[KingBiscuit]

The fight for finishing 30th will probably go down to the last game with Tampa Bay, but the Kings should be a lock to finish no better than 29h.

The next closest teams are: Atlanta, 9 points ahead of the Kings, St Louis, 9 pts ahead and Edmonton; 10 points ahead.

The Kings have 12 left to play. Atlanta has 12 left. ALL 3 of TB, EDM, and STL have 14 left to play.

To pass any of: STL, EDM, ATL, the Kings would have to go 8-4 and have ANY of these 'competitors' go 3-11 !!! (neither of these scenarios should happen)

This means that the Kings should be a lock to finish no better than 29th and it means that if they do fnish 29th and a team behind them wins the lotto, the Kings will be guaranteed of picking no less than 3rd overall. Also, this means the Kings 2nd rounder should be no less than 33. The Dallas pick will be between 27-30. This gives the Kings 3 selections in the top 33.

This also means that the Kings are a lock (to be able to, if Dean doesn't trade down)
to be in a position to draft 1 of: STAMKOS, DOUGHTY, PIETRANGELO, BOGOSIAN, or SCHENN.

From reading more and more about Pietrangelo, he may be better than Doughty.
Of course, DL could surprise once again and deem that Bogosian or Schenn is his pick.

Can you just see him, being interviewed post-draft and saying, "I watched 100's of hours of tapes, and Bogosian has the most upside of the defensemen in this draft"

Any way you look at this, you must know FULL WELL, that Dean and staff are doing as much homework and breaking down of the top 100 players in this talent ladened draft, as is humanly possible. This is the first year where he has 'all of his own people' in place and the staff working together, 'doing things his way'. June 24 is going to be beautiful.

The Kings have 10 selections in the first 4 rounds. Check out last year's Kings picks, in rounds 1-4. ALL of them are excelling this season - and that was in a less talented draft pool. He has the leverage of trading a couple of picks to move up in the draft as well.

4 D Thomas Hickey (captain, WJC Gold medal 11g 33 a +20)
52 C Oscar Moller (high praise from Burke - was leading WHL before WJC)
61 R Wayne Simmonds (WJC Gold, 31 g, 38 a, 109 pim in 57 games)
82 C Bryan Cameron (38 goals, 73 pts, +23)
95 D Alec Martinez (7 g 19 a in 36 games. 5 pp goals)
109 C Dwight King (30 g 33 a +22. more than doubled his goals from last yr)

We could also see a key player acquisition to come down as well for the Kings.

JUNE 24th cannot come soon enough for Kings fans!

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