks 2-3 seasons from now. We can only hope that Kopitar continues with a couple of 1 year extensions ‘when’ Byfield truly ascends to a full fledged #1 guy. We all know 1C is like hunting a unicorn, even when you go have top 5 picks. Otherwise, you just hope to land very strong 2/3c type players with your 1st rounders, and no doubt, the Kings thought they had done just that in our 2019 and 2020 drafts.

To those of you saying that QB would be a 1C on a lot of teams in the NHL, my only rebuttal there is.. are any of those teams named Vegas, Florida, Edmonton, Colorado? Because those are really the only teams that are relavant. Who cares if he could play 1C on half the teams in the NHL? Half of them don’t make the playoffs any given year. Another 25% get bounced in the first round.

Anyways, the fact that we don’t have a ton of depth at center in the foreseeable future is not really the fault of management, unless you are including our amateur scouting dept.

 

[Statue4Deano]

I def recognize the importance of 2 and 3C. It’s what my ears perked when I heard rumblings about Kadri, although he’s already 34, so there’s no telling how his game looks 2-3 seasons from now. We can only hope that Kopitar continues with a couple of 1 year extensions ‘when’ Byfield truly ascends to a full fledged #1 guy. We all know 1C is like hunting a unicorn, even when you go have top 5 picks. Otherwise, you just hope to land very strong 2/3c type players with your 1st rounders, and no doubt, the Kings thought they had done just that in our 2019 and 2020 drafts.

To those of you saying that QB would be a 1C on a lot of teams in the NHL, my only rebuttal there is.. are any of those teams named Vegas, Florida, Edmonton, Colorado? Because those are really the only teams that are relavant. Who cares if he could play 1C on half the teams in the NHL? Half of them don’t make the playoffs any given year. Another 25% get bounced in the first round.

Anyways, the fact that we don’t have a ton of depth at center in the foreseeable future is not really the fault of management, unless you are including our amateur scouting dept.

Well the Kings did have a plan for a long term option for their #2C PL Dubois. Blake blew his load on that trade and that contract extension. Only problem was the player. lol.

 

[DarkLeftHand]

Well the Kings did have a plan for a long term option for their #2C PL Dubois. Blake blew his load on that trade and that contract extension. Only problem was the player. lol.

I’ll be honest, I had completely forgotten about that.. but it stands to my point, that management was definitely aware of tending diligently to the center position, and was not negligent. Drafting Byfield and Turcotte should have taken care of 1C and 2C, with the trade for PLD bolstering/insuring the 2C. My point being, you could blame them for the misstep with PLD, but at the time it felt like a reasonable gamble. Given all that, it looked like things were lining up quite nicely down the center.. alas, various things have conspired to undermine those efforts.