News Article: THE ATHLETIC - 2019-20 NHL Season Preview: Los Angeles Kings

[johnjm22]

2019-20 NHL Season Preview: Los Angeles Kings

The truth hurts.

Click to read more...

 

[Choralone]

2019-20 NHL Season Preview: Los Angeles Kings

The truth hurts.

Whooo boy... I think we're all more or less in agreement that this was the prognosis but it sure is ugly seeing it laid out in black & white for every position on the ice with supporting analysis. As the author concedes and most of us agree, a bounce-back from some of our stars is likely - but not for all of them, and that bounce-back won't restore them to the form of their prime years.

At least this weekend will confirm the good news on our farm system after Pronman updates his series (Kings are in the top 5).

 

[KingsFan7824]

Plenty of bad numbers in the article, but I don't feel anything as a result of seeing them. Not entirely sure how much truth telling there is in there. I think the vast majority get what the Kings are now. I still had some hope at this time last year, but last year doesn't happen if there's anything left. It's over, and the players clearly know that as well. They know, we know, management knows, the head coach knows. It's now about running out the time on some of these contracts, and slowly developing what we can only hope is the next wave of potential.

Kopitar, Brown, Doughty, Quick, they're very expensive babysitters. There are certainly worse jobs to do on this planet, so hopefully they still consider themselves to be very lucky.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Uh oh guys I'm starting to think we may not be a good team anymore

 

[Herby]

Cliffs: The numbers say Kopitar and Doughty were even worse than they looked to the eyes.

I still think we will regret not moving one of them, I was cool with one extension and making one of them the face of the franchise but giving both of them long term big money contracts well into their 30's is IMO going to be a huge mistake.

 

[Cook24]

Cliffs: The numbers say Kopitar and Doughty were even worse than they looked to the eyes.

I still think we will regret not moving one of them, I was cool with one extension and making one of them the face of the franchise but giving both of them long term big money contracts well into their 30's is IMO going to be a huge mistake.

Yep. Kopitar shouldve been moved this or last off-season...

 

[Herby]

Yep. Kopitar shouldve been moved this or last off-season...

It was probably to late at that point. You would think that Dean in a desperation move to save his job or Blake in an attempt to get a fresher slate would have considered it but it seems like neither GM really did. The window to trade Kopitar is probably shut and teams aren't going to give up what they would have two years ago (and that's assuming DD would even waive).

It just seems so ridiculous that a team that is going to be as bad as the Kings will be the next couple of years (+ last year) have multiple players 30+ and $10m+. Just doesn't seem right.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Kopitar has five more years left on his deal and he'll be 36 when his deal expires. Doughty's just kicked in and he'll be 37 when his deal expires eight years from now.

They'll likely be tougher targets to move as they get older, but the Kings are likely stuck with them until they decide to retire. I would say they're not the worst contracts in the league, but if they perform as poorly as they did last season, then we know exactly where the problem lies with this franchise.

 

[Rorschach]

Kopitar has five more years left on his deal and he'll be 36 when his deal expires. Doughty's just kicked in and he'll be 37 when his deal expires eight years from now.

They'll likely be tougher targets to move as they get older, but the Kings are likely stuck with them until they decide to retire. I would say they're not the worst contracts in the league, but if they perform as poorly as they did last season, then we know exactly where the problem lies with this franchise.

I say Kopitar, no...Doughty, yes, in terms of movability the next several years.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I'm usually a total hater of Dom and I still think his models are trash as they favor overwhelming offense and 'expected' results (how many years in a row do you get to consider a guy 'unlucky'?) which punishes two-way guys and non-offensive d-men, but his conclusions were fine. He just found a way to take a shot at guys as usual.

Not wrong at all, just opportunistic, he's thrilled he finally got to write that without inventing reasons to drop Doughty out of the top 20 d-men.

 

[johnjm22]

The article does say the Kings have an 81% chance of being better than they were last season.

We have to hope Kopitar can be like Pavelski and be productive into his mid 30s. Personally I think he will be.

I think the Kings will finish around 20th overall this year. We really need to be able to move some guys for decent draft picks. That should be Blake's main focus this season. It won't be easy.

 

[kingsfan28]

I'm usually a total hater of Dom and I still think his models are trash as they favor overwhelming offense and 'expected' results (how many years in a row do you get to consider a guy 'unlucky'?) which punishes two-way guys and non-offensive d-men, but his conclusions were fine. He just found a way to take a shot at guys as usual.

Not wrong at all, just opportunistic, he's thrilled he finally got to write that without inventing reasons to drop Doughty out of the top 20 d-men.

yeah, he's been waiting for this day for a while. It 's funny how these days, if you don't put up all the pointzzzzz, you're almost considered a poor DEFENSEMAN.

 

[Nickster]

How about early last season Rob Blake sees the deer-in-headlights gaze of John Stevens at that post-game presser saying he didn't know why the team sucked so bad that night.... [Conspiracy] Blake realizes the Kings are going to be mediocre even with an OK coach, and does a drastic course correction. Let's scuttle this Titanic, fire Stevens, call in the leadership group - Kopitar C, Doughty A, Carter A, (Quick, maybe...) and tell them they are tanking. Don't taint the rest of the team, it's their job. Those three + Quickie proceed to have collectively their worst seasons ever. WD was in on the tank, or too clueless. [/Conspiracy] Either way - result good lottery odds, and excellent later round position. I don't see the Kings getting a Turcotte + Kaliyev, if Stevens continued as coach. For me it explains Kopitar ignoring Kovi in almost all situations until the very end of the season. It explains Kopitar sucking so bad on the power play in general. Carter sucked so bad last season, he couldn't keep a puck on his stick. Doughty turned the puck over all the time. Quickie let in the first goal so many times. It was so craptacular.

I just want to believe that there was some method to this mediocrity. It makes me feel better to think it was all on purpose. It probably was.

 

[KINGS17]

How about early last season Rob Blake sees the deer-in-headlights gaze of John Stevens at that post-game presser saying he didn't know why the team sucked so bad that night.... [Conspiracy] Blake realizes the Kings are going to be mediocre even with an OK coach, and does a drastic course correction. Let's scuttle this Titanic, fire Stevens, call in the leadership group - Kopitar C, Doughty A, Carter A, (Quick, maybe...) and tell them they are tanking. Don't taint the rest of the team, it's their job. Those three + Quickie proceed to have collectively their worst seasons ever. WD was in on the tank, or too clueless. [/Conspiracy] Either way - result good lottery odds, and excellent later round position. I don't see the Kings getting a Turcotte + Kaliyev, if Stevens continued as coach. For me it explains Kopitar ignoring Kovi in almost all situations until the very end of the season. It explains Kopitar sucking so bad on the power play in general. Carter sucked so bad last season, he couldn't keep a puck on his stick. Doughty turned the puck over all the time. Quickie let in the first goal so many times. It was so craptacular.

I just want to believe that there was some method to this mediocrity. It makes me feel better to think it was all on purpose. It probably was.

...but alas, the Kings are not a good hockey team. That article was right on point. The Kings may surprise and be better than the author expects, but it won't be good enough to get any higher than the black hole, which would be a disaster. @Herby is 100% correct, it's ridiculous to have a team this bad and be paying two guys over 30 over $10M a season.

 

[KINGS17]

Yep. Kopitar shouldve been moved this or last off-season...

Kopitar has a NMC until the end of the 2019-20 season when he must submit a list of seven teams to which he is willing to be traded. I am going to go out on a limb here and predict that list will have seven teams that would not need or want him, but I hope I am wrong.

The time to trade Kopitar was before he was given his third contract.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

Kopitar 1 pp goal and Doughty 1 ESG (I think they each got them in last 2 or 3 games of the year) are putrid, period...besides the rest of the myriads of abysmal stats presented for both.
For better, or worse, they are going to be here awhile. Since they can't be moved, hoping they move ones that have no future - Carter and Lewis. Then if Toffoli is much like last year,
move him. Am hoping they can move Forbort as well, but not sounding good about his back. I think since the D is so thin ATM, keep Martinez until the deadline.

I know most will say "JAD, Anderson, Clague, Kupari need a year or more in Ontario"....I say let each of these players determine that and the coaches.
1 or more of them may be ready and if they are ready, it's not being rushed. Who though Wagner, Roy, Luff or Walker could have played last year? No one!
And Jad, Anderson, Clague and Kupari are ALL BETTER prospects than those players, all with higher ceilings...the year before, Iafallo and Fantenberg made it.
So, besides Grundstrom and Prokhorkin becoming fixtures this season, I have a feeling 1 of JAD or Clague make the team.

 

[Bandit]

The article does say the Kings have an 81% chance of being better than they were last season.

We have to hope Kopitar can be like Pavelski and be productive into his mid 30s. Personally I think he will be.

I think the Kings will finish around 20th overall this year. We really need to be able to move some guys for decent draft picks. That should be Blake's main focus this season. It won't be easy.

They could all jump feet first into a wood chipper and be better than last season.

 

[funky]

I am still going to hold on to hope that last year was just a snowball rolling down a hill effect of negative things combining to give us the worst season we have seen by a Kings team in decades.

It may not be popular but I expect way better out of the following

Kopitar regains his 75 point a year Selke form. I am so tired of hearing people write off a person that is 31 years old. We have guys in this league that are performing at a high-level that are still five years older than him. Everything up to this season shows our fans believing that Kopitar‘s game style and huge body should let him play at a more elite level later on in his career. He has always been inconsistent season to season and I think he rebounds.

Doughty - He is an elite defenseman that strives for the best. He may not be the smartest person on earth but the boy can play hockey. Get this guy a proper defensive partner already. He rebounds back to the norm.

Our entire coaching staff. Players aren’t stupid. They know when they’re being put in a position that does not contribute to their Strank’s and the strengths of the team. Last year was the worst combination of coaching strategies, lineups and according to players team practices etc. We may not have the best coach in the world but we do have a damn good one this year and I see him righting the ship. Kovalchuk will not be playing doghouse minutes and her coach is secure enough in his abilities that he will bench guys that are dogging it.

Kids - We are starting to add some team speed. Guys like Wagner, Kempe, and pretty much everyone drafted going forward definitely have the wheels to keep up. We have kids that have skill and we have numerous kids that will fight her roster spots. When kids are introduced to a steel team it brings energy, skill and causes the older players to compete.

Goaltending. - I do not believe that quick is done. He was having a ridiculously good season until his blowup with Desjardins in front of the bench. After that his season went to hell. 90% of goalies being a lead is because of their mental state. I don’t believe it’s Quicks physical state but his mental state that was cracked last year. I see him having the biggest rebound of them all even with a crap defense in front of him.


I am not saying that we will have an elite team, Stanley Cup team, or even a playoff team. I am just thinking that there is too many things and too many Audis last year to make me believe that our players fell completely off a cliff in the span of the Vegas playoff run to the start of the next year.

I would not write off this team completely. There has to be some pride left from these guys after a crap season

 

[crassbonanza]

For the life of me I do not understand why the Athletic pushes Dom so hard.

As an analytics guy he sucks, his models are shit and they are full of "outliers". There is a reason no team has picked him up.
As a hockey guy he sucks, he has no connections to the league and doesn't have a background in it. His opinions are worse than the average hf poster.
As a writer he sucks, his whole schtick is being a sarcastic asshole who lectures actual professionals about how to do their job. He is just a try hard hot take artist.

I honestly was considering signing up for the athletic for this upcoming season, but seeing how often they are featuring Dom I decided against it. If they value a guy like him so highly then I can only imagine the other people they are paying to write for them.

The Kings will probably suck, but seeing Dom say it makes me believe they might actually go on a run.

 

[johnjm22]

The Kings will only be decent this year if they return to playing good structured team defense. That's their path to competitiveness.

 

[Sleeping Dog]

Let’s face facts:

1. Kopi is going nowhere. He pretty much controls if he’s going to be dealt. I feel he’ll bounce back this year and next, but after that - who knows, maybe he settles into a 2C/3C position the rest of his contract. His TOI needs to be reduced.
2. Drew is going nowhere. He’s still a top 5-7 DMan in the league. McLellan needs to get his TOI down before Drew runs out of gas. Hopefully, some of our defense prospects can do that.
3. The upcoming season could range from a near miss of the playoffs (unlikely) to a bottom 5 team (probably unlikely too, but more of a possibility). Chances are they’ll be in the bottom 10-12 slot. Maybe we can get lucky in the lottery!
4. I thought Quick might get dealt this off-season with a few teams needing a starting goalie. But, obviously that didn’t happen. While I like Campbell, I think he should noble traded p, if possible. Get Petersen up in the NHL so see what we have with him. Quick gets exposed in expansion draft.
5. Team still needs to shed older players [Carts, Lewis, AMart...) and get the young players ice team that debuted last year (Luff, Wagner, Amadio, Grund...). Gotta see who might be candidates for longer term roster spots. We have quite a few potentially strong players coming up - need to keep some slots open for them.

This year will probably not be fun. Next year should be better. Then we should start competing for playoffs and series wins.

 

[Steve Zissou]

I know most will say "JAD, Anderson, Clague, Kupari need a year or more in Ontario"....I say let each of these players determine that and the coaches.
1 or more of them may be ready and if they are ready, it's not being rushed. Who though Wagner, Roy, Luff or Walker could have played last year? No one!
And Jad, Anderson, Clague and Kupari are ALL BETTER prospects than those players, all with higher ceilings...the year before, Iafallo and Fantenberg made it.
So, besides Grundstrom and Prokhorkin becoming fixtures this season, I have a feeling 1 of JAD or Clague make the team.

From all the buzz, my $ is on JAD making this team out of camp. Really liking his game and determination - he does all the right things a hockey player needs to do night in and night out.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

From all the buzz, my $ is on JAD making this team out of camp. Really liking his game and determination - he does all the right things a hockey player needs to do night in and night out.

I agree. He's completed JR career, made the team last year, played Team Canada at WJC with wrist that was broken 4 weeks before and not healed. He's been training in LA all Summer and with the pros.
He can also play on any line and at C or W, so that makes him versatile. The other one to watch is Lizotte. Someone posted on lakingsinsider thread that when Emerson was talking last night
at this SOTF, that Emerson singled out and praised Lizotte...for what that's worth. With Forbort out, either MacD makes it, or one of Clague / Anderson, I think. Not sure if Ryan would be DD's
partner. ? Although didn't he play some with Burns, in SJ?

 

[KINGS17]

For the life of me I do not understand why the Athletic pushes Dom so hard.

As an analytics guy he sucks, his models are **** and they are full of "outliers". There is a reason no team has picked him up.
As a hockey guy he sucks, he has no connections to the league and doesn't have a background in it. His opinions are worse than the average hf poster.
As a writer he sucks, his whole schtick is being a sarcastic ******* who lectures actual professionals about how to do their job. He is just a try hard hot take artist.

I honestly was considering signing up for the athletic for this upcoming season, but seeing how often they are featuring Dom I decided against it. If they value a guy like him so highly then I can only imagine the other people they are paying to write for them.

The Kings will probably suck, but seeing Dom say it makes me believe they might actually go on a run.

People read his stuff, and they love to hate him.

 

[KINGS17]

Let’s face facts:

1. Kopi is going nowhere. He pretty much controls if he’s going to be dealt. I feel he’ll bounce back this year and next, but after that - who knows, maybe he settles into a 2C/3C position the rest of his contract. His TOI needs to be reduced.
2. Drew is going nowhere. He’s still a top 5-7 DMan in the league. McLellan needs to get his TOI down before Drew runs out of gas. Hopefully, some of our defense prospects can do that.
3. The upcoming season could range from a near miss of the playoffs (unlikely) to a bottom 5 team (probably unlikely too, but more of a possibility). Chances are they’ll be in the bottom 10-12 slot. Maybe we can get lucky in the lottery!
4. I thought Quick might get dealt this off-season with a few teams needing a starting goalie. But, obviously that didn’t happen. While I like Campbell, I think he should noble traded p, if possible. Get Petersen up in the NHL so see what we have with him. Quick gets exposed in expansion draft.
5. Team still needs to shed older players [Carts, Lewis, AMart...) and get the young players ice team that debuted last year (Luff, Wagner, Amadio, Grund...). Gotta see who might be candidates for longer term roster spots. We have quite a few potentially strong players coming up - need to keep some slots open for them.

This year will probably not be fun. Next year should be better. Then we should start competing for playoffs and series wins.

I think item number 2 on your list is the most problematic. The Kings just don't have much depth on defense.