State of the Franchise & Other Thoughts

[Hipcheck]

I would have liked more moves made yesterday but we had assets that were hurt and below average assets to start with and a marquee name who limited his trade value by only wanting to be moved to 2 select West Coast Teams-thats a bit of a handcuff. If Doug Weight and Keith Tkachuk didnt mind moving to help the St Louis Blues theres no reason Blake couldnt have done the same for the Kings but thats water under the bridge at this point.

That said-anyone who has followed the team for any length of time has no reason to be pessimistic. We have the best group of young forwards we've ever had in our franchise history and some more who should be on the team next season. We've got arguably the best goalie we've ever drafted in Bernier and even Zatkoff to some extent, we had 2 players who made the Junior Team Canada Squad in Hickey and Simmonds.

Can anyone really say the team is not moving in the right direction or really make a valid comparison to say the 1996 team? we've actually got a farm team that the big club pays attention to and actually interested in our young players bonafide development. Trust me when I say it seems like yesterday we were hoping for the likes of Rene Chapdelaine and Craig Redmond to come in and be the saviors. There may be some young posters here that havent followed the team for all that long and while I tempted to say "run away as fast as you can and save yourself the heartache" this is strangely enough the strongest the franchise top to bottom has even been which is weird since the team is in last place. Once again it speaks volumes about the franchises ineptness but stilll sadly, painfully true.

One other item of irony-AEG is arguably the best owner the Kings have ever had. There I said it. Granted the bar is set mighty low but when you look at Kings former owners you had those who simply traded draft picks year in year out and completely ignored the development process, you had Mcnall who is widely considered the best owner and while no one could question his love of the team the facts are he gutted/mortgaged what little farm we had and pretty much made a cup run with other peoples money resulting in him serving time. And once again-Hes the guy considered the "best" owner they've ever had.

Granted AEG doesnt elicit a lot of excitement and pretty much considered a faceless autonomous drone but-they developed a world class training facility at the TSC, Actually invested in not only an AHL team but an ECHL team. Remember it wasnt that long ago that the Kings minor leaguers were loaned to AHL teams operated by other NHL clubs and If I'm not mistaken briefly affiliated with division rival Phoenix. Imagine that-having your prospects being coached by division rivals. Ludicrous but true.

And for the first time ever really building the team through picks and patience. Its painful-but its the right way and something the team has never done for better or worse.

So indeed its a time of Irony-bottom of the standings yet ready to be a consistent winner. Most hated Owner-who has actually done more then any previous. Ironic Indeed. Goodnight, Farewell, and Amen.

[PRMan!!]

All we need to is beg, borrow or steal a defense and we should be close.

[MrBrett7]

Originally Posted by Hipcheck

One other item of irony-AEG is arguably the best owner the Kings have ever had. There I said it. Granted the bar is set mighty low but when you look at Kings former owners you had those who simply traded draft picks year in year out and completely ignored the development process, you had Mcnall who is widely considered the best owner and while no one could question his love of the team the facts are he gutted/mortgaged what little farm we had and pretty much made a cup run with other peoples money resulting in him serving time. And once again-Hes the guy considered the "best" owner theyve ever had.

Granted AEG doesnt elicit a lot of excitement and pretty much considered a faceless autonomous drone but-they developed a world class training facility at the TSC, Actually invested in not only an AHL team but an ECHL team. Remember it wasnt that long ago that the Kings minor leaguers were loaned to AHL teams operated by other NHL clubs and If I'm not mistaken briefly affiliated with division rival Phoenix.

And for the first time ever really building the team through picks and patience. Its painful-but its the right way and something the team has never done for better or worse.

So indeed its a time of Irony-bottom of the standings yet ready to be a consistent winner. Most hated Owner-who has actually done more then any previous. Ironic Indeed. Goodnight, Farewell, and Amen.

Thank you...I've been saying this for years...albeit in my normal surley way.

[JEEPKING]

Great post Hip! it is a bit of irony and it does hurt but its something that had to be done. I just wish we would have done this 10yrs ago. We would have been in a much better place today.

[randygood0130]

Thanks Hipcheck for the voice of reason.

[Dave]

Yes, we heard about the training facilities, farm teams and basically starting from scratch. But there comes a time when the product on the ice has to start winning.

'00-'01 - they made a huge run after they traded Blake. They were getting closer.

That summer, they sign Heinze & Randy Robitaille to replace luc's production. They signed McSuckpine. They ended up waiving RR & Heinze ended up scoring 15 goals while Robitaille scored 30. It cost them a lot more to sign those 2 scrubs then to sign Luc.

'01-'02 - they made the Allison deal which was awesome. But that left a huge hole on the 2nd line. They traded for Ronning who was shell shocked from the trade and did absolutely nothing. Imagine Robitaille playing on Allison's wing along w/ Palffy. They would have beaten the Avs if Deader & Boucher didn't go down. If they they had Robitaille maybe they could have gotten by. Who knows.

'02-'03 - the beginning of the end. This team has never recovered from the Boucher fiasco. I still can't get over the fact that mgmt thought Corvo could replace his grit, meanness and booming shot.

Another mistake was thinking that Ragamuffin was a top 6 forward. Again they were trying to replace luc's production and it did not work.

Injuries hit the team and it showed their lack of depth.

State of the Franchise meeting:

TL - "Judge us by what we do in the offseason. We have 3 first round picks and we'll make significant moves to improve the team."

Their significant moves were reacquiring Stumpel and getting Cechmanic. Using all 3 draft picks instead of trading at least one to get a solid player. That hurt.

The bottom line was they did not want to spend what was necessary to compete for the Cup until a Cap was in place. All of a sudden, its a #1 priority.

DL is doing a great job. Lets hope he doesn't spend foolishly on UFA's.

[Hockey53]

Great post Hip. I remember those years when the Kings didn't have a scouting staff to get that diamond in the rough as the Red Wings have been able to do. Speaking of which for those who were around in the 80's, Detroit had a team that had a losing record almost every year until they got Ken Holland as GM and Scotty Bowman as their coach. Also we had the Phoenix Roadrunners, Long Beach Ice Dogs as the Kings affiliates that didn't work out. We had the Isles sharing an affiliate with the Kings and they would play their prospect more than the Kings. Although the Kings didn't have too many good prospects back then either. We shall see this draft on how well the Kings scouting staff that Deano has put together has done their homework.

[Johnson4Pres]

Great post Hipcheck....kudos for you! Im glad that finally we are taking the appropriate steps to build this franchise rather then band aid it and sign overpriced mid levels players in the offseason. When we're ready for the Cup run then we go for the elite player and trade some of the assets we've acquired over the years, not when we're in last place and out of the playoffs and not at the cost of sacrificing our entire future.

[four-hand]

Well written... and it's the truth!

Let the building of this team continue!

[CBGB]

Hip,

Great thoughts as always.

But the same could be said for Columbus, who have high draft picks every year, a great farm system, solid players in Nash, Vyborny, Brule, Fritsche, Zherdev and Klesla (that's 6) yet they have failed to make the playoffs since their inception.

Chicago has great young players in Kane and Sharp and Toews and Barker and Seabrook, too.

I can see your enthusiasm, but you know what buddy, we've been hearing this since AEG took over the franchise. Seriously, how long has it taken Brian Boyle to develop. And just when he's coming into his prime, he'll be eligible for free agency. Look at Cammalleri. We developed him, he scores goals, and now he's a year away from leaving this franchise.

Now Dean is looking at drafting Doughty or Schenn. Sorry buddy, but I'd rather watch Stamkos than Schen. I'd rather watch Malkin than Cam Barker. Isn't it easier to find defensive guys that have already developed rather than scoring wingers?

How many of he current Ducks roster were "developed"?

I love Kopitar and Brown and JMFJ and even the "Loaf". I'm certainly hopeful that Simmons and Hickey and (gulp) Lewis and Bernier develop. I want to see a consistent winner instead of the never ending "develop from within" plan that's been circulating since 1999.

I believe in Dean's "plan" - I have to - otherwise, I'll have to stop being a Kings fan.

[TonySCV]

I think it's impressive that our AHL call-up's have so effortlessly joined the big club and been able to contribute immediately. Moulson scores in his first NHL game. Same for Boyle. Purcell had some great chances and got on the scoreboard shortly enough. Harrold slid right in... etc.

I mentioned this in another thread, but it's worth repeating:

Our top scorers are all 25 or younger. Frolov, O'Sullivan, Cammalleri, Kopitar and Brown.

The O'Sullivan transformation is the biggest 1 year leap in terms of overall capabilities and player improvement that I've seen in the NHL.

Jack Johnson's logging 21 minutes of ice time per night - reaching 30 minutes at one point.

Frolov is on fire. Kopitar is flourishing. Brown is going to make his contact look like the biggest bargain in pro sports starting next year. I could gush on for paragraphs about O'Sullivan alone. When DL gets the deal of the decade for Cammalleri - that's entirely a benefit of O'Sullivan's career advancement this season. DL, of course, made this possible, and it's a glimpse into his plans for keeping this franchise competitive for a long time to come.

Jack Johnson is two years younger than Phaneuf. What kind of player will Johnson be in 2 years? Kopitar in 2 years? O'Sullivan in 2 years? Brown in 2 years?

Then there's Harrold, Purcell, Hickey, Lewis, Cliche, Hersley, Moulson, Murray, Boyle... Bernier ... what will they be like in 2 years?

Now add Stamkos or Doughty or Schenn or Beach or Bogosian. At least one of them, maybe two will be playing for LA next year.

If that doesn't get you excited enough about the very near future of the Kings franchise... think about what the Kings roster looked like two years ago.

- T