The Pacific Division Thread

Clif said:
When you have a player score 115 pts and still miss the playoffs, what does it say about your depth?

Ducks have serious veteran leadership in Trouba, Kreider, and Gudas coupled with one of the greatest coaches of his era. But they still were so streaky that they fell from division winners to barely hanging onto 3rd place. What does that say about them?

I think the Ducks and Sharks got too much credit this year. The conference is bad and the division is terrible. They have exciting potential, and I hope Ducks beat the Oilers, but this summer is going to show if first time GMs in Verbeek and Grier can pull off the trades necessary to move their teams forward. They have the assets so they should be able to, but it’s not enough to say their young talent equals inevitable success.
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Agreed the Sharks depth is terrible, especially on the backend. That said, theirs is the roster I would covet the most as a GM, mainly due to Celebrini but we also have yet to see what Misa can really do.

The Ducks have an excellent roster and a very good mix of young skill and veterans who are still heavily contributing. With the addition of J.Carlson this is a roster that should win. However, they still lack physicality within most of the roster and have key players that are relatively untested when it comes to high pressure moments. They question here is while they have an excellent roster, in terms of talent, do they have the right roster in terms of fit and playoff-type hockey.

The Kings don't have the young talent of either team, but they have a solid roster and the personnel to wear a team down physically. The Kings really do not get enough credit in terms of mix between skill, veteran role-players and physicality. Sure we have a problem to workout on our backend and could use more scoring threat but it's not a poorly constructed roster overall. I just wish they had a HC the caliber of what the Ducks have.

Either way, I see the Kings improving next year even with the loss of Kopitar. Neither the Ducks or Sharks are going to have an easy walk to the playoffs in 26/7.
 
DryKing said:
Agreed the Sharks depth is terrible, especially on the backend. That said, theirs is the roster I would covet the most as a GM, mainly due to Celebrini but we also have yet to see what Misa can really do.

The Ducks have an excellent roster and a very good mix of young skill and veterans who are still heavily contributing. With the addition of J.Carlson this is a roster that should win. However, they still lack physicality within most of the roster and have key players that are relatively untested when it comes to high pressure moments. They question here is while they have an excellent roster, in terms of talent, do they have the right roster in terms of fit and playoff-type hockey.

The Kings don't have the young talent of either team, but they have a solid roster and the personnel to wear a team down physically. The Kings really do not get enough credit in terms of mix between skill, veteran role-players and physicality. Sure we have a problem to workout on our backend and could use more scoring threat but it's not a poorly constructed roster overall. I just wish they had a HC the caliber of what the Ducks have.

Either way, I see the Kings improving next year even with the loss of Kopitar. Neither the Ducks or Sharks are going to have an easy walk to the playoffs in 26/7.
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It’s been difficult to assess the Kings this year but I agree with your take on their roster.
So much of this season was watching a team underperform and being overwhelmed with the negativity.

Yesterday was hard for me to really get a feel for. I kind of expected a blowout loss. I was somewhat encouraged that it was a close game.
I also saw the Avs have several Grade A opportunities that they missed on. I don’t think we can expect that to continue.
We also saw some whiffs by the Kings that should or could have been goals.
I “think” that game could easily have been a 5-3 loss.
The Kings can be better than they were yesterday. The Byfield line was pretty quiet. The fourth line was not all that good.
But the PP & PK were pretty good. But they can’t be dumb with penalties. Especially from Joseph who cannot use his limited minutes and end up in the box.
I think the Kings impressed me in Game 1. But I don’t honestly know if that is a correct view. That game may not have been as close as the final score.
 
DoubleMinor said:
It’s been difficult to assess the Kings this year but I agree with your take on their roster.
So much of this season was watching a team underperform and being overwhelmed with the negativity.

Yesterday was hard for me to really get a feel for. I kind of expected a blowout loss. I was somewhat encouraged that it was a close game.
I also saw the Avs have several Grade A opportunities that they missed on. I don’t think we can expect that to continue.
We also saw some whiffs by the Kings that should or could have been goals.
I “think” that game could easily have been a 5-3 loss.
The Kings can be better than they were yesterday. The Byfield line was pretty quiet. The fourth line was not all that good.
But the PP & PK were pretty good. But they can’t be dumb with penalties. Especially from Joseph who cannot use his limited minutes and end up in the box.
I think the Kings impressed me in Game 1. But I don’t honestly know if that is a correct view. That game may not have been as close as the final score.
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I agree with your take. I do think game 2 may be a bit a of a blowout, though, if the Kings don't make a roster tweak, or two. Joseph needs to sit with either Turcotte (if healthy) or Kuz replacing him. Kings also need to get more fiesty and start better supporting Kempe (who appears to know how to get MacKinnon off his game) - the Avs got too many free shots after the whistle on him with Kings players either just clinging to another Avs player or watching. They also need to hit more, especially with their defenders (even though we know this will expose our D's lack of speed).

Also agree with you that it has been hard assessing where the Kings roster truly is most of the season, between both lack of effort and Hiller's poor utilization strategy. They look like a completely different team since Hiller, with buy in and hustle.
 
DryKing said:
Agreed the Sharks depth is terrible, especially on the backend. That said, theirs is the roster I would covet the most as a GM, mainly due to Celebrini but we also have yet to see what Misa can really do.

The Ducks have an excellent roster and a very good mix of young skill and veterans who are still heavily contributing. With the addition of J.Carlson this is a roster that should win. However, they still lack physicality within most of the roster and have key players that are relatively untested when it comes to high pressure moments. They question here is while they have an excellent roster, in terms of talent, do they have the right roster in terms of fit and playoff-type hockey.

The Kings don't have the young talent of either team, but they have a solid roster and the personnel to wear a team down physically. The Kings really do not get enough credit in terms of mix between skill, veteran role-players and physicality. Sure we have a problem to workout on our backend and could use more scoring threat but it's not a poorly constructed roster overall. I just wish they had a HC the caliber of what the Ducks have.

Either way, I see the Kings improving next year even with the loss of Kopitar. Neither the Ducks or Sharks are going to have an easy walk to the playoffs in 26/7.
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I am hopeful the Kings improve but like the other Pacific teams I am holding out to see what this summer brings. Really extending it to the conference, I am confident in the top 3 central teams plus VGK and EDM to make the playoffs again. Otherwise I see three spots that could go all kinds of ways.

Calgary can’t score but if they ranked even 25th or 24th in scoring would that be enough behind Dustin Wolf to steal a spot? WPG lost Ehlers but how do they go from President’s Trophy to one of the 10 worst team in the league? I see a regression to the mean coming. I don’t know if St Louis is rebuilding or fortifying behind Thomas and Kyrou. NSH couldn’t outdo their terrible start but if they play all year like they did the second half they should secure a spot.

So no, won’t be an easy path for Anaheim or San Jose and with the light UFA market the trades this summer should be interesting.
 
Clif said:
I am hopeful the Kings improve but like the other Pacific teams I am holding out to see what this summer brings. Really extending it to the conference, I am confident in the top 3 central teams plus VGK and EDM to make the playoffs again. Otherwise I see three spots that could go all kinds of ways.

Calgary can’t score but if they ranked even 25th or 24th in scoring would that be enough behind Dustin Wolf to steal a spot? WPG lost Ehlers but how do they go from President’s Trophy to one of the 10 worst team in the league? I see a regression to the mean coming. I don’t know if St Louis is rebuilding or fortifying behind Thomas and Kyrou. NSH couldn’t outdo their terrible start but if they play all year like they did the second half they should secure a spot.

So no, won’t be an easy path for Anaheim or San Jose and with the light UFA market the trades this summer should be interesting.
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Well put, also @DryKing and @DoubleMinor have very valid observations.

One thing to note - with the very slim pickings at the UFA market, teams with a lot of valuable assets stemming from a (long) rebuild have an additional advantage over teams on or close to a plateau, which are looking at a downward spiral.

Kings are a bit excluded from this UFA market "penalty" because the Kings very rarely ever scored big in the UFA, and already have decent depth and potential when it comes to role players.
 
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