Confirmed with Link Kings name Holland their 10th GM in History

Season 2 Lawrence GIF by Insecure on HBO


Would not mind having Holland take over the media interviews because lately all I see when Robitaille is in front of the mic is this:
MV5BMmY3Y2U4NmItMDk0My00NTk5LTlhNWUtZmE3MDA3ZDZjOWVjXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg
 
This reply was largely to someone else re: Spence’s season. His comment did not address Spence’s trade value, and neither did my reply.

The part at the end about body of work was to you and yeah, bodies of work do matter. Players have bad playoffs. He has had good playoffs too. I don’t think this year is going to have some outsized effect on his value. Ferraro sat there and said Marner “was costing himself money” with not scoring in rd 2. Yeah okay. He’s going to make 13M+ a season, same as he was pre-playoffs.

I’m going to say this. Trading for picks always makes players look less valuable. Gavrikov is going to make 7-8M this offseason. He and a goalie (!) were had for a later first and a third.

RFA compensation makes players’ worth look silly. Compensation for Broberg was a second round pick and Holloway a third.

Spence isn’t being traded for a pick unless other moves are made and Holland needs to get him off the roster. That could still happen too, but my main contention is that assessing what value a player has according to pick value is a different story than assessing value based on finding team(s) that need that position/type of player. To that end, yeah a second pair young RFA RD has value.
Yeah, it's hard to gunge Spence's value when it comes to picks. He could go for anything from a 2nd to a 4th, but reality is he is likely to be undervalued at this point in his career based largely on size. If he sticks around, and I hope he does, I expect his point total and value both will significantly increase next season.

Spence was a large part of why the Kings Org thought Durzi was expendable. He posted 45 points in 56 AHL games one season, and showed he a solid mix of everything and can play any situation. Hiller not having the confidence to play Spence, and players like Turcotte and Helenius, is more about Hiller (imo) than it is about the players. Hiller was trying to cheat code his way through the round, and it backfired.

Spence is also only 24 and has 180 games (and a +29) under his belt. He still hasn't hit his peak.
 
If Spence’s trade value is just a 3rd round pick then you simply do not trade him. He’s more valuable to the team as a 6th or even 7th dman than some random team’s 3rd round pick.

Historically a 3rd round pick has about a 50/50 shot at EVER playing a single NHL game*. The Kings already beat the odds which Spence. He was a 4th round pick with 180 reg. season games. There’s about a 20% chance of that and he’s got a very good shot at hitting 300 games. There’s a 12% chance of a 4th round pick doing that.

*Success Rates of NHL Draft Picks - The Hockey Writers NHL Entry Draft Latest News, Analysis & More
 
This is the most critical point too often ignored in the conversation about how to improve this team.

If. If the better fit becomes available. If the team giving up that player likes the assets the Kings can offer. If the player doesn’t have the ability to block a trade to LA. Never mind the long history of prime aged top tier free agents having very little interest in signing in LA.

People don’t want to sign Marner to a mega deal? Fine with me. Who else you got? Who else is available? Hell, who else is *potentially* available? And how do we get them here?
My only reservation about signing Marner for 14m would be.. can you get Marchand and Bennett for 7 mill a pop? Is it better to add two very gritty criminal types to this club, to help drag along the rest of the gang? No doubt, we could have desperately used one of those extremely questionable Sam Bennett hits against a guy like Drai or McD.. in any of our last 4 playoff appearances. I would sell the entire farm to have several guys like Bennett, M. Tkachuk, Marchand, and Tom Wilson on this team.
 
If Spence’s trade value is just a 3rd round pick then you simply do not trade him. He’s more valuable to the team as a 6th or even 7th dman than some random team’s 3rd round pick.

Historically a 3rd round pick has about a 50/50 shot at EVER playing a single NHL game*. The Kings already beat the odds which Spence. He was a 4th round pick with 180 reg. season games. There’s about a 20% chance of that and he’s got a very good shot at hitting 300 games. There’s a 12% chance of a 4th round pick doing that.

*Success Rates of NHL Draft Picks - The Hockey Writers NHL Entry Draft Latest News, Analysis & More
I think it’s right that Spence is of more value to the Kings than as trade bait.
The only exception is if he’s the chip you include to get a deal done that makes the team better.
 
Yeah, it's hard to gunge Spence's value when it comes to picks. He could go for anything from a 2nd to a 4th, but reality is he is likely to be undervalued at this point in his career based largely on size. If he sticks around, and I hope he does, I expect his point total and value both will significantly increase next season.

Spence was a large part of why the Kings Org thought Durzi was expendable. He posted 45 points in 56 AHL games one season, and showed he a solid mix of everything and can play any situation. Hiller not having the confidence to play Spence, and players like Turcotte and Helenius, is more about Hiller (imo) than it is about the players. Hiller was trying to cheat code his way through the round, and it backfired.

Spence is also only 24 and has 180 games (and a +29) under his belt. He still hasn't hit his peak.
How often do you use gunge for that to autocorrect or is that lingo these days? Legitimately curious.
 
My only reservation about signing Marner for 14m would be.. can you get Marchand and Bennett for 7 mill a pop? Is it better to add two very gritty criminal types to this club, to help drag along the rest of the gang? No doubt, we could have desperately used one of those extremely questionable Sam Bennett hits against a guy like Drai or McD.. in any of our last 4 playoff appearances. I would sell the entire farm to have several guys like Bennett, M. Tkachuk, Marchand, and Tom Wilson on this team.
Bennett is the perfect fit for this Kings team. The problem is he fits on every other team too. If I’m Bill Zito I’m moving heaven and earth to keep him on the Panthers. Why would Bennett leave?
 
Bennett is the perfect fit for this Kings team. The problem is he fits on every other team too. If I’m Bill Zito I’m moving heaven and earth to keep him on the Panthers. Why would Bennett leave?
That’s my question as well. Seems like a great fit on a perennial contender. No real idea what their cap situation is. But I’m sure they will keep him if it’s possible.
 
Yeah, it's hard to gunge Spence's value when it comes to picks. He could go for anything from a 2nd to a 4th, but reality is he is likely to be undervalued at this point in his career based largely on size. If he sticks around, and I hope he does, I expect his point total and value both will significantly increase next season.

Spence was a large part of why the Kings Org thought Durzi was expendable. He posted 45 points in 56 AHL games one season, and showed he a solid mix of everything and can play any situation. Hiller not having the confidence to play Spence, and players like Turcotte and Helenius, is more about Hiller (imo) than it is about the players. Hiller was trying to cheat code his way through the round, and it backfired.

Spence is also only 24 and has 180 games (and a +29) under his belt. He still hasn't hit his peak.
I don’t disagree with any of this. The positives you list about him are why a team in need of a right dman would look at him.
I think it’s right that Spence is of more value to the Kings than as trade bait.
The only exception is if he’s the chip you include to get a deal done that makes the team better.
And chips to make teams better are where roster for roster trades get tricky and uncommon.

Any player is available *in theory.* In reality, the pieces it would take to acquire most roster players are too high for other teams to meet. There aren’t that many trades in the NHL outside of trade deadline for a reason.

Most teams only have a few roster players they’re genuinely open to trading given what they can expect to receive in return. A player like Spence is likely available, but not for a pick. It needs to be a roster-for-roster move.

Teams need every position every year. It’s a matter of how much they believe they need them and how much of a strength they have elsewhere to tap. Of all those teams that need a second pair RD, how many have a second line center, a first line winger, or a top 4 mobile LD? Those are the players the Kings need. The first two categories may take Spence as part of a package but need much more. The third less so. It’s timing on if the team who has a mobile LD and needs help on the right side has one or several satisfactory options for a trading partner.

Trades are as much about who is actually available as anything else.
 
Bennett is the perfect fit for this Kings team. The problem is he fits on every other team too. If I’m Bill Zito I’m moving heaven and earth to keep him on the Panthers. Why would Bennett leave?
Especially since Florida can offer approx 1.5 millions less per year than the Kings and he will still get the same money in his hand because of the extremely unfair tax advantage Florida has…
 
If Spence’s trade value is just a 3rd round pick then you simply do not trade him. He’s more valuable to the team as a 6th or even 7th dman than some random team’s 3rd round pick.

Historically a 3rd round pick has about a 50/50 shot at EVER playing a single NHL game*. The Kings already beat the odds which Spence. He was a 4th round pick with 180 reg. season games. There’s about a 20% chance of that and he’s got a very good shot at hitting 300 games. There’s a 12% chance of a 4th round pick doing that.

*Success Rates of NHL Draft Picks - The Hockey Writers NHL Entry Draft Latest News, Analysis & More
I agree trading him for a pic is not wise, but putting him in a package for something else is not an awful idea. Depending on the return. He did not have a great year this year. However, last year I doubt anyone would have thought of getting rid of him.
 
Bennett is the perfect fit for this Kings team. The problem is he fits on every other team too. If I’m Bill Zito I’m moving heaven and earth to keep him on the Panthers. Why would Bennett leave?
If I am Bennett, I am telling my agent to keep me in Florida if they make an offer (even if it is for slightly less). My biggest fear with Bennett is simply how night and day different he was during his time with Calgary and now with Florida. I'm sure it can be attributed to multiple things, but it makes me wonder how dependent he is on a system like Florida's to thrive.

Could we expect the same level of production if he came to the Kings? I hope so, but there is a degree of risk there. All the same, I am with you and others in that if he is available he'd be a great addition.
 
We’ve got $26M. Go flesh out the team. If you spread the wealth around instead of throwing piles of money at Marner, you’d be amazed at what we could build now.

Think this way, a 4th line that is better than some 3rd lines in our division. Spread around the minutes, and save the older crews legs by keeping them off the PK as much.

I’d punt Spence and find another Edmundsen out there. He was an absolute pylon when he got stuck out there against McDrai.
 
Back
Top