Tyler Toffoli

[KingsFan7824]

It is also an indication they aren't willing to try the 11-77-10-28 line combos, which would dramatically change the style and tempo they play. Instead of rolling three #1 lines essentially creating a nightmare for opposing teams, they are content to change nothing in an attempt to improve the team.

Where do you see 3 #1 lines?

 

[Sydor25]

Where do you see 3 #1 lines?

Pittsburgh? But they don't have defense or goaltending.

They also won fewer games than the Kings in the playoffs.

 

[Pucknut50]

Exactly ^^^^^^^,

I am not trying to pick on people, but this kind of crap infuriates me...

Did Kings Fan's learn any lessons from Loki ? The Kings Coaching staff did.

Stop trying to put Square pegs into round holes.

J-Dub is a RW, Toffoli is a RW. Toffoli doesn't have to play with Kopitar.

Kopitar is already a perennial 45 to 50 assist player, he doesn't need Toffoli to be that.

If anything I would encourage Kopitar to shake this pass first mentality

The Kings need Kopitar scoring goals too, Kopitar needs to be a guy that pots 30+G a season. Kopitar hasn't scored a PP Goal since March of 2012.

Kopitar will never shake his pass first mentality. Your doing the same thing your accusing people here about Williams and Toffoli. How many players can you name who changed from pass first mentality to shoot first mentality. ZERO.

 

[vital]

Where do you see 3 #1 lines?

He means having richards centering the third line. They would roll 3 lines with arguably a #1 center on each line.

 

[KingsFan7824]

He means having richards centering the third line. They would roll 3 lines with arguably a #1 center on each line.

I got that part, but that doesn't make three #1 lines, essentially or not. Move Carter to C, and the Kings have two wingers that have shown over the course of time that they can score. Toffoli has shown something, but has also only played 10 games. Penner, pre-LA, could put the puck in the net consistently. After Williams and Brown there's what? A rookie and who? I don't know, 3rd base.

We don't know what the Kings will or won't do just yet. Maybe they try Toffoli at LW. Maybe they put Carter at C all the time. We don't know exactly who will be on the team to start the year. If the Kings manage to get Penner back, than that changes things. I doubt everything is set in stone already.

 

[damacles1156]

Kopitar will never shake his pass first mentality. Your doing the same thing your accusing people here about Williams and Toffoli. How many players can you name who changed from pass first mentality to shoot first mentality. ZERO.

Kopitar is capable of potting more goals, ha has done it in his career.

That is not the same as trying to change him from Center to wing...

Not even close.

Kopitar would have potted about 25 again this last season (if it was a full season).

Asking him to shoot a little more to maybe add 5 to 10 goals to his totals is not asking him to change his entire game......

 

[Whiskeypete]

Where do you see 3 #1 lines?

it is hypothetical and a scenario that can only work if Dean can trade JB for a M Read, add a LW from UFA and one of the kids fills in also.

it is moving away from the traditional 1, 2, 3 and 4 line concept. throw out those 'definitions' for the most part, because this would give opposing teams a *** nightmare with trying to play the line matching game. i won't even number the lines to prove my point.

K -line
Brown - Kopitar - JW

This line stays intact as it has for years now and has a balance of skill and size. There is nothing wrong with these three together, they need to improve consistency. If there is a change then perhaps flip DB with M Read, to give Kopitar someone with better skill to his left.

C - line
Stalberg (UFA - CHI) - Carter - Toffoli

Carts and TT have shown they are seeing the ice the same. Both have great hands. They need a big body down the other side to work the boards. Sign Stalberg which adds elite level speed and has some very good hands. Cost is the concern for Stalberg as he may not fit under the cap.

R - line
Read (trade - PHI) - Richards - Nolan

The long rumored trade for JB happens and LA gets M Read, the do everything LW the team needs to cement its line up. Nolan skates the RW to add size, grit and front of net presence for R & R.

S- line
Clifford - Stoll - Lewis
The Stoll line serves the same it has for 2+ years now in LA. Tight defense and energy. Stoll and Lewis work well together. The Colonel brings the muscle and grit.

Extras
Pearson: does he make the club is the first question? If he does then the team has a young LW it works into games and slowly works him up.

Vey: does he make the club? Another youngster that can play C or RW. Can the team take the chance of two rookies as the extra forwards? IMO, no. Only one of them at this time.

Fraser: inexpensive, vet that can fill in holes on the bottom line. Brings grit and effort every night, but sometimes he is wildly horrible.

Released
Penner: to expensive, to inconsistent and is only delaying the eventual development and use of a kid like Pearson

Richardson: to expensive as a nightly scratch. I like his effort, grit and speed but not at $1.5M

Trade
King: slow, stone hands, no grit, no fire. sees a ridiculous amount of ice time for what he produces on the ice. CHI proved him to be a defensive liability for LA.

It isn't perfect, but I think you see what I'm talking about. It is LA playing essentially three forward lines that will play aggressive up ice, with a good blend of size and skill. By no means are they 'all star' lines, but they create a constant rolling of three lines that will sustain pressure on an opponent.

The difference with LA and what PHI tried is that LA has a D corp and the best goalie in the world backing them up.

 

[Herby]

Assume the Kings sign no free agents and go with what they have (not bringing Penner or Richardson back). Their lineup would look like this:

Brown-Kopitar-Williams
Toffoli-Richards-Carter
King-Stoll-Lewis
Clifford-Fraser-Nolan

That is not a championship caliber lineup. For one, there again will be no secondary scoring, which was a glaring weakness all season, especially in the playoffs. Look at how poorly King, Lewis and Stoll all finished the final 30-40 games. Clifford, Fraser and Nolan are kind of just there, great 4th lines have an identity, I don't see anything in that line, all three guys regressed terribly this season, to the point where all three were liabilities in the playoffs, which was disappointing with how each guy has played in the past.

As for the top 6, you have Carter and Toffoli playing weaker positions. If you move Carter to C where he belongs in enables you to move Toffoli to his natural RW position. Go out and either sign for or trade for a 2nd line LW who can chip in some offense and put Pearson with Richards and Lewis and suddenly you have the makings of three pretty good lines, with only Dustin Brown not playing his natural position. You could also have Toffoli up with Kopitar and Williams with Carter.

 

[HolyShot*]

Most of a team's money will go to the top 6. This whole notion of rolling four scoring lines distributes a lot of the skill/money through the entire forward corps. Something like this is bound to fail.

 

[King'sPawn]

Most of a team's money will go to the top 6. This whole notion of rolling four scoring lines distributes a lot of the skill/money through the entire forward corps. Something like this is bound to fail.

2009 Penguins disagree.

 

[likid]

2009 Penguins disagree.

2009 Penguins had Malkin on ELC...

 

[HolyShot*]

2009 Penguins had Malkin on ELC...

There you go. I would argue there's not enough skill (Brown) in our top 6 and that is why we're able to keep them somewhat together. We really don't have a first line but ideally you want a first line that scores the bulk of your goals. A 2nd line that chips some in and then two bottom lines that can eat minutes.

We won the cup with scoring by committee and great defense. Its hard to replicate that effort so dean must think carefully about the role of our top 6.

This will be the most important decision he has to make in the future. Right now he has to figure out what our top 4 D is going to look like.

 

[King'sPawn]

2009 Penguins had Malkin on ELC...

And this changes the point that the Penguins had 4 scoring lines how, again?

 

[triplcrown]

Toffoli is quality goods.
He will help us obtain Jonathan Drouin at The Draft.

Dude, you're gettin' a DROUIN.

 

[DaAnimal]

Toffoli is quality goods.
He will help us obtain Jonathan Drouin at The Draft.

Dude, you're gettin' a DROUIN.

You serious? I'm down with drouin if it ONLY takes toffoli.

 

[HolyShot*]

And this changes the point that the Penguins had 4 scoring lines how, again?

An ELC in your top 6 would enable a team to have a cheaper top 6 and a lower income roster all together. Malkin now costs 9.5 million a year. Big difference eh?

 

[Herby]

it is moving away from the traditional 1, 2, 3 and 4 line concept. throw out those 'definitions' for the most part, because this would give opposing teams a *** nightmare with trying to play the line matching game. i won't even number the lines to prove my point.

Goodluck trying to explain this to some people, their brains are so hard wired into thinking 2 scoring lines, 1 checking line, 1 energy line they can't see the big picture that with the Kings strength down the middle they could present massive matchup problems, especially in a playoff series.

 

[etherialone]

Goodluck trying to explain this to some people, their brains are so hard wired into thinking 2 scoring lines, 1 checking line, 1 energy line they can't see the big picture that with the Kings strength down the middle they could present massive matchup problems, especially in a playoff series.

I think it should be easy enough to see when you consider our team D system. We were built from the net out (though JB was replaced by Quick it was JB that DL was planning on building around) to be a big tough D responsible team.

That is what we have built. Having Kopitar Richards Carter Stoll as our centers doesn't mean that they aren't all completely responsible for for playing our system 100% of the time. In fact I would say that having 4 balanced lines would be idillic for our system.

Use the way our D is set up (when healthy). SAH/PMD SAH/PMD SAH/PMD etc. Balance is the crux of that system. What we are looking at for our forward lines is to have Banger Cornerman/Skill 2 Way Pivot/Sniper Finisher. That is what we want out of each line.

Having Stoll centering Clifford and Lewis doesn't make them a shut down line per se but it does give us a line that can be one but then so does having a line with Brown/Kopitar/Williams. We would be spreading out the talent and no doubt one line has better players than the others but the responsibilities remain the same.

I am good with however it works out but I do like the idea of rolling with Kopitar Richards Carter and Stoll as our four C's or at least testing it out in the pre season to see how it works. If it works out we would be next to impossible for teams to match up against.

 

[King'sPawn]

An ELC in your top 6 would enable a team to have a cheaper top 6 and a lower income roster all together. Malkin now costs 9.5 million a year. Big difference eh?

The salary cap in 2008-2009 season was $56 million, less than what the Penguins have available.

So no, not a big difference. They still managed 3 scoring lines with a lower ceiling. Nice try.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Had to bump this thread. He's only 22 and already has 19 points in 33 playoff games over the past two years. Toffoli will be popping in 30+ goals regularly in no time, especially with Carter as his center and Pearson on the opposite wing. What a trio.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Gaborik (UFA)-Kopitar-Brown
Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
King-Stoll-Williams
Clifford-Richards-Lewis

Extra: Nolan

I don't see much change for next year. None of these guys except Gaborik are UFA's. Stoll and Williams will be entering the last year of their deals.

At this point, I see the Kings toiling with the idea of re-signing Stoll and dealing Richards'.

It is possible the Kings let Stoll walk in 2015-16, move Richards' to 3rd line center and let Andreoff play 4th line center.

At this point Stoll is more valuable with his face-off ability and physical play in the playoffs. Richards has been invisible and is a -5.

 

[etherialone]

Tyler Toffoli

Being overhyped by me since before his draft.

Still going to overhype the guy. Kid is going to prove himself an elite scorer in a season or two and be a clutch player for us for a long time.

Toffoli
HYPED

Toffoli over HYPED.

 

[KingKopitar11*]

I think if you send Clifford to Botswana, and put in Andreoff, you'd have a scoring touch in every line. Real talk yo.

Something tells me Clifford will be traded for a pick this offseason

 

[KingCanadain1976]

I think if you send Clifford to Botswana, and put in Andreoff, you'd have a scoring touch in every line. Real talk yo.

Something tells me Clifford will be traded for a pick this offseason

I think your right even thou it pains me to admit that. Clifford however would be best served traded to winnipeg for Clitsome and a pick ( i think 3rd but was offered this trade with a 4th) I think he would be a good replacement for Mitchell young more mobile but still pretty strong defensively.

 

[go4hockey]

I'm a big fan of top titty but Simmonds and Clifford made immediate impacts as well.

Neither of those players have the hockey skill TT has. He has scored at every level and will do so in the NHL also.