Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlaMuller  ... From last year’s team, there is the ‘defined future’ of the team who now can safely include:
• Kopitar
• Brown
• Frolov
• O’Sullivan
• Johnson
... Think about who comprised the Monarchs in their late season run…
• Boyle
• Purcell
• Murray
• Harrold
• Bernier
• Quick
• Moller
• Bagnall
• Cliche
• Moulson
... There, you will see that other teams wish they could be where the Kings are now with the future Lombardi and Hextall helped build. |
I'm glad to see that at least some allusion was made to the fact that Dave Taylor had a lot to do with building the future of this franchise. It seems like a lot of people seem to forget that more than half of the names listed above were chosen by the previous GM and his staff. The ones that were solely acquired by the new staff include six of the listed players, Johnson, Purcell, Moller, Bagnall, Cliche and Moulson. As I remember, the selection of Lewis and aquistition of O'Sullivan by trading Demitra was tied to Al Murray and would not have happened had Taylor not signed Demitra. The eight remaining players were already with the organization before the current personnel showed up. Add the to the fact that the draft picks were not as low to get the "more likely to succeed" players and the more constrained atmosphere and I'd say the "new guys" had a lot already there to build on. Thanks to Dave Taylor et al.