See where the Kings fall on the NHL Contention Cycle
- Thread starter Moog
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From the Article....regarding the Kings:
Rebuild Time
Present Outlook (Rating: 4.2)
Even with Drew Doughty, the Kings find themselves in a precarious spot at the moment, one that’s been on full display in each of the last three post-seasons. The team’s top end is just not good enough. The Kings have good players, but they don’t have great players.
The team’s top four forwards all reside in Tier 4C or lower which gives them some depth, but not much pop. Depth has been the team’s strong suit during this era, but up against the league’s most star-studded team it’s come up painfully short. That’s the crux of the issue for Los Angeles, a team that ends up on the wrong side of average in this exercise for good reason.
That can change if Quinton Byfield breaks out and Kevin Fiala soars with him. But even that might not be enough — especially without Doughty for the first several months. He’s still the team’s best player and without him, the core unfortunately doesn’t look much better than St. Louis’ going into the season. Depth is the difference as to which one is a likely playoff team, but it’s not enough for the Kings to contend. Not even close.
Future Outlook (Rating: 1)
The Kings are a textbook case study in a failure to turn future value into present value. A few years ago, their pool had an abundance of good prospects and in some ways that logjam played against them, devaluing their assets when only a select few could make the jump.
Alex Turcotte isn’t going to provide equal value on a No. 5 pick, in part because of the role injuries have played in his development. They didn’t make a first-round pick in 2022 or 2023. They traded away Brock Faber, one of the sport’s best young players. Gabriel Vilardi’s back undid his time in L.A. and then he too was moved — another high pick out the door. And while Quinton Byfield and Brandt Clarke both still have very high upsides, they may be all the Kings have to show for all of that future asset accumulation they did — with Liam Greentree 2-3 years behind them and a couple of tiers below them even if he hits.
Path to contention
The Kings are not in a good
spot, both now (not good enough!) and in the future (that’s it?), and that’s a hard problem to solve.
Los Angeles’ mini rebuild was cut short in an attempt to bridge two eras. The unfortunate end result is a middling present without franchise talent and a murky future with far from enough talent. The Kings could turn into a brutal lesson in not cutting corners. Don’t take dinner out of the oven before it’s cooked — even if the sides are getting cold.
It’s possible Byfield and Clarke can form a strong enough nucleus that can get the Kings where they need to go. If they both hit franchise player status, that is — not the likeliest scenario. As it stands now, this team might genuinely need to go back to the drawing board to take as much advantage of Byfield’s prime as possible.
Mistiming that, as they mistimed the bridge in eras, could extend Los Angeles’ time away from contention even further.
Rebuild Time
Present Outlook (Rating: 4.2)
Even with Drew Doughty, the Kings find themselves in a precarious spot at the moment, one that’s been on full display in each of the last three post-seasons. The team’s top end is just not good enough. The Kings have good players, but they don’t have great players.
The team’s top four forwards all reside in Tier 4C or lower which gives them some depth, but not much pop. Depth has been the team’s strong suit during this era, but up against the league’s most star-studded team it’s come up painfully short. That’s the crux of the issue for Los Angeles, a team that ends up on the wrong side of average in this exercise for good reason.
That can change if Quinton Byfield breaks out and Kevin Fiala soars with him. But even that might not be enough — especially without Doughty for the first several months. He’s still the team’s best player and without him, the core unfortunately doesn’t look much better than St. Louis’ going into the season. Depth is the difference as to which one is a likely playoff team, but it’s not enough for the Kings to contend. Not even close.
Future Outlook (Rating: 1)
The Kings are a textbook case study in a failure to turn future value into present value. A few years ago, their pool had an abundance of good prospects and in some ways that logjam played against them, devaluing their assets when only a select few could make the jump.
Alex Turcotte isn’t going to provide equal value on a No. 5 pick, in part because of the role injuries have played in his development. They didn’t make a first-round pick in 2022 or 2023. They traded away Brock Faber, one of the sport’s best young players. Gabriel Vilardi’s back undid his time in L.A. and then he too was moved — another high pick out the door. And while Quinton Byfield and Brandt Clarke both still have very high upsides, they may be all the Kings have to show for all of that future asset accumulation they did — with Liam Greentree 2-3 years behind them and a couple of tiers below them even if he hits.
Path to contention
The Kings are not in a good
spot, both now (not good enough!) and in the future (that’s it?), and that’s a hard problem to solve.
Los Angeles’ mini rebuild was cut short in an attempt to bridge two eras. The unfortunate end result is a middling present without franchise talent and a murky future with far from enough talent. The Kings could turn into a brutal lesson in not cutting corners. Don’t take dinner out of the oven before it’s cooked — even if the sides are getting cold.
It’s possible Byfield and Clarke can form a strong enough nucleus that can get the Kings where they need to go. If they both hit franchise player status, that is — not the likeliest scenario. As it stands now, this team might genuinely need to go back to the drawing board to take as much advantage of Byfield’s prime as possible.
Mistiming that, as they mistimed the bridge in eras, could extend Los Angeles’ time away from contention even further.
aragorn
Jerseys need purple
The season hasn't even started and we get this extremely harsh criticism? I find the Kings to be very entertaining the last couple seasons. I have a great time at the games. I'm hoping they have improved and make the playoffs again and don't play the Oilers (whose window is closing fast with that payroll). I'm super excited for our opening game tonight. Then I read this crap that's better suited to the last third of the season.
Clif
Super Star
I’m with you. Easiest article in the world to write when you don’t do any actual analysis, just tally off the errors.
By the way, it aint just rose colored glasses to be willing to see how this new approach works this year and what it means for future iterations of this team, or to be genuinely excited about watching young players evolve.
Statue4Deano
Super Star
Extremely lazy surface level writing.
Mentioning Brock Faber with no mention of the 28 year old top line winger the Kings have under contract for the next 4 seasons they got in return. No mention of Alex Laferriere or Jordan Spence. This is the best set of young homegrown players the team has had in a very long time.
ChiKingFan
TEAM LGK
The non-Eric Stephens stuff on the Athletic tends to run fairly negative on the Kings (and even Stephens can be kind of a downer). But it's also a bit of window into what people outside the organization think of the team. I think a lot of the assets the Kings had over the last couple years were mismanaged in retrospect, but not sure I would have done that much different than what Blake did at the time he made certain picks or deals.
He's going to get heat for the Faber deal for a while, but what gets lost is that they actually did pretty well in that deal, and Faber probably wasn't going to sign anyway. Turcotte wasn't a reach at 5, and while the circumstances haven't been great, he's still got time to be better than his trade value. What I think this article misses is that while the farm is a bit depleted at the moment, they shouldn't need any real minor league depth for a while. They're young-ish at 3 D spots, 3-4 top four F spots, where they do have minor league depth is in net. So they can run with this roster for a bit while restocking, if they're smart.
He's going to get heat for the Faber deal for a while, but what gets lost is that they actually did pretty well in that deal, and Faber probably wasn't going to sign anyway. Turcotte wasn't a reach at 5, and while the circumstances haven't been great, he's still got time to be better than his trade value. What I think this article misses is that while the farm is a bit depleted at the moment, they shouldn't need any real minor league depth for a while. They're young-ish at 3 D spots, 3-4 top four F spots, where they do have minor league depth is in net. So they can run with this roster for a bit while restocking, if they're smart.
He didn't do just pretty well in the Faber deal. He made something out of nothing. I cannot believe how many people think Faber was going to sign with the Kings.
The article is written from the standpoint of cups or bust and any Pacific team is compared to the oil and that math says your window is closed. I don't begrudge the analysis anything from that standpoint. From the standpoint of is this team worth my time and money....well I'm a bit of a biased observer but here I am enjoying what is historically a good roster compared to damn near 60 years of them
Statue4Deano
Super Star
The Oilers seem to be leaning into another top heavy build and the defense as a unit looks even worse than last year. Call me crazy but if this Kings team gels, Doughty gets healthy by Feb. 1 and Blake finds a way to grab one more piece at the trade deadline, I like the Kings chances to get past the Oilers in a 7 game series.
You're crazy, but that doesn't mean you're wrong
Statue4Deano
Super Star
LAKingSteve
Super Star
I don't have super high expectations, still consider this team a mid tier, 3rd or WC in the Pacific team. Much of it really rides on how well QB, Turc, Thomas, Spence & Clarke develop in the next couple of years, how well the Kings draft, and how quickly the guys like Greentree develop. The other big unknown is who they pick up via trade or free agency. I think the window is pretty much closed for the rest of Kopi's career, assuming he shuts it down after year 2 of this new contract unless all the stars align and that it's going to be a while before we can start talking about this team as a contender. Again, lots of wild cards that could move that one way or another...guess we just have to be patient and see how things play out.
LAK1ngs
3rd Line Winger
These types of writers love the teams with superstars. Top heavy teams like Toronto ($63m in fwds) or a team with the current best player (McDavid). EDM had #1 picks 4 out of 6 years (2010-15) and the Kings had a #2 twice in the past 30+ years. Unless a team is willing to tank multiple years to try to fish out the 1st pick (CHI and ANA [ha ha]) or win the lottery under suspicious circumstances (PIT, EDM, NYR) those top end guys are hard to get.
DryKing
Power Forward
The Kings really aren't all that far away. They need to get back to drafting and building from within and pause on rentals for the time being. A couple solid defenders and a high tier goalie which they can lock up for long term and they are in the mix. Their offense has shown it has the talent to compete.
Sad to say, but the Doughty contract is their biggest obstacle. Until they move that, it's going to be difficult to sign a high impact FA to fill an area of need.
Sad to say, but the Doughty contract is their biggest obstacle. Until they move that, it's going to be difficult to sign a high impact FA to fill an area of need.
Statue4Deano
Super Star
Which high impact FA did the Kings miss out on since becoming a contender again?
Seems to me they hit a home run on Phil Danault. Doughty’s contract wasn’t much of an obstacle there.
DryKing
Power Forward
When has Fiala EVER been a "top line winger"?
The answer is never. He cannot play with anybody else who needs the puck. He is purely empty calories and gives up as much as he gets. He is only in business for himself and is incapable of putting a win above the pursuit of personal numbers. He was and is every bit of a problem as Dubois on-ice.
And anybody who STILL refuses to understand that Faber was absolutely going to sign with the Kings has their head buried squarely in the sand. That whole BS to justify trading the player who was going to be the best draft pick in Blake's tenure has been disproved over and over again. It's getting ridiculous.
DryKing
Power Forward
I don't buy the whole Fiala is just seeking to pad his personal stats argument. Fiala definitely has his shortcomings, but he is absolutely a top line winger. Fiala tends to get a lot of hate as his weaknesses are glaring at times, but he does not get enough credit for his strengths. He has been a point per game player with the Kings in the playoffs (and a +2 against and Edmonton team that has pretty often dominated us in the playoffs over the last two seasons).
I agree with you in regards to Faber signing with the Kings - all evidence pointed to that he would have once his college run was over.
Regarding the trade, it seems like a pretty even. The problem is that while the Kings were weak on offense and strong on defense when they traded for Fiala - the opposite is now true.
Now Chirping
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