VCRW
Classic player
Statue4Deano must be wringing his hands. Dude already had Byfield in the HOF last season.
But, seriously, sure hope the big kid figures things out quickly. The team needs 3 scoring lines.
Is it time to look into shopping Kevin Fiala?
- Thread starter Dorian20
- Start date
But, seriously, sure hope the big kid figures things out quickly. The team needs 3 scoring lines.
Rog or Reg?
Top Forward
I can't put my finger on it, but he appears to have a profound lack of confidence, which is a real head-scratcher. At the Nucks game on the 7th, he made a world-class power move to score 90 seconds in, directly in front of me. That was awesome! But this is few and far between...and I mean far between. Two goals in 18 games? It seems like he should be dominating, but more often than not, he just disappears.Statue4Deano must be wringing his hands. Dude already had Byfield in the HOF last season.
But, seriously, sure hope the big kid figures things out quickly. The team needs 3 scoring lines.
I agree, I think lack of confidence is definitely part of it. The other piece that stands out to me, though, is he is far less physical than he was in preseason, or last season. This leads me to believe he may be nursing an injury (though, it also could be lack of confidence and worry about being left out of position - to your point).
I really hope we are able to get Turcotte back soon as I think his presence will help both Danault and Byfield get going by aligning better complimentary talent on both lines (especially if Moore remains on Kopi's line).
We also badly need to figure out the identity of our 4th line.
Bollocks
Top Forward
No, it is not time to look to trade Fiala, I think it's too soon.
There are multiple reasons:
1. There is no hurry...this is not an all-in kind of season where significant assets and money was invested into making a serious push at the Cup, thus the Kings can afford to wait at least until deadline to make deals of either offloading veterans for future prospects/picks or making "lateral" hockey trades in order to get a player that would be a better fit for playoff hockey.
2. His value, considering his contract and term and him not being a what you'd call a "playoff juggernaut", should theoretically be the highest on draft day, no? I think he'd be the most valuable to a young, budding team with plenty of cap space that's looking to get closer to playoffs and to put butts in the seats.
3. He's not the biggest problem this team has, as other IMO correctly identified already (QB being the main one).
4. It seems he currently DOES have a NTC, and after this season there's a 10-team list kind of NTC, so...that's another factor.
Someone said Fiala works best when not playing with top talent that needs the puck. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Put him on a line with Turcotte and Jeannot and create a potential mismatch nightmare for the opponent when playing them against the other team's 3rd/4th lines. And on the top PP along with that, of course. That is possible if Kevin's ego can take it, of course. The Kings have plenty of talent spread out now and IMO could afford such approach.
There are multiple reasons:
1. There is no hurry...this is not an all-in kind of season where significant assets and money was invested into making a serious push at the Cup, thus the Kings can afford to wait at least until deadline to make deals of either offloading veterans for future prospects/picks or making "lateral" hockey trades in order to get a player that would be a better fit for playoff hockey.
2. His value, considering his contract and term and him not being a what you'd call a "playoff juggernaut", should theoretically be the highest on draft day, no? I think he'd be the most valuable to a young, budding team with plenty of cap space that's looking to get closer to playoffs and to put butts in the seats.
3. He's not the biggest problem this team has, as other IMO correctly identified already (QB being the main one).
4. It seems he currently DOES have a NTC, and after this season there's a 10-team list kind of NTC, so...that's another factor.
Someone said Fiala works best when not playing with top talent that needs the puck. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Put him on a line with Turcotte and Jeannot and create a potential mismatch nightmare for the opponent when playing them against the other team's 3rd/4th lines. And on the top PP along with that, of course. That is possible if Kevin's ego can take it, of course. The Kings have plenty of talent spread out now and IMO could afford such approach.
VCRW
Classic player
Turcotte belongs with Juice and Kopi right now. Pretty obvious that Father Time has been catching up with Captain Anze. Turc’s play seems to have rejuvenated Kopi and given Juice some freedom from the blanket defense opposing teams have been trying to throw over him since the 40-goal season.
Fiala needs to watch some video of Arvidsson-Danault-Moore to learn how to fit in with 24 and 12.
But I sure did like the 4th line last night. Helenius centering Jeannot and Lewis is just what the doctor ordered.
VCRW
Classic player
I think that happened last night. 10-79-61 sure looks like the answer.
Statue4Deano
Super Star
I’m still very bullish on Byfield. We’ve both been watching the game long enough to know player development is almost never linear. There’s peaks, valleys and plateaus regardless of how talented a young player is. QB is far from a finished product at 22.Statue4Deano must be wringing his hands. Dude already had Byfield in the HOF last season.
But, seriously, sure hope the big kid figures things out quickly. The team needs 3 scoring lines.
If Byfield is still playing like this in 3 years at 25 then maybe we can define what he is or isn’t. Right now he’s playing with no confidence and over thinking everything when the puck is on his stick. These struggles will pass and that’s something he should avoid when he’s got the puck in a scoring area! Shoot it kid!
VCRW
Classic player
You know I have always been in Q’s corner, but his game has gone in the wrong direction since the switch to center. He needs to get back to north/south hockey and using his size more effectively. I see him trying to do too much too often these days. He is a good passer. He needs to make better use of that skill and then go to the net. He should watch old videos of Phil Esposito.
Statue4Deano
Super Star
A little less Adam Oates and a little more Cam Neely!You know I have always been in Q’s corner, but his game has gone in the wrong direction since the switch to center. He needs to get back to north/south hockey and using his size more effectively. I see him trying to do too much too often these days. He is a good passer. He needs to make better use of that skill and then go to the net. He should watch old videos of Phil Esposito.
hokiecat
Super Star
The pick is already a miss compared to Stutzle. The question now is did the Kings blow another top-5 pick on a non-All Star player? QB still looks to be a top of the lineup guy but there is a reason he's #7 in The Athletic's 2020 redraft. I don't know what happened to Byfield late last year when he regressed from our best forward to being meh, but it has continued into this season too. I thought Blake extending him was going to be a bargain but I'm still waiting.
The Kings really need to figure out how to get QB going. He's huge, skates fast, and can beat people with his skill and his size. The Kings should be HIS team starting this season. Waiting until 25 is ridiculous. For top scorers, 25 (at least a couple years ago) is the age where players have peaked.
The idea that the Kings would have benefited by taking Stutzle just astounds me. Seriously if this team had drafted McDavid is there any doubt in anyones mind that they wouldn't have put him on the 4th line? Lets face it even with their top end generational chances of the last 25 years they created a 2 time selke winner and the most defensive defensemen to win the Norris since Rod Langway. Believe me Stutzle would have been benched faster than Torts did with Michov. It's a fools errand to think otherwise.
As to your second point, it's pretty well established that scoring peaks typically crest at 23 (24 and 25 noted as well). I think Phil Esposito is the one outlier on this, almost everyone else has a pretty standard aging curve among the HOF set.
I'm not sold on Stutzle until we see how he performs in the playoffs. That said, he's been stellar in the regular season and continues to improve.
At draft day, I still take Byfield over Stutzle all day, every day. Byfield has the potential to be a game changer come playoff time, and potential is largely what you base draft picks on. It was well known that Stutzle was the "ready now" player. It's also well know that Power Forwards take longer to develop. I personally still think Byfield was, and is, the right pick and 8 points in 13 playoffs games is no slouch.
I agree with you that he hasn't shown the dominance he did during part of last season, and still has a way to go. I also agree that the Kings should be building around him now, rather than waiting.
My guess is that we see Byfield continue slow for the first half of the season while he works on the fundamentals needed to be a center in the NHL, and then he surges after the All-Star break.
santiclaws
I was in the pool!!
"Switch to center" is probably the key phrase. He's playing a new position in the NHL; he's never been a regular NHL center before this season. I think he'll be fine eventually, but I think the switch in positions robbed him of his confidence and threw him for a loop a bit.You know I have always been in Q’s corner, but his game has gone in the wrong direction since the switch to center. He needs to get back to north/south hockey and using his size more effectively. I see him trying to do too much too often these days. He is a good passer. He needs to make better use of that skill and then go to the net. He should watch old videos of Phil Esposito.
But I do remain pretty confident he'll be a very, very good player. He just has too much talent and he works too hard not to succeed.
Not just a new position, but he's being asked to be the driver of the line. It's easy to pretend to be in Kopi and kempes shadow and go balling. But on the line where you're the boss....he's gotta get more comfy with that. I do think Foegele gets what he needs and that part will help him.
orpheus
The Dolphin Cares!
Bollocks
Top Forward
Here you can find draft history sorted by overall # picked:
NHL Records
Going backwards in time I would consider the following to be "elite" or at least an established and "decorated" long-term top line player (looking purely at statistics) second overall picks:
Andrei Svechnikov, 2018; second line impact in his second season, arguably top line status in his 3rd season
Jack Eichel, 2015, center; made almost immediate impact worthy of a top line presence
Sam Reinhart, 2014, yoyoing between center and wing for his entire career; was a "second liner" for 3 full years before establishing as a top line player, though true breakthrough happened only after he was traded to FLA after 6 full NHL seasons
Aleksander Barkov, 2013, mostly center; made a top line breakthrough in his 3rd full season
Gabriel Landeskog, 2011, winger; made immediate impact
Tyler Seguin, 2010, center; legitimate second liner in his second full season, top liner in his 4th full season
Victor Hedman, 2009, D; established as a top 2 D-man arguably in his 5th full season, elite in his 8th, but he's a D-man
DD, 2008, D; early bloomer for sure, top 2 D-man in his second season despite being a D-man
Evgeni Malkin, 2004, C; immediate top line success and stardom in his second full season
Eric Staal, 2003, C; decent first season, top line and stardom in his second full season, cooled off a bit after that production wise
Jason Spezza, 2001, C; very solid second season, top line status and production in his third season
Dany Heatley, 2000, winger; immediate impact, stardom in his second season
Sedin bros, 1999 C+W; 4 full seasons to second line impact/production, 6th season legitimate top line
Patrick Marleau, 1997, wing/C; 4th full season second line impact, 8th season legitimate top line impact
So, in 21 years that's 15 hits and 7 "meh" players or duds (I counted Sedin brothers both as 2nd overall lol). Only 6 full-time centers, only one of them could be considered a legitimate two-way, Selke-worthy center that the Kings want to groom QB into.
IMO, Byfield isn't "way behind schedule" at all, especially considering he's now tasked to switch to arguably the most difficult hockey role (two-way center) after having a breakthrough season at wing in his third full season.
Considering his slow transition to the NHL due to injuries and the difficult task of adapting at transitioning to center this season I wouldn't worry yet. Basically the only thing I have doubts about is whether or not he'll ever be able to be an elite NHL center - maybe he'll end up more suited to be a power forward on the wing...
