Bringer of Jollity
Registered User
This is definitely what set the Kings apart, and they are actually a very weird example.I think one of the big differences between the Chicagos and Tampas vs. Edmonton and Arizona is the ability to acquire picks aside from the top of the draft.
I'm confident we can find players outside of the top ten, we've been doing it forever, they may not be all-stars, but good depth guys are important to a rebuild and we haven't had any problems acquiring them in the past.
We still need to ice a team, but we can still let go off a few players and be a good team in a few years, it's not unheard of.
Kopitar, Brown, Quick were already in the system from the Dave Taylor-era. I think Martinez may have been drafted under Taylor as well..or a few of the other depth pieces at least.
They had 4 top 5 picks (and also traded for Jack Johnson, a former #3 overall from Carolina), but the results weren't staggering. Doughty (#2 OVR) is obviously an elite player. Bernier (#4) was a backup (who owned us, incidentally). Schenn (#5) was traded for Mike Richards. Hickey (#4) was a bust and eventually waived. Johnson (#3, acquired for vets Tim Gleason and Eric Belanger) was traded for Jeff Carter.
The Kings did have a lot of success drafting contributing players outside of the top of the draft: Toffoi, Pearson, Martinez, Lewis, Muzzin, Nolan, King, Voynov, Clifford, and Simmonds (traded for Richards).
As is, that roster probably doesn't win a Cup. Where Lombardi really excelled in the rebuild was using unneeded vets, surplus picks, and prospects that didn't fit the vision to acquire core players: Mike Richards (for a package including Schenn and Simmonds), Jeff Carter (for a package including Jack Johnson), Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene from Edmonton, Justin Williams, and Rob Scuderi, among others.
All that said, by 2012 the Kings looked like they had stalled and, IIRC, Lombardi was on the hot seat with another playoff miss looming. Terry Murray was fired, Darryl Sutter was brought in, lit a sufficient fire under their asses to ensure they finished 8th, and then they just got better as the post-season progressed.
TLDR, it's more than just drafting top 5. We need to hit elsewhere in the draft (which we have done ok with in the past), need to do a better job of capitalizing on player/prospect/pick assets in trades than wasting them (we've done a relatively poor job of this), and we need to expect that not all these assets will wind up in the final vision of the roster (per a longtime Kings board poster, King's Pawn, I believe, "don't marry yourself to players"--I still miss Alexander Frolov!).
Osprey probably has better recollection/insight on this than I do.