A big reason they're not at the top is goalie issues. Remember the start this team had?
We only had a good team because it had glaring holes like Durzi playing as a LD and having only one decent goalie.[/QUOTE=Bollocks;3430660]
Agree that we are probably 2nd best in the West after addressing the 2 biggest holes. I really like this roster, love Fiala and his skill, and the PP which will be a total asset in the playoffs.
Now these holes are fixed with a goalie with proven elevated playoff performances and so far a very solid season on a pretty crappy team and a defensive defenseman with a big body.
They are addressed. I am not as enamored with Joonas as the what I'd say is a bit of a pollyanna crowd. We went from a journeyman to a 1B goaltender.
2019-20 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 37 1 0 2126 92 0 2 2.60 19 12 5 938 0.911 9 0 0
2019-20 Cleveland Monsters AHL 1 0 0 62 2 0 0 1.95 1 0 0 32 0.941
2020-21 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 33 1 2 1747 96 0 0 3.30 9 13 7 808 0.894 - - -
2021-22 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 22 0 2 1128 78 0 0 4.15 7 11 0 556 0.877 - - -
2022-23 Columbus Blue Jackets NHL 28 0 0 1551 81 0 0 3.13 11 11 3 845 0.913
2022-23 Cleveland Monsters AHL 1 0 0 60 2 0 0 2.00 1 0 0 38 0.950
Looking at his stats, he's been good for 2 of 4 years and terrible for 2 of 4 (bottom 5 in GSAA in those 2). He has a good playoff run of 2 weeks. I'm not ready to call him a big-time playoff performer. He could be the "Druce on the Loose" of goalies where a guy was hot for 2 weeks, and that's all there was. He's good but he's certainly not Shesterkin and I'm not even convinced he is at the Keumper level.
But yes, these are certainly upgrades over Quick and Edler/Walker on the 3rd pair.
Gavrikov in particular is a question mark when it comes to effectiveness, BUT:
- he's in his contract year and is looking to cash in at the FA
- he's played for a perenially crappy team that didn't make the playoffs since 2020
I think he'll be motivated to prove the doubters wrong.
Or Dom and others like him are right and we bought the fools gold of the trade deadline. Hooray, we got Ben Chiarot 2.0! As a fan, I hope he fits in and plays well behind Mikey. But I see serious red flags when some of the best analytics minds were saying to avoid him and Edmundson at all costs.
Even if he makes no more trades - if he wanted to add Korpisalo and Gavrikov he HAD to shed salary. Who else did you have in mind? Cal would cost another 1st for sure. Would that be OK? And then what - put Quick on waivers and send him to AHL?? I'm sure he'd be delighted with that...if he wouldn't get claimed anyway.
Strawman argument with Cal and Quick. How about don't trade for rentals? Also, I think we have 6M in cap space right now. So potentially do nothing. Or Quick to minors. I'm not upset about "doing Quick dirty" or anything like that. More curious why Blake needs to have 6M in cap space right now. Is someone getting added? If not, I hope he is going to weaponize the space in some way. Boston needs to shed 4.5M in cap space right now to fit under the cap.
Of course they do. It's a good hockey trade.
It is an improvement no doubt. I still question if it is the best use of our assets to get rentals.
And I still think the reality is Colorado crushes us and the teams loading up in the east do too. And that is the rub for me. We made trades to fix today's roster which did nothing for future seasons rosters. Those were real assets that we gave up. I think back to 2014. When I watched that team, I always had this thought "you know who determines if we win tonight or not? The Kings do". That team could beat any opponent. They were stacked. Kopi and Brown, the 70s line, Stolly, a loaded defense, Quick and Jones in net. That was a truly dominant team. If the Kings played their game, they'd win a 7-game series against anyone with no doubts. The current team is very good. But we're still waiting for another breakout player in the forward prospect pool. Somebody to push Lizotte to the 13th forward. We still need a better 3rd pair defenseman. And the goaltending is improved but still a bit of a question mark. The Kings now have a punchers chance in the playoffs but so does Edmonton with their 2 superstars. But we're still a ways away from the teams which have totally loaded up. So why go in on pure rentals? [OK, now I'm sounding like a broken record]
You think? Chychrun was traded for nothing but picks. The Kings would need to clear a roster spot AND cap space to do that. AND Rob had to fix the goalie issue, too, somehow.
I'm sure they tried to find a way to do that. You think they didn't, offered a couple of packages to AZ and then gave up? I highly doubt that.
Plus, it's entirely likely AZ tried to avoid sending Chych to a divisional rival since, you know, he's not just a rental.
So AZ would not take any players back for Chychrun? That is an interesting take. A first and 2 seconds would have been a fair price. Chychrun would have fit on Tuesday if the Kings traded picks/prospects and Lemieux. The numbers were not that hard. The goalie issue still remains but the roster would be stacked and cost controlled. Joonas makes 1.3M so if you traded for him and buried Quick in the minors then the math works out.
As far as packages, I have no clue what Armstrong was thinking to wait all that time and end up with nothing but picks and only a single first rounder (even if it is Ottawa's).
AZ is not a divisional rival any more. They are in the Central. So it is a conference rival if such a thing exists. And Armstrong would be a complete idiot to give up on more assets in the rebuild because Chychrun would face his team 1 extra time per year for the next 2 years. That's absurd. If Blake could trade player X to the Sharks/Ducks for a first, he should make that deal rather than take a 2nd or 3rd from a team in the East. That's simply irresponsible. And the Martin Jones deal(s) showed that savvy GMs can just flip a player back into your division; so all you really did is get less value for being stupid.
There's 0% doubt the Kings are better this morning. The 2 largest holes in the roster have been addressed, in the short term. My complaints are : 1) pushing in a fairly significant amount of draft capitals for no control or cost certainty 2) overall it was still a half-hearted attempt. Like Dom said, Blake and the Kings got stuck in the middle ground of doing something but not getting players who are truly elite.
That said, we should win the Pacific now with the upgraded roster.
