Wasted season?

B

Butsy

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Unless we get a number one goaltender to fit in our tiny tiny cap space.
Quick looks old
Copley has rocketed back to earth.
Petersen looks average in the AHL
Villalta is not ready nor does he look like a number one.
Am I missing something?
And we have no cap space.
Blake magic dust?

My personal opinion is I don't know how we got here. But we need a fix or we ruin a great opportunity with a decent offense. We've been begging for an LD but we need a G1.
 
Last season: We should extend Quick for 3 more seasons!!

This Season: We're doomed!!!


Guys... just ****ing relax a bit.
 
The Kings were never going to be in the hunt for the Cup this year. They've outperformed expectations until recently. There are still obvious holes in the team that need to be addressed.

Blake has shown he can make a great deal when working with teams in cap trouble. Fiala + Arvi would both have to be considered "A+" deals. Another "A+" for the Danault signing. He also gets credit for some nice contract extensions, AI + Moore were both very good deals. Have to give him credit for being patient with Vilardi as well. The Doughty deal sucks but if Drew can keep it up for 3 or 4 more years and the cap keeps rising, it stings a little less.

The only thing missing from Blake's acumen now is, can he make a real "hockey deal" talent for talent?

Need a defenseman or two and a goaltender. Can Blake pull it off? I think the offseason is the time unless something really presents itself at the deadline. The way things are trending I assume he is very wary of trading away their 2023 first rounder in what is said to be a very talented, and deep class.

QB + Clarke need to be impact players before the team is really able to compete.
 
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The Kings were never going to in the hunt for the Cup this year. They've outperformed expectations until recently. There are still obvious holes in the team that need to be addressed.

Blake has shown he can make a great deal when working with teams in cap trouble. Fiala + Arvi would both have to be considered "A+" deals. Another "A+" for the Danault signing. He also gets credit for some nice contract extensions, AI + Moore were both very good deals. Have to give him credit for being patient with Vilardi as well. The Doughty deal sucks but if Drew can keep it up for 3 or 4 more years and the cap keeps rising, it stings a little less.

The only thing missing from Blake's acumen now is, can he make a real "hockey deal" talent for talent?

Need a defenseman or two and a goaltender. Can Blake pull it off? I think the offseason is the time unless something really presents itself at the deadline. The way things are trending I assume he is very wary of trading away their 2023 first rounder in what is said to be a very talented, and deep class.

QB + Clarke need to be impact players before the team is really able to compete.

My expectation for this season was that they would make the playoffs. My hope for this season was that they would win a first round series.

But I also expected a deal for a left shot defenseman during the offseason. Disappointingly, that hasn't happened yet. However, I believe says more about our prospect pool than it does about our front office.

I guess the best piece among the prospects not named Clarke or Byfield would be Spence. I wish McLellan would alternate him with Walker to showcase the kid at the NHL level. Despite his talent, Spence is small so the Kings need to remind the league that he can play. I would rather the Kings trade Walker, but it may have to be Spence because the current Kings D is nothing to rave about.

Next on the list to add would be Kupari. Although I am really becoming a Rasmus believer, I think he may go as part of the trade package.

And then there is Turcotte. Huge potential but the poor kid can't stay on the ice. If he is healthy, McLellan needs to play him. The Kings really need to know what they have in #39 . So doers the League.

And then there's Pinelli who is still tearing it up in Juniors...

I wish Rob could keep all the guys I've mentioned, but I don't see how. The strong LD is still Priority #1 .
 
The Kings need quite a few players, not just a goalie. The great prospects are just that.
 
I continue to think that the Kings have been trying to build a championship team from 2 diametrically opposed ways that is resulting in a black hole team: too good to tank, not good enough to win. They amassed a deep, talented prospect pool and then proceeded to... not play them? Instead you sign/trade for more forward talent?

The goaltending falling apart is unlucky, for sure, but I think some of it can be attributed to the defense being suspect, and team defense being bad overall.

Bad hiring on coaching, too. I am not, and have not been, sold on McLellan as a good coach. He had a skilled Sharks team and basically the best player in the world in McDavid and did jack squat.
 
If the Kings organization really believes in the prospects they have, why are they not playing them. They have Clark, Spence, I keep hearing Turchots name but they won't play them. They are not going to get NHL ready playing in the minors all the time. They have to play at the NHL level, they will make some mistakes but if they are as good as I keep hearing everyone on this board say they are, they will rise to the occasion. This the fifth year of their rebuild and most of they're prospects are still in the minors. They're goal is to make the playoffs but making the playoffs only to be eliminated in the first round isn't what the big picture should be. The big picture should be assembling a team that can deep into the playoffs and contend for winning the Cup. It will take having young players that are ready and capable complete the big picture. I would have brought those young guns up last year or even the year before and give them a legit shot to show what they can really do and if they didn't have it, then use them in trades to bring the talent you need. You could package two or three to bring in a good player that be the case. But all I hear is about all the great prospects they have but yet they have weaknesses here like in goal, at Left defense and are soft in the toughness department.
 
hahahahaha, wasted season ? a bad streak of a few games and we're done?
 
I remind myself when I need to that this team is still in the late stages of a rebuild. Should they miss the playoffs it will be quite disappointing. However, you can’t call this season a waste in terms of progress made regardless of outcome. Vilardi looked to be maybe a throw-in or even just a salvaged pick in a trade but he’s emerged as a future top 6 player who will be very important to this team.

Kaliyev and Byfield are on different developmental tracks but both are taking valuable steps forward this season. The former more steady and the latter showing some goods at LW of all places. You can just feel that next year will be another step for them.

Mikey keeps getting bigger, older, and stronger. For all his issues early Durzi has shown big strides at LD. We still need LD, but he’s held it down and should still have either great value in a trade or will play an important role as a third pair D. Walker has bounced back well and upped his trade value.

The team has a better idea what it has in Clarke, JAD, and Kupari (who I will admit is doing well at PK).

Goaltending has been painful but if we need a new direction it’s better Blake learns it now than when this team is really ready to compete. Sucks but can’t call that a waste, just a lesson learned the hard way.

Want to see a waste, look at Vancouver. They didn’t think they had to rebuild yet. Now they are one of the most embarrassing teams in the league.
 
I echo VCRW's sentiment that the plan for this year was to make the playoffs with the rest of the league knowing the Kings would be a threat. Winning a round was clearly on the management's goal list, I'm not sure I was with them on it but with the divisional structure it's a fair ask. You take what the kings have done to this point and really the only difference between this year and last is that there are expectations and therefore it feels like they aren't doing as well when by all the standings numbers they are on a 97 point pace vs the 99 points they got last year.

Yes I understand that last year there were so many man games lost to injury. Particularly when it looked like the best Doughty we'd seen in years and this years VA is clouding what we remember of last years VA. Remember last years 3-6 was supposed to be Toby/Roy and Edler/Walker. Roy while an analytics darling clearly showed he couldn't fill the Doughty roll on the right side leading to much of the auditioning of Durzi and Spence. The end takeaway of all of that is still that this backend is a weird confluence of improvement from within while at the same time appearing from the outside to be the easiest part of the lineup to shore up via trade. The longer time goes by without that trade happening, the only thing we can conclude is that management doesn't believe that trade to be the answer, or that the deal is unworkable. Durzi has played well enough this year that trading him as is plus multiple assets could be fairly questioned. Don't forget that when DL ended the 11 season, we all remember the trades in 12, but that summer he said the biggest goal was the improvement from within. Blake's facing a similar balancing act at the moment.

The goaltending.....I still am of the opinion that the defense in zone (all 5, not just the d pairs) has a lot to do with the looks that have made 3 NHL caliber goaltenders look pedestrian. That said, the goalies have looked pedestrian as well. Copley's run coinciding with overall good team play isn't an accident. Just like its easier to fire a coach than 23 players, sometimes you get them to refocus around the only other position on the ice that they can. Getting that all to mesh down this stretch run is why the Toddster gets paid the big bucks.

Which leads to the question of the coaching, their decisions to play who they're playing and balancing this years goals in that picture. There have been some maddening deployments (anyone else still having flashbacks to OT starting lineups) but they have been part of a consistent plan to force the youngsters to earn time even if we are all impatient about it. I'll give these guys credit that they think they're going about this "the right way". And anyone that's ever done something "the right way" knows it's never the fastest way, it never has the immediate gratification, but generally once its near completion it's been worth the effort. The books still out on if Todd's got this thing under wraps but based on where they are on the standings this isn't a tire fire.

So lost season? Only from a momentary pie in the sky thought that the Pacific division was vulnerable and Colorado looks like they might pull a Knights from last year. Seattle might not be as good as their record this year, Edmonton and Calgary might not be the contenders they looked like last year. Those are all suppositions and maybes though and reframing this years Kings results based on that lens is a fools errand. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you watch a team, in a season like this one, and your only measure of success is Cup or Bedard......well you're missing out on a lot of ways to be entertained besides disappointment.
 
The Kings are a decent team. They've played in a lot of exciting games. Yes, the defense isn't great, but even though "Kings hockey" gave us a couple of Stanley Cups (for which I will always be grateful), we've thankfully moved on and opened things up a bit. The major concerns are the continuing struggles of the special teams, obviously the goaltending (I don't think anyone in the Kings organization believes that Pheonix Copley is the long-term solution), lack of physicality, continuing struggles of the special teams, and the defense in general. Also hoping that at least one or two of the top prospects develop into someone you'd like to build a legitimate Stanley Cup contender around. Right now, the Kings are an up and down, fringe playoff team. The various playoff prediction sites give them anywhere from a 52-60% chance of making the playoffs (60% seems a bit high right now).
If every season in which you don't end up hoisting the cup is a wasted season, then then Kings have wasted 53 of their 55 seasons.
 
Wasted season? What happened to just sitting back and being entertained by the great game of hockey?
 
So after tomorrow and 10 days off, what place do people believe the Kings will be in by the next time they play?
 

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