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.
But if the Kings believed they had a L1 and L2 Center in Byfield and Turcotte, why would they have traded for PLD? Reality is, L1/L2 centers are very difficult to come by in the league, and teams pay a high premium to get them. If every Center prospect drafted within the top 10 turned into one, this would not be the case.
Again, let's use Kempe as an example. He was a late 1st round pick, drafted potentially a year before he should have been, and a center prospect. He spends roughly 5 years in the pro system, then turns into a L1 winger. This was a very positive outcome but it took both time and opportunity.
Turcotte is had neither time or opportunity in the league. Forcing him into a L4 center/winger role is not setting him up for success. Byfield has had some opportunity, but he has never centered a line, long term, with our best winger who he has very strong chemisty with. He has also never been a PP1 stalwart.
We need to factor in the Kings lack of focus on development, at the NHL level, into any equation. Either one could have gone to Ottowa and had a breakout moment by now. Instead they are buried in the Organization, similar to Lafreniere on the Rangers.
It's past time for the Kings to move on from the old guard, and on to the future. Kopi and Doughty are still valuable players, but neither one should be our main options at this point. Obviously we don't have someone to supplant Doughty on the D side at this point, but we do when it comes to Center in regards to Kopi.
Also to answer your question regarding centers, it is a silly one. You call out two teams with two of the best players in the world in regards to Edmonton and Colorado. When it comes to Florida and Vegas, yes Byfield could definitely hold a L1 Center role on either team. What he lacks, compared to both Eichel and Barkov, however, is experience so do you really think he should be at the same level of those two player currently in his career? We need to have reasonable expectations.
