Sorry, I skipped a day. Got caught up in being right about the SCF, and being sad about my OKC Thunder. Damn it Thunder.
The Los Angeles Kings are the last team to fall out of the playoffs with just one win. Nobody got swept in the first round, so that means that the Kings are also tied for last in terms of playoff results. Unfortunately for them, their record in the regular season means they don’t get to draft very high.
And also unfortunately for them, their window for winning another Stanley Cup and cementing themselves as another dynasty is likely gone.
1. Kids
The Kings are in desperate need of a better farm system. They really have nothing awaiting them in the AHL, and the team is getting older. In order to preserve their hopes at another Cup within the next 10 years, the team needs as many quality prospects as possible and that’s not what they currently have.
Perhaps this means the LA Kings will be big on the seller market this year. They need to be younger, and their current core of players didn’t work out in the playoffs the last two years.
Milan Lucic was great in the regular season, but not visible in the playoffs. Marian Gaborik is not the top 6 forward the Kings are paying for, and he’s only getting older. Dustin Brown, having been stripped of his captaincy, has no role on this team. Vincent Lecavalier, Kris Versteeg, and possibly more are leaving this team and right now the Kings only have 5 million to re-sign as many players as they can. It won’t even get them Milan Lucic.
The team will need to get younger, and the system isn’t there to support this need. Time to trade for prospects.
2. Drafting
The Kings have two picks this year – second and fourth round. They need more that, because again, they’re facing a cap restriction and need to trade off veterans and Cup winners just to get the players who showed up for them like Milan Lucic and Brayden McNabb back.
Another target of theirs should be recouping picks, because they need those going into the future. It’s not only their NHL team that’s getting older, their AHL team isn’t Benjamin Buttoning. This is a team desperately in need of fresh blood, and the bad news is that they may not be getting any this year.
They should still target the best player available at their two spots, but they should maintain low expectations. These are two late round second and fourth picks, not the combined efforts of McDavid and Eichel. And with their second round pick being their first (currently) expectations may be higher than expectations for other teams’ second rounders. Let’s just say there isn’t that much pressure on the Carolina Hurricanes’ second round pick.
3. Defense
Part of what brought the Kings down in the playoffs was a tangible defense. This year, the Kings are also losing Jamie McBain and Luke Schenn. This was a team desperate enough for defense to trade for Schenn, who was not doing well in Philadelphia and was not one of the better defensemen in the league. He improved signficantly upon reaching LA, but they may be losing him.
The Kings have McNabb, Doughty, and Muzzin going forward, but they need more to be competitive. There may be too much emphasis placed upon offense this year, and that’s not where the LA Kings’ problem lays. A healthy Alec Martinez may complete the LA Kings’ top 4, and he’s playoff proven – he got the series winning goals against the Blackhawks and Rangers two years ago. But after that, the Kings are in desperate need. Rob Scuderi isn’t the player he was 10 years ago, and it shows everytime he steps on the ice.
4. Center Depth
Vincent Lecavalier came in and gave the Kings a third line center, and now he’s leaving and the Kings are left without one. The Kings won two Cups on the backs of four centers – Kopitar-Carter-Richards-Boll. And now they are missing the last two, because their play dropped off, or their off-ice life were trouble.
Nick Shore is not the faceoff winning great that Boll was. He’s not the depth center Richards was. He may be moving up to the third center this year, and the Kings will fall farther in this area, because he may not be able to match what even Lecavalier brought.
So the Kings need a third center, and perhaps a fourth. With Trevor Lewis potentially leaving, the Kings need to fill a hole at Shore’s wing, and if they feel that he could be a better wing then center, and they have someone in the system, then they need to feel safe to make him a wing. And I wouldn’t be able to do so after looking at the Kings’ system. Their best center, Nic Dowd, had not points in his brief stint with the Kings this year. He was fine in the AHL, but had nearly as many PIM as points. He’s also not got the build of a NHL center.
5. Jonathon Quick
I never do a five, but this needs to be addressed. Throughout this year and the playoffs, Quick showed he is not elite anymore. His best years are solidly behind him, and after trading Martin Jones (to the now WCF winning Sharks), the Kings are looking at losing his backup, again.
Quick doesn’t deserve the Vezina nom that rightly belongs to Corey Crawford.
The Kings need a lot of work in this offseason. Perhaps its time for upper management to start managing expectations for this team.