I have a genuine question here though, given the nature of the kings waiver crunch that is due to arrive sooner rather than later. Would we rather get fleeced in a trade but still get a guy like chychrun back, or just stay the course and see some of these high draft pick prospects either fizzle and fail to make our roster, or get claimed by other teams over the next couple seasons?
The mental exercise here is to really dig and and project where guys like Turcotte, kaliyev, Spence, Durzi actually have roster spots over the next 2-3 seasons. Sure, we can slow roast them over the next few campaigns, but it also becomes a delicate balancing act between prognosticating a breakout season, and losing them to waivers, only to watch them blossom for another club.
Aside from that, let’s remember that Chychrun is only 24, and perhaps isn’t done fully developing into a position that traditionally takes longer for guys to grow into. Maybe he’s just never played for a club that actually values, and knows how to instruct and instill defensive responsibility. Can you imagine him going from a club of rogues, vagabonds and young forwards to a team with peer pressure from guys like Doughty, Kopitar, Danault, etc? You think the dude would dog it, playing alongside ****ing champions like that? I suspect it would have a profound effect on how he mentally approaches the game. We know he’s got the skating and hockey talent, but just like our club in the 09-11 seasons.. they needed to organically grow and be reinforced with other leaders/winners. Chychrun hasn’t even had a sniff of playing with real pros in that mold for his entire NHL career, has he?
