Official LA Kings Off-Season

Hoven says neither JAD or MacEwen were qualified. Still expects JAD to be signed. Issue apparently is that he was arbitration eligible.
 
Now that all the big moves are done for the Kings do we think the roster is better, worse or equal to last regular season’s roster?

I say slightly better with a good chance of being quite a bit better. If all the key players stay healthy I think the Kings have a shot at winning the division.
 
HeadInjury said:
Hoven says neither JAD or MacEwen were qualified. Still expects JAD to be signed. Issue apparently is that he was arbitration eligible.
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Somehow Dorion watched the Kings series and said “Yep, I want Korpisalo for 5 years and McEwan for 3.”
 
Statue4Deano said:
Now that all the big moves are done for the Kings do we think the roster is better, worse or equal to last regular season’s roster?

I say slightly better with a good chance of being quite a bit better. If all the key players stay healthy I think the Kings have a shot at winning the division.
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Significantly better. PLD will get his. Kopitar shows no signs of slowing down. Phil's line becomes a matchup nightmare. Center depth may be top 3 in the league.

D is better off w/o Durzi + Edler, Kings now have two legit D pairings, and a few young guys fighting it out for playing time.

Goaltending theoretically, is better. But goaltending can go in either direction. GKs will benefit from a more solid / consistent D corp in front of them. I wouldn't be surprised if Portillo saw 12-15 games though, be it due to injury or poor goaltending.

Conclusion: center depth much better, D corp upgraded, goalkeeping needs to be top 15.

This season's success will depend directly on a couple of the younger players making significant leaps in production. QB, AK, Clarke, Spence, or someone out of left field (Toby / Lias / Madden / Pinelli), a least a couple younger guys will need to be key contributors in order to be in position to win a playoff series or two.
 
Pickle_Pucks said:
Significantly better. PLD will get his. Kopitar shows no signs of slowing down. Phil's line becomes a matchup nightmare. Center depth may be top 3 in the league.

D is better off w/o Durzi + Edler, Kings now have two legit D pairings, and a few young guys fighting it out for playing time.

Goaltending theoretically, is better. But goaltending can go in either direction. GKs will benefit from a more solid / consistent D corp in front of them. I wouldn't be surprised if Portillo saw 12-15 games though, be it due to injury or poor goaltending.

Conclusion: center depth much better, D corp upgraded, goalkeeping needs to be top 15.

This season's success will depend directly on a couple of the younger players making significant leaps in production. QB, AK, Clarke, Spence, or someone out of left field (Toby / Lias / Madden / Pinelli), a least a couple younger guys will need to be key contributors in order to be in position to win a playoff series or two.
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I agree about most points you make.

If QB and Kaliyev show further progression (no need for stardom...yet) and Clarke proves he can hold his own defensively and gives the team a similar spark offensively as Durzi did, and of course if everyone else play on levels similar to last year, Kings are considerably better this season.

Even strength things are looking very good. Forward lines are excellent, with talent well spread throughout top 9, with an energy bottom line that will probably see less TOI this year. Defense is shored up and either Clarke or Spence hopefully prove less error prone than Durzi. On paper Bjornfot/Moverare could be really good partners for Clarke/Spence IF Clarke doesn't get bullied too much...then it's one of the big guys (probably Englund), which means the bottom pairing is quite a bit of a wild card.

At least one of Copley/Talbot duo will probably prove stable and reliable, a stark contrast to first half of last season. No star-level performance, but none is needed, honestly.

PK - lost Iafallo, but signed Lewis, so...IMO things are similar to last season.

PP - added PLD, lost Gabe...if QB finds a bit of a scoring touch and Kaliyev shows improvement, and if Clarke becomes a factor as a 2nd unit QB...I expect it to be at least as good as last year's.

QB - Kopitar - Kempe
Fiala - PLD - Kaliyev
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Grundy/Lias/Fagemo - Lizotte - Lewis
The only thing I don't really like here is Lizotte being a 4th line C, but oh well.

Anderson - DD
Gavrikov - Roy
Bjornfot/Moverare/Englund - Clarke/Spence

I don't know. Looks spicy to me. Fingers crossed that no long-term injuries plague this team and we can hope for clear improvement over last season.
 
Lias signed with MTL. Would guess Fagemo would beat JAD in camp for the final spot on a 21-player roster. Would be surprised if a young forward beat them both, though it may not be the highest bar to clear.
 
Clif said:
Lias signed with MTL. Would guess Fagemo would beat JAD in camp for the final spot on a 21-player roster. Would be surprised if a young forward beat them both, though it may not be the highest bar to clear.
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Ah, right. Didn't notice that bit of news.
 
Bollocks said:
I agree about most points you make.

If QB and Kaliyev show further progression (no need for stardom...yet) and Clarke proves he can hold his own defensively and gives the team a similar spark offensively as Durzi did, and of course if everyone else play on levels similar to last year, Kings are considerably better this season.

Even strength things are looking very good. Forward lines are excellent, with talent well spread throughout top 9, with an energy bottom line that will probably see less TOI this year. Defense is shored up and either Clarke or Spence hopefully prove less error prone than Durzi. On paper Bjornfot/Moverare could be really good partners for Clarke/Spence IF Clarke doesn't get bullied too much...then it's one of the big guys (probably Englund), which means the bottom pairing is quite a bit of a wild card.

At least one of Copley/Talbot duo will probably prove stable and reliable, a stark contrast to first half of last season. No star-level performance, but none is needed, honestly.

PK - lost Iafallo, but signed Lewis, so...IMO things are similar to last season.

PP - added PLD, lost Gabe...if QB finds a bit of a scoring touch and Kaliyev shows improvement, and if Clarke becomes a factor as a 2nd unit QB...I expect it to be at least as good as last year's.

QB - Kopitar - Kempe
Fiala - PLD - Kaliyev
Moore - Danault - Arvidsson
Grundy/Lias/Fagemo - Lizotte - Lewis
The only thing I don't really like here is Lizotte being a 4th line C, but oh well.

Anderson - DD
Gavrikov - Roy
Bjornfot/Moverare/Englund - Clarke/Spence

I don't know. Looks spicy to me. Fingers crossed that no long-term injuries plague this team and we can hope for clear improvement over last season.
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Kaliyev was pretty good in the earlier part of the year. Then tapered off a little, got injured and was a shell of himself the rest of the season. Hope he can get his ship righted.
 
Kaliyev will have to take a big step forward to be a long term starter. I personally forgot about him, as we did not see him in the playoffs. I believe one of the other young players will step up in camp and secure a spot that was not intended for him. I hope for the best for Arthur, and I hope he is not a one trick pony. I hope he has made some strides over the offseason.
 
The team looks better on paper, but this has to be a year where jobs are on the line. If it's the right lineup and we can't win, coach goes. If it's not the right lineup - then the GM OR... the scouts (who a few short years ago were considered to have the best prospect pool in the league and only a handful have come through) have to go. The window is open now. I'm not a basher of TM, RB or the scouts, but it's time to see what all this rebuild was for.

I know we all love Yannetti and he gives great interviews, but you have to wonder about the scouting of a team that went from the best prospect pool to a team whose best players were acquired by the GM (I realize scouts would have had a hand in those trades too, so maybe I'm being unfair.) Big steps forward or changes need to come.
 
Illegal_Stick said:
The team looks better on paper, but this has to be a year where jobs are on the line. If it's the right lineup and we can't win, coach goes. If it's not the right lineup - then the GM OR... the scouts (who a few short years ago were considered to have the best prospect pool in the league and only a handful have come through) have to go. The window is open now. I'm not a basher of TM, RB or the scouts, but it's time to see what all this rebuild was for.

I know we all love Yannetti and he gives great interviews, but you have to wonder about the scouting of a team that went from the best prospect pool to a team whose best players were acquired by the GM (I realize scouts would have had a hand in those trades too, so maybe I'm being unfair.) Big steps forward or changes need to come.
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Agreed, but I think it's really more of a make or break year for Rob than anyone else. Rob chose the coach, ultimately chose the players to draft, chose how best to develop them, and chose the players to trade for. If we succeed this year (go deep into the playoffs) the credit largely goes to him, and as is the case if we fail. This has to be the year of no excuses.
 
Really what this comes down to for Blake is if this squad grows to be able to get 5 home playoff games, how much will he push to improve on that. Thats not where this team is yet but if they get there just how much of the "make the tournament and anything can happen" mantra will stay vs a cup or bust mentality that drove Vegas.

Tinkering at the edges and playing in the second round sandbox for any length of time is success this franchise has never enjoyed outside of 2012-2014

Edit they did make it to the second round the first three Gretzky seasons as well.
 
I think that goaltending is what really costs the Kings this coming season. TMac showed his hand that he doesn't believe Copley can take this team to where it needs to be and Talbot, he is too inconsistent. Kings don't have much cap room to improve the GK position to where it needs to be. Kings won two Cups on the back of a great goaltender, Quick. it doesn't matter how great the forwards and d-men are. There has to be a shut down guy in net. Tampa has proven that, Vegas had great goaltending in their Cup win and so did the Avs. Teams with great forwards and D-men.
 
jgs said:
I think that goaltending is what really costs the Kings this coming season. TMac showed his hand that he doesn't believe Copley can take this team to where it needs to be and Talbot, he is too inconsistent. Kings don't have much cap room to improve the GK position to where it needs to be. Kings won two Cups on the back of a great goaltender, Quick. it doesn't matter how great the forwards and d-men are. There has to be a shut down guy in net. Tampa has proven that, Vegas had great goaltending in their Cup win and so did the Avs. Teams with great forwards and D-men.
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Lol you must have forgotten the Great Defense in front of Quick!! Love the guy he was a beast but that was no average defense in front of him…
 
Ice24 said:
Kaliyev will have to take a big step forward to be a long term starter. I personally forgot about him, as we did not see him in the playoffs. I believe one of the other young players will step up in camp and secure a spot that was not intended for him. I hope for the best for Arthur, and I hope he is not a one trick pony. I hope he has made some strides over the offseason.
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I believe Kaliyev has already peaked. I was hoping he would have been traded by now. Kings have Fagemo, Chromiak and Laferriere pushing for the RW slots, each of whom brings a more complete game than Artie. And each is a right shot player.
 
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