Undrafted prospects

Bollocks

Top Forward
I randomly stumbled upon this guy:

Apparently unsigned. Right shot, offensively gifted D-man with size, plays physical and is rounding out his game and also seems to have leadership capabilities.

Anyone has Rob's pager number available? Do the Kings even have any contract spots left?


Anyone has any other potential gems in the rough that are available as UFAs?
 
Blake is currently at 45 of the 50 contracts. The big issue is that this team is rather heavy on Right shot D prospects at the moment. They'd be better off trying to bring them in through the A. Not sure if there's any way to get them on the reserve list at this point. Typically the college UFA's are the next round of unsigned folks that people would keep an eye out for. Of the reserves I think Jack Hughes is the only one that needs to be signed this year before we'd lose his rights to UFA. There might be a couple others that would either age out or re enter the draft.

Here's some NHL.com articles about the likely to be chased College UFA's

and there's a thread on HF boards for your perusal as well:
Speculation College UFA's
 
I'd take a change on him if we are able to sign him - the biggest question mark is his ability to play defense at the NHL level, but his offensive skill appears to be extremely high.


NHL Potential

As I mentioned earlier, Leslie needs to refine his defensive game if he is to have any chance of making it to the NHL and staying there. He is the definition of a high-risk, high-reward prospect. There’s a chance he never develops that part of his game and his ceiling is the American Hockey League. On the other hand, there’s also the possibility that he becomes a regular 40-50 point defenceman in his prime. To me, that’s a risk worth taking, especially in the later rounds.


Risk-Reward Analysis


Risk – 4/5, Reward – 5/5


Fantasy Hockey Potential


Offence – 8/10, Defence – 4/10
 
Would you take Durzi over Spence? Would you want 2/3 of your RD to be risky offense-first puck movers?

Practically speaking, that’s dead in the water for the Kings philosophy. But for a message board that’s what this player profile makes me think.
 
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But that's just it - apparently he's "getting it" defensively and learning quickly, to the point that the scouts are taking notice (that hopefully includes the Kings scouts).

At the same time, Leslie has been more dependable on Vancouver’s side of the ice. The riskiness that was evident in the past isn’t there nearly as frequently. He’s picking his spots for when to push offensively. He’s not chasing the play in his own zone, not getting caught running around.

Even if his ceiling is Durzi that's not bad at all, especially considering he could get traded down the line.

The Kings only really have 2 relevant right shot D prospects (at least from what I can gather from the depth charts) and Matthew Mania seems to be stagnating at best.

DD will IMO likely retire in 2 years and if Brandt keeps developing nicely there will still be a need for a more offensive-minded RD as soon as next season for cover in case of injuries. Having some waiver-exempt talent at each position is a very nice commodity (it is true that maybe Salin will be in the AHL next season, so it won't be entirely barren). This year Gavi came to the rescue at RD but one has to wonder if he will be with the Kings next season.

The Reign isn't performing bad but the D corps are filled with a bunch of non-prospect "randos" with no real future at the NHL level. Apart from Booth and Dvorak (who are both left shot, not very offensively gifted D-men) there's nothing else there with at least some promise.

Re: College UFAs - thank you for the link @jammer06 , will take a look.

(Yes, it's evident I have too much time on my hands, sick leave FTW.)
 
Would you take Durzi over Spence? Would you want 2/3 of your RD to be risky offense-first puck movers?

Practically speaking, that’s dead in the water for the Kings philosophy. But for a message board that’s what this player profile makes me think.
He's not going to be ready for the NHL right away. Looking at what we have currently in the prospect pipeline we could use a player like him. By the time he is ready to come up, if he ever is, the team composition could look a lot different. If not, and he is ready for the transition, we could always look to include him in the trade.

It's just pipeline building.

Also for all the hate Durzi seems to get, he really is a very good player. We were silly to trade him away for nothing just to free up cap space for PLD.
 
He's not going to be ready for the NHL right away. Looking at what we have currently in the prospect pipeline we could use a player like him. By the time he is ready to come up, if he ever is, the team composition could look a lot different. If not, and he is ready for the transition, we could always look to include him in the trade.

It's just pipeline building.

Also for all the hate Durzi seems to get, he really is a very good player. We were silly to trade him away for nothing just to free up cap space for PLD.

It wasn't for nothing, it was for a second rounder, a high one at that, and realistically - had Rob kept him and not trade for PLD, issues with too many NHL-ready RD's needing ice time would surface this season at the latest and Clarke would maybe be stuck for another year in the AHL which - as we can now see - would definitely not be ideal as he can hold his own in the NHL.

I mean...we can dream we could maybe get a late first for him but whatever...the timing for the trade was in theory just fine as he isn't some deadline catch to boost some playoff roster anyway.

Anyways, trading a guy like Durzi away for seemingly cheap isn't a problem if you then manage to snap some undrafted prospects/college UFA late bloomers.
 
It wasn't for nothing, it was for a second rounder, a high one at that, and realistically - had Rob kept him and not trade for PLD, issues with too many NHL-ready RD's needing ice time would surface this season at the latest and Clarke would maybe be stuck for another year in the AHL which - as we can now see - would definitely not be ideal as he can hold his own in the NHL.

I mean...we can dream we could maybe get a late first for him but whatever...the timing for the trade was in theory just fine as he isn't some deadline catch to boost some playoff roster anyway.

Anyways, trading a guy like Durzi away for seemingly cheap isn't a problem if you then manage to snap some undrafted prospects/college UFA late bloomers.
Agreed, you are right. I mistakenly thought we got something less than Montreal's 2nd round pick for Durzi (which was a pretty good trade at the time). Do you happed to know what we ended up doing with that pick?
 
Agreed, you are right. I mistakenly thought we got something less than Montreal's 2nd round pick for Durzi (which was a pretty good trade at the time). Do you happed to know what we ended up doing with that pick?

Well, that's a different story lol. I think it was used either in Cal Petersen "dumping" trade to Philly or in the trade for PLD.

EDIT: just had a look at Cal's stats. YIKES. .885 in the AHL. Poor guy...
 
But that's just it - apparently he's "getting it" defensively and learning quickly, to the point that the scouts are taking notice (that hopefully includes the Kings scouts).



Even if his ceiling is Durzi that's not bad at all, especially considering he could get traded down the line.

The Kings only really have 2 relevant right shot D prospects (at least from what I can gather from the depth charts) and Matthew Mania seems to be stagnating at best.

DD will IMO likely retire in 2 years and if Brandt keeps developing nicely there will still be a need for a more offensive-minded RD as soon as next season for cover in case of injuries. Having some waiver-exempt talent at each position is a very nice commodity (it is true that maybe Salin will be in the AHL next season, so it won't be entirely barren). This year Gavi came to the rescue at RD but one has to wonder if he will be with the Kings next season.

The Reign isn't performing bad but the D corps are filled with a bunch of non-prospect "randos" with no real future at the NHL level. Apart from Booth and Dvorak (who are both left shot, not very offensively gifted D-men) there's nothing else there with at least some promise.

Re: College UFAs - thank you for the link @jammer06 , will take a look.

(Yes, it's evident I have too much time on my hands, sick leave FTW.)
Drew has three more years left on his contract. I could also see him playing beyond that. In three years with Clarke and Spence playing big minutes in a 1 and 2 role, I am guessing you can do worse than Drew on the third pair. Should get a look at that at the end of this contract anyway.
He's not going to be ready for the NHL right away. Looking at what we have currently in the prospect pipeline we could use a player like him. By the time he is ready to come up, if he ever is, the team composition could look a lot different. If not, and he is ready for the transition, we could always look to include him in the trade.

It's just pipeline building.

Also for all the hate Durzi seems to get, he really is a very good player. We were silly to trade him away for nothing just to free up cap space for PLD.
This is true - you can never build your pipeline enough. It’s more hypothetical about what the team is building around. They kept Spence over Durzi, essentially. College FAs like Leslie have lots of options, and they’re not signing on to help a team’s pipeline. If the Kings would seriously pursue him, they’re selling him on a competitive chance to make the roster at some point. The player he’d replace would be Spence. How likely is the appetite for that? I don’t think there’d be much.
 
Drew has three more years left on his contract. I could also see him playing beyond that. In three years with Clarke and Spence playing big minutes in a 1 and 2 role, I am guessing you can do worse than Drew on the third pair. Should get a look at that at the end of this contract anyway.

This is true - you can never build your pipeline enough. It’s more hypothetical about what the team is building around. They kept Spence over Durzi, essentially. College FAs like Leslie have lots of options, and they’re not signing on to help a team’s pipeline. If the Kings would seriously pursue him, they’re selling him on a competitive chance to make the roster at some point. The player he’d replace would be Spence. How likely is the appetite for that? I don’t think there’d be much.

As far as I am able to grasp contract lengths he's signed for two more years after this one.

Leslie is not a college FA, he's undrafted Junior 19yo. He can't expect to make any NHL roster immediately, he's still a project. The Kings being thin on RD talent in the pipeline and relying on RD to be the offensive catalysts on D is quite a valid selling point.
 
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As far as I am able to grasp contract lengths he's signed for two more years after this one.

Leslie is not a college FA, he's undrafted Junior 19yo. He can't expect to make any NHL roster immediately, he's still a project. The Kings being thin on RD talent in the pipeline and relying on RD to be the offensive catalysts on D is quite a valid selling point.
Well, what can I say, I wrong on both counts. That makes signing this kid different. I will say I still anticipate Drew playing past this contract, but yeah a 19 year-old is much different than a college kid.
 
Regarding Doughty: I think a lot will depend on how the team performs in the time he has left on the contract. If they are barely a playoff team or worse I don't see him continuing his career with the Kings. Maybe he won't retire if his body will be OK, but I can totally see him sign elsewhere.
 
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