State of the Franchise - Word For Word - The LONG Version

[CBGB]

9:00am – Toyota Sports center –El Segundo

They decide to hold this event when we Spring Forward our clocks so in actuality our body timetables we’re still at 8am. I know God rests on the 7th day. Apparently Dean Lombardi and his staff don’t.

This year they provided the 400-500 or so fans to a nice hot meal consisting of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and potatoes and instead of just orange juice, there was a vast supply of vitamin c beverages to be had.

There were two large screens on either side of the makeshift stage and right on Schedule, Bob Miller (a much better and funnier MC than Patrick O’Neal I might add) took the stage.

For the sake of my sanity, I have edited our some parts:

I’m using RED BULLET POINTS to help you decide what you want to read:

BOB MILLER: Since we played Montreal yesterday for the first time here in about four years, it always reminds me of the story in the 50’s Montreal was winning Stanley Cups, they could do no wrong, and everybody thought the Canadiens were the greatest thing ever, and they had a great player named Maurice “rocket” Richard.

But when “Rocket” Richard retired, they decided to put him on the radio broadcast and one of his jobs was to pick the three stars. Now, I don’t want to say that they were “homer” announcers in Montreal, but at the end of a game “Rocket” Richard said (Bob goes into a French Canadian accent)”Well, the number one star tonight, I got to pick is from Montreal Canadians, my brodder Henri Richard. He is so good on da ice, he is such a fast skater, he had a goal and two assists, he is the number one star.

The number two star I got to pick tonight from the Montreal Canadians, the great Jean Belliveau. He is so smooth on the ice, he sees the ice so well and he had two assists and he is the number two star.

And the number tree star I got to pick tonight I guess from Boston I got to pick Bobby Orr ‘cause without his four goals they wouldn’t have beat us 4 to 3.

(laughter)

We tried to get Ian Welch here, the referee that disallowed that goal, but we didn’t want anyone here charged with homicide.

Bob then introduces Dean Lombardi:

DEAN LOMBARDI:I did these in San Jose and I never had this type of turnout. This is incredible (applause) I guess the one way I could try to look at it is I wish I was Barack Obama and I might be able to win this state with all these people in here (a few groans). It’s just an example. I could be Jesse James and this is a lynch party!

PLAYOFF GUARANTEE????

QUESTION FROM AARON FROM ORANGE
My question is about ticketing. Are you thinking about doing a playoff guarantee like some other teams are doing? Like you get some money back if you don’t make the playoffs? (laughter)

DEAN LOMBARDI:
I defer that to the coach (laughter). You don’t waste anytime getting to the brass tax. I was hoping to talk a little hockey first. Let me say one thing from a General Manager’s prospective about the ticketing and so this question probably goes to how you integrate your business operation with your hockey team. Ideally it’s like anything else that your prices are reflective of the quality of product. Essentially like your payroll and your tickets, everything you’d like to have in line. Here’s the one thing I did see when I got here that was a little surprising and I said this to you before, that Los Angeles, the 2nd biggest market in the country is 24th in the NHL in its average ticket sales.

If you’re taking advantage of your market, like New York does, like Philadelphia does and Toronto, we’re certainly not in that bracket.

Now, you haven’t had a TEAM at this point where you should be paying top dollar. We’re 24th in the league but here’s the thing that’s gotta happen here eventually. As this team gets better, as its young players start coming through the system, as you’re seeing with these young players whether its Vanek or Phaneuf…. In order to keep them, its going to get expensive, BUT at least if everything’s in line and we have top quality players that are worthy of keeping it, its probably at some point gonna have to come up.

Right now, the focus is on where we are relative to our competitors and we’re pretty much in line. We’re a little behind, but eventually that’s where it will go.

As far as a playoff guarantee, I don’t think I’m in a position to do that right now and in terms of being honest about your team, we’re giving up way too many goals against obviously, we’ve got to get that fixed and until we do I don’t think you can realistically consider yourself a playoff team. Luc (Robitaille), do you want to talk more about where that’s going?

LUC ROBITAILLE: “What, about the playoff guarantee? (laughs) We’re doing a study right now. This is the first time we’re doing this. We’re literally studying the building seat by seat and we’re gonna se where it ends up. We don’t have a decision yet, but we’re studying our entire building.

DRURY, GOMEZ, WHY HE OVERPAID FOR HANDZUS AND CAMMALLAERI’S WORTH
QUESTION FROM KEVIN FROM SANTA MONICA
“After the free agency period and no “big” free agents were signed I saw a quote that you said you “didn’t want to reach up into the upper stratosphere because it was important to resign your core young guys that we’re going to be expensive and it was only 2 weeks later that the Cammalleri arbitration thing came out. How do you reconcile NOT going out and signing a big name free agent and letting one of OUR young guys get into this kind of predicament”

DEAN LOMBARDI
That’s a two pronged question:

Lets talk about free agency. Let me give you an example… the thought process you have to go through. (a free agent chart is shown) This is going to come back to a point I’ve been making since I got here but I think sometimes when you show people the issues, it’ll consolidate your thinking.

Here were the centers in last year during free agency. If we were looking at an immediate need there was no question if you looked at our team a #2 center would be ideal. The great teams in the past have always had a 1-2 punch. Forsberg-Sakic, Modano-Niewendyk. Ideally you like to have two scoring lines so the other team can’t key in on one line and you can spread your scoring out a little. So you’re looking at a possible hole.

Kopitar clearly has the ability to potentially be a 1-2. So then you say you wanna go buy it. You got 30 teams out there – There’s the guys that arguably fit the descriptions of a 1-2 center. Now, lets cut it down.

Forsberg – sure, we love him. He’s hurt, don’t even play so he comes off the board.
Lang – he’s alright, but is he the guy you really gotta have and fits that hole over the long haul? Probably not.
Mike Comrie’s a good little player but one of our problems is size as it is with O’sullivan and Cammalleri, so that’s not really a fit.

Now you’ve got 3 other guys that are clearly really good players: Gomez, Drury and Briere. The problem is, as Hexy will tell you having been in Philadelphia watching Briere is ideally he’s a winner, and again you’re into the issue of SIZE.

So now you’re really down to Gomez and Drury and you got 30 teams. And let’s face it, we’re not able to sell like the Lakers “come here and win right now”. You’ve got to sell them on the chance that we’re building something. You know what? He looks at your goaltending, he looks at your defense and says “Eh, I’m not so sure”. You got two guys! NOW, you go in there and start bidding on them. And one thing that we’re finding out as we go through this process, put a reasonable number on them and ADD 2 million dollars and then you’re in the game.

The negotiation goes for Gomez and Drury, you got an issue of two east coast guys that wanted to stay on the east coast and them “boom”. Now I LOVE Chris Drury. Absolutely love him. He’s my version of a Mike Ricci. But in reality, he’s probably a #2 center. So what do you do? We gotta do something here now, we gotta get our fans excited, we had a bad year, okay lets go give him 7.3 million dollars. Not sure. Because, I’m seeing what’s happening 2 or 3 years down the road and we got tons of things every time you put a guy in you gotta looks years 2, years 3 and you see what Phaneuf and these guys are getting and Vanek is the classic example of what can happen if you’re too short sighted, you don’t have the space and boom, here comes an offer sheet. So what good is it? You drafted this kid you have a chance to keep for 10 years and you might lose him or to keep him you have to overpay him because an offer sheet comes down the road.

And don’t forget, Drury (how old is he now? 6 year deal?)…. Now, on his way down, you’re showing a cap hit of 7.3 and he’s 37 years old. So, you probably gotta get out.

So, lets look at the guys who are #3’s on good teams, you get into that market and Michael Handzus I know has not had the year we expected but this guy did a #3 center job on a conference finalist, he has a track record for being able to do a 3 on a GOOD team. We were hoping maybe he could hold the 2 for a short time and as the team got better he falls to the 3 where he belongs. He hasn’t played well this year, but I’ve seen him do it. He’s still young enough. Even in this case, you get into this market, add a million dollars to what he’s probably worth or don’t get into it.

Going back to Michael: We’re going to be confronting this consistently going in the future. The arbitration process is not a lot of fun. One of the things I always pride myself on is keeping it from getting bitter. A lot of times it’s not the player. You got a lot of interests here. You got a union that wants to drive the price, you got an agent who is trying to get his fee, and they don’t give a damn about the L.A. Kings. A lot of times, those numbers come out, there’s no relationship to reality of where that player is, but you gotta go in there and try and keep the relationship solid and raise a reasonable argument on where you are in terms of your value.

Now, sure we would have to sign him long term, but I don’t think it’s fair to me to tell you the number that it would have cost us. Unfortunately, when you start getting into that type of number you really gotta be a difference maker. I’m not saying that Michael can’t be, but there’s still some work to be done. There’s also a critical thing that gets lost, particularly when you go to arbitration. There’s a BIG DIFFERENCE between a 30 goal scorer on a playoff team and a 30 goal scorer on the worst team in the league. There’s a big difference between a 30 goal scorer on a guy on a playoff team and a guy who is in the top 4 in the league and there’s a huge difference between a 30 goal scorer on a contender and then put the number in but allow him to grow, allow him to maybe become a 40 goal scorer, allow him to show he’s a 30 goal scorer on a contender. I agree with it, but you gotta understand, to do what you wanted to do there, that number would have been way out of whack in terms of where I see this going and what I think we’re gonna have to pay these other guys. Now if he gets better and shows that in fact those questions can be answered, sure, lets give him that number. But unfortunately I couldn’t justify that in terms of where we’re at and where it’s going.

CRAPPY UFA'S

QUESTION FROM CURTIS FROM SAN PEDRO
This organization has gone after injured players that are kind of crappy. Is that gonna continue? We have a lot of UFA underachievers

DEAN LOMBARDI
I go back to what I said on July 4th. We’re sitting there and you’re looking at our team… one of the bottom teams in the league. We’ve got a lot of holes. Remember, the franchise could have gone 2 ways. It could have said “Lets fill these holes by playing any kid. Let’s bring Boyle up, lets bring Purcell up, lets bring Brady Murray up and lets just play them in the NHL”. Okay. But you forget one thing.

Is he really ready?

‘Cause the Islanders did this before they blew up. If you look at what the Islanders had when they had Bertuzzi, McCabe, Luongo, Bryan Berard, Johnsson, holy smoke! What they were holding on to, but what’d they do? Threw them into the lineup, sold it to the public as “look how young we are, this is great!” and then when it didn’t happen in a year and a half, “they can’t play, and now “lets get rid of them”, and then they go somewhere else and have success.

I don’t believe that’s how you develop young players. There’s a big difference between being good enough to play for your team and being good enough to be the best they can be and help you be a contender. So I wasn’t an advocate of that. As far as then using the free agency, you’re hoping you get in there and maybe you find a piece that can grow with the young nucleus. But if you think you’re gonna hit that market, just looking at the market that’s up there, you can see for yourself, there’s not a lot there and if you think that’s gonna turn your team around and get a bunch of mercenaries… not gonna happen.

But they CAN buy you time to develop your players properly AND you might hit on two or three of them where you say “this guy fits”. He’s got the right character, he fits the role, he then fits with Jack Johnson or Harrold. So that’s what you’re really hoping to do.

What happened on July 5th is all reporters call: “Oh he had a great run”, “Oh, that was great”, “Look how active”, “Oh, Lombardi went out there and got great free agents, he brings in 6 guys”.

And what did I say?

“Not the way to build a team”. I said “If I gotta go to free agency to get 6 guys, we got holes, folks”. All the reporters are saying “this is great” but you didn’t hear me getting too excited.

I’m not saying that to degrade the players but it’s the part of building a team that if you’ve got too many… history shows… it don’t work.

What’s happened in the market place, the other thing that you forget, when you put the defense down (they bring up the defensive list of UFA’son the screen). This was the defensive market on July 1st. This is it! 30 teams! 30 teams looking for defenseman. This is all that was available. LOVE Brian Rafalski. But does he really fit a small puck mover when you’ve got Visnovsky AND you gotta give him a 6 year deal and I got Jack Johnson coming up in 2 years. Probably not too smart. Lets keep Lubo, get him on a long term deal.

Souray? I don’t mind him. But is he a complete player? Is he really what we needed? A Power play specialist? We need a defender! We gotta keep the puck out of our net. Our power play, our coach did a great job this year with that. We’re fine! That’s not a fit.

Matthieu (Schneider)? Yeah, he’s a good player. He’s 37 years old. An experienced team, maybe to win down the road? Fine.

Do you see any “difference makers”? Some good players there. But going back to your point and the reason the players are available in some cases is probably the team, they wanted too much money from their original team or they’re injured or they’ve got character issues. What it all comes back to is I don’t see anything that’s going to make us playoff team this year.

There’s not a lot there.

Until we start drafting and developing our own, we’re not gonna win. When we get ‘em in there NOW I’ll go use free agency. Establish your core with your own identity, your own players, THEN maybe you can add to your core, but if you think you can build your core through free agency you’re headed like the New York Yankees before Jeter. Now matter how much money you’ve got.

Ideally, you do the San Jose think like with Mike Grier. You got your core and you go get a 3rd line player that fits! You know where your hole is and you know whom you can zero in.

I’ll hype this when we go and get one or two guys and say “now we got it”. This is what you’re faced with and that’s how you always get better when you build a staff and build a team. I’ve got books and books and books I can go back and look 8 years in San Jose and find every situation and test yourself “what could you have done better”? That’s how you build a staff whether it’s a coach, a scout or a General manager. And this is what you do. This is what we did a couple of weeks ago.

Where did we mess up?

Then if you like the guy, the money was way out of line and you gotta give him 6 years, and so it comes back and you get your scouts on the phone and you say “you’d better start finding these players” and you get your minor league coach on the board and say “you gotta work harder on development”.

In the end, I don’t disagree, but in the end I’m not so sure what our alternatives were.

THOUGHTS ON HARROLD AND PURCELL

QUESTION FROM SCOTT FROM L.A.
Will you show us the “reserve list” and how you have it organized and tell us what the holes are and what your plans are for filling in those holes”

DEAN LOMBARDI:
You’re not a plant, are you? If you have to explain what a GM looks for on one document, which is impossible, but if I had to pick one document, then it would be this one.

Here’s the infamous age distribution chart – If you look at 06-07, what you got on the top is their birth years. Those are your young players. Phase I. Your middle group guys born 83 to 77 and those are your old guys (laughter) What’s so funny about that?

If I took all the names out, say I’m going for a job and I take all the names out and I jujst say X, Y, Z, A, B, C, number them. Just take the names out, there’s no subjective analysis and I’m looking at a team and I’m saying “okay, I’m gonna take this job, let me see what I’ve got to work with” and that’s all you showed me. Take the names out, put a letter in there. I look at that and I see 2 things. That’s either a very good team, a contender team, or a bad team.

What you’ve got is what we call “right heavy”. There’s no upside in this team. Once those players get in ’79 born they are probably what they are. So that’s when I say you’d better be very good, because if you’re not, you’ve got no upside.

Second thing I would ask. Putting in yellow the guys that are home grown. Hmmm. From ’81 to ’70, ONE homegrown player. Dangerous. Take the names out. That’s all I gotta look at. I’m gonna guess you might not be good. You only got one homegrown player come through your system. By that time, those guys should have the Kings tattooed on their butt and that should be your Core. That’s Sakic, that’s Forsberg, that’s Foote. That’s all those guys when they were great, you looked right in that line and it was yellow and they were good.

You’ve got a lot of mercenaries and the key age group that should define how good you are. Then your upside? TWO guys. One GREAT player. There is something there to work with but your ability to contend right now? That’s dangerous.

We’ve gone over the free agent thing, but that was the 1st year. 06-07.

This years’ team, you try and fill in the cavities. That’s the reason why you go get Johnson and O’Sullivan. That’s what I’m looking at. I’ve got to build this left side. And I’ve got to take this left side across the line… First I have to learn if they can play in the league, then they have to find a role in the league, then they want to win in the league. 3 stages an athlete goes through. I’ve got to get this built and bring it along.

There’s a little progress there – not as much as I’d like – you try and make deals for ’85 borns and things, that’s why when I’m out there looking at a deal at the trade deadline there’s a certain age group I’m looking for and sometimes its not there and I say “well, gotta go back and draft your own”.

We’re getting closer in the blue (Dean then revealed he was color blind)

Harrold is paying his dues. Come up the right way. This is a type kid you want in your system. Focused. Comes to development camp, he’s like a sponge, he embraces everything that he’s taught. He’s shown in the minors he can be a top player and he’s shown in the minors he can be a leader. He’s paid his dues. He’s ready. So, lets put him in.

The closest thing is the blues.

The dangerous thing is like what I said about the Islanders. For me to come in and start hyping these guys as sure things. Uh uh. I’m only misleading you. Nobody knows. Our job is to make them the best they can be.

I think we can say we gotta look at Purcell. He’s one of the top scorers in the minors so he’s done what needs to be done at that level but there’s still another step. But at least he’s passed the next step. Same with Brian Boyle, Moulson and Johnny Z in a different role.

So we have a chance next year to get four blues to yellow. So if we’re able to do that we’re sitting here next year starting to fill up. This is your drafts. These guys are in the system.

Here’s Bernier, here’s Hickey. They’re projects. I don’t care what round they’re taken in. They’re 18 years old. They’re projects. We’re gonna focus on making them better, not hyping them.

Ideally, we go to this years draft, we’ve got 15 picks, keep filling it up.

(Dean then talked about in the past not having a minor league team and the bonuses of having Manchester and then how much AEG wants to win, then Ron Hextall talked about Manchester)

RON HEXTALL
I promise I won’t take a half hour on one question (laughter). When you look at the team in Mach last year it was a good team, we went on a playoff run, and we got some of our kids some good experience. But as you can see it was very heavy towards the older players and the older players were a big part of that team. I think if you look this year, you look at that team. We’re a .500 team right now. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a team so young. That team is down there battling for a playoff spot so in terms the effort from our staff in compiling all the players, the coaches in Machester, I’m on the phone with Mark Morris every day saying “be patient. Be patient with the kids”. We want to win. We do want to win. It’s a big part of developing kids and developing a culture. On the other hand, we also want to develop so when you look at that team right there, I’m not going to tell you every one of those players is going to play for the Kings. That’s unrealistic. But if you take the ‘82’s thru the ‘87’s and think that 2, 3 maybe 4 of those guys are going to be a part of the Kings, that’s absolutely huge for the franchise.

I rode a bus for 2 years in the minors before I made it to the NHL and trust me it is an unbelievable experience. It’s something that never leaves you, and for these kids, the Brian Boyle’s and the Teddy Purcell’s to ride that bus and have that experience they’re getting’ down there is absolutely invaluable and it’s an experience a guy draws on his whole career. Brian Boyle, hopefully 5 years from now is cemented with the Kings, he’ll always think back to his time in Manchester and “How good I got it now”. It does keep a player hungrier. Trust me. I’ve seen guys come up from college, or from junior, slide ‘em right in the lineup and there’s a hunger that’s missing in certain guys depending on the character, there is a hunger that’s missing.

We feel like we’re doing it the right way here. We know you guys have seen Teddy and Brian and Johnny Zeiler and hopefully, you’re gonna see ‘em full time here in the very near future.

AVERY, GARON AND WHY IT’S A HARD TEAM TO COACH

QUESTION FROM ANDRONICH IN GLENDALE
What are your expectations on your coaching staff for next season that they didn’t do this season and you have traded a number of players, most of them have gone to other teams and have had a better chance to show their game? Because of the coaching staff, the organization

DEAN LOMBARDI
I know his dad wrote ‘em – The dad used to say “go get that autograph for me” now he says “lets rip the GM”.

We’ve talked about this already. (the chart comes out again) The one thing about this team, what do you see? No defensemen. One. Johnson. Why you gotta do the Johnson deal. God forbid, where would we be without doing THAT deal. That’s a huge hole.

Peter Harrold is coming through now. Okay. But that makes me nervous.

That’s why we trended towards Hickey at the draft. Somehow we have to get defensemen here. If you had a choice, and don’t get me wrong… Kopi and Brownie and Cammalleri, these are great forwards but if you had your choice you probably want to be strong on the back.

If I have a great group of forwards and I go up against a team like Nashville that had Suter and Hamhuis and Weber and so they’re equal in terms of their ability, but one teams got young forwards and one team’s got young D and they play each other, the defenseman win. It starts at the back. You can’t win without keeping the puck out of the net.

This is an issue. Now you got to patch it together. You think I like sitting there in free agency and saying “Oh my God, I got three holes”. We all see this goals against is a HUGE problem. Huge. Marc’s not gonna deny that. And as we saw our goaltending has been average at best (laughter). Jason’s been fine, I don’t pin this on Jason. His save percentage relative to his peers was right in the mix. He did steal us some games. Not like last year where it completely disintegrated.

The mix is out of whack, no question. You go into the free agent market you’re not always gonna get the perfect fit.

I expect the coaches to get the GA down, and start the process now. It’s got to be better. We have to find a way.

The other thing I’m gonna throw at you…

This is a hard team to coach, folks.

You got an age distribution chart like that and mostly mercenaries, very hard to bring them together. Very hard. What happens is when you’re spread like that and you’re not very good… Kings not tattooed here… and then you have a lot of self interest and that inevitably starts creeping in. It’s what I believed in San Jose and I’m starting to do here. When the kids are here during the summer. That’s the other thing that’s happened in L.A. that they’ve been penalized for. Philadelphia, Toronto, Boston. Their kids are there all summer and so they have access to them. But what’s happening to them is that not only are you making them a better hockey player, they hang around together. And this was the first summer that Purcell, Johnson, O’Sullivan were all coming in in the mornings, they get out of their car together, they joke, they know each other, they bust each others’ cops so when Purcell actually came up, there’s Jack Johnson. You see the friendships start to develop.

What does that do? When they start acting like team mates at that age it makes his (Crow) job easy.

But this is hard. Good luck. I’m not saying he doesn’t have an obligation to do it. But understand how difficult that is. That’s why you go underneath. That’s why when I talk to the coaches, the summer’s are critical.

MARC CRAWFORD
It’s a legitimate criticism when you look at our goals against. As a coaching staff, we’re embarrassed by it. Most coaches in the NHL pride themselves on how well they can keep teams from scoring against them.

Some of the steps we’re taking are making our players recognize where the scoring chances can be corrected. We’ve played a lot better from Christmas on, even with the huge influx of new players and with the trade deadline, some people moving, it does take time to get your team back in balance.

I think our team has been much more competitive. We’re focusing in on limiting the number of scoring chances that we have against us. Scoring chances come in a number of different ways, most notably when you have power plays against you. We’ve been the least penalized team in the league

(hell, he went on for another 10 minutes and I don’t know what he said)

DEAN LOMBARDI
Who were the players you were talking about that went somewhere else and played well? (“Avery” was shouted out) “Oh, Avery” (lots of booing) Avery’s a good player… but boy…. I’ll tell you a true story. I was sitting in Prague at the WJT and all of a sudden a text message comes “Happy New Year. Don’t Forget Your Little Buddy” Your Friend, S. Avery. So I send it to Hexy and said “stop sending me fake e-mails from Avery” – Turns out it really WAS from Avery (laughter) .

I love the player, but this goes back to some of the things in the room… With the Rangers, when you have an older, stronger group there to say “knock it off”, I can’t have that with the young guys right now.

(someone yells “What about Garon?”)

In Matty’s case, this happens all the time and this is what I mean about critiquing yourself.

Obviously, it didn’t work out with Danny (Cloutier), and the one thing that I was on the one side… Remember, (Garon) had the chance to grab that job last year. When Danny was going down and he would rise, look like he’s grabbing it, and then down again. , Rise, look like he’s grabbing it, and then down again. We were begging for somebody to take that job given it was clear that Danny was struggling.

It didn’t happen.

We did try to sign him. But he felt like he was going to get a better opportunity there and he’s made the most of it but Edmonton’s not in the playoffs either.

But that’s a legitimate question and that’s something we’ve had to ask ourselves.

(Someone yells out “Norstrom”)

I love Matty Norstrom, but I’ll take that 1st round pick. Those are the decisions you have to make when you’re building.

CLOUTIER, VOKOUN, PRONGER, LUONGO AND THE DEADLINE DEAL THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN

QUESTION FROM RYAN FROM CYPRESS
You have Bernier coming up and LaBarbera’s been hurt for 2 years. What are you going to do about the goaltending

You have to understand what’s available and it keeps pushing me to develop your own. (a UFA goaltender chart is put up) This was your goaltender market the year we brought in Cloutier and the logic behind signing him, even thought it looks like…. (laughter)

I’m a firm believer of developing your own, to a fault, with goaltenders. So much of goaltending is here (head) and here (heart). The only way to know that is to develop your own. Hextall is an above average athlete, but what made him great was this (head) and this (heart).

It’s gotta be there. You don’t know that unless you draft your own kid, he come through the system, you get to shape him, you find his little faults, when he messes up in becoming a man… when you get outside your home base, its a real hard thing to gauge.

Cliff Fletcher used to say “never make a deal with a guy who knows your players better than you know his” and what he was talking about was Doug Gilmour. When he made that play for Gilmour, he know Gilmour having been his GM and he was trading guys the other GM didn’t know.

The other example was Kiprusoff. Daryl Sutter knew what he was getting. That was no fluke. He coached him. So when Sutter went and picked him up, he knew exactly what was between the ears and in the heart.

I’ve got no “a” prospects coming through the system so I look and I say “Vokoun would be nice. I like that” “Biron? Never been a #1, but there might be a shot there” Esche? No thanks! Had him in Philly. Giguere? “that would be nice”. I don’t know. Anybody look at that list 2 years ago and say “there’s the next Patrick Roy” or the bonified one?

Now what happens?

That’s what MIGHT have been there. And that’s whwt I go back to. Anybody that’s any good, you’d better lock ‘em up. So what happened?

Vokoun, gone before free agency
Biron, gone before free agency
Giguere, gone.

Now its getting thinner. You trade for a guy with a bonified track record that we thought we’d get average goaltending. What I was hoping for with Danny was do what Mike Vernon did for me in San Jose. He held that fort, he was a great competitor and he was as instrumental to the success to Nabokoff and Kiprusoff as those players themselves. That’s what I was hoping for.

It didn’t work.

I’m looking at 2008 and if I have Danny on a one year deal, I’m gonna have to overpay for the guy that aren’t in yellow. So I could keep him on a one year and take a shot at Kiprusoff or Nittymaki.

So what happens?

Before we even get there, Kiprusoff is gone. Nittymaki is gone. Huet is traded and signed. Toskala, signed.

So that would have been your market going into this year for goalies.

Now….

Vokoun.

I went after him at the draft, but I think I told you the price. A 1st round pick, a 2nd round pick and Bernier. There’s a bonified goalie. That came up.

But I stay with it, stay with the young kid.

That’s why we take a shot at Ersberg. I don’t want to have to do what I think happened to that guy in Pittsburgh (MA Fleury), which maybe happened to Jamie Storr. To get trapped again. Bring ‘em up too soon.

I do have one thing in mind that I’d like to take a swing at, the sad part is, I’ve only got one thing in mind. ‘Cause I can’t find anything else, that I like, without getting off track totally and start giving up the top guys… if you got any ideas let me know.

We were in the Luongo mix… but we didn’t have enough in our depth. We were in it. We were in on the Pronger but… even what was attractive, wasn’t enough. That’s also, when I talk about building the reserve list, this is what I mean. The reserve list is like a deck of cards. To get in and make these type of deals, you gotta have the tools. And in the Pronger one… the last piece would have been Kopitar. Thank God we didn’t do that.

The one thing that happened at the trade deadline, I was really trying hard and it was my biggest disappointment, you get a young defenseman that I had zeroed in on… for whatever reason the one thing that happened in conversation… I had the pieces they wanted and could do it without decimating this… but they were telling me…as I was starting to get some prospects in the system, I’m starting to get some parts… that’s kind of the first time it kind of happened. Their personell guy is on the phone saying “these are the 5 guys we like”. It wasn’t all 5, but I had some cards. In the end, it wasn’t enough to do it and the timing was that team wasn’t going to make the playoffs, but those are the little things that are telling me “okay, we’ve got something here”.

You can do a San Jose deal. They give up 2 first rounders and they don’t miss a beat. And they’re still strong in the system and they have a heck of a team. But we can’t throw out a 1st round pick and Bernier for a guy who is a potential rental.

WHY KIDS STAY IN THE AHL INSTEAD OF STAYING AND LEARNING IN THE NHL

QUESTION FROM ROBERT FROM LAKE ARROWHEAD
Why did you send Brian Boyle back down after 8 games?

[COLOR]DEAN LOMBARDI[/color]
You asked for it – you’re gonna get another 20 minute answer. Hex touched on the first part. The one think that gets overlooked. We’re not only developing athletes, we’re developing men. I’m a firm believer that we have an obligation that a player can be taught to increase his character, to increase his competitiveness, to increase his ability to lead. I believe you can still instill that in people.

Some people like Montana and Bird, it’s a natural. But I do believe we have an obligation to build character.

Unfortunately most character is usually built by going through things you don’t want to do and fighting through it and then learning from it, and a lot of times when dealing with young players… you send them back down and it’s a test. And you’re either gonna get the lip, or you’re gonna get a guy that says “you know what, I’ve got some things to work on here so I’m gonna go back down there and bust my tail and I’m coming back”

Okay, so what I’m getting at… Brian Boyle is better than some players in that room is what you’re saying? Right? He could help us win. Right? But is he the best player he can be? If I’m going to war and I’ve got a guy here who hasn’t finished his training, he’s only had 4 weeks versus the 6 weeks necessary, do I thrown him out there right away even though he might be better than that other guy or do I let him finish his training so he can
be the best he can be.

That often gets lost in the shuffle

When I talk about development, that often gets lost. That’s why I want to meet with them constantly.

I want to know that girl that Harrold’s thinking of marrying… that I’m trying to talk him out of. (laughter).

Here’s the other thing that happens to you. When an athlete’s brought up the ladder, everything he’s taught or supposed to be taught is based upon a warrior, right? Go kick his butt! Let’s kick some butt tonight! Rip his eyes out. These are all the expressions you hear on the bench. That sounds like you’re trying to prepare a guy for war to me. That’s traditionally what it was, especially when (Hex) played. I mean you guys took it to an extreme (laughter). The point was, there’s values in that. Sacrifice. Caring about your teammate.

What’s happened today?

14 years old. Already being contacted by Division I schools. This kid’s already being told how great he is. Here’s the chain of command for athletes today. They’re told how great they are at 14 years old. So here comes the college coaches promising you the world, and they’re not going to criticize them. God forbid you tell them they might have to do this to get better. Oh no, you might lose them. Parents. Holy smoke. Johnny can do no wrong.

You think that’s how you build a warrior?

Now if he’s any good at 15 he’s got an agent. FIFTEEN years old you got agents coming after these guys and they think “he’s gonna criticize me? I don’t think so”. Every thing he’s taught from 14-15 on up is everything AGAINST what a warrior is taught. And then you wonder why he doesn’t compete.

Go to the other side of the extreme. What does the military do? If they’re really preparing them for war, if they’re really preparing them to be a team mate, the ultimate team mate, he’s called in, he’s told he’s a piece of crap, they break him down until he’s absolutely nothing and then they build him up the right way.

We want our athletes to go this way. Riding the bus. Don’t forget, when we look at a prospect, whether its Boyle or Purcell, its how you send them down. The old school way was “here’s your ticket, see you later”. Back in those days, you had to play with fear. They weren’t making a million dollars. Now throw in the fact we pay these kids big money and you think you’re gonna have his attention? That’s the thing that cracks me up. You give someone 3 million dollars you should be a man. No. If somebody gave me 3 million dollars at 20 years old, God forbid where I’d be right now.

So when we’re looking at Brian Boyle, I’m saying “When we go into Anaheim 2 or 3 years from now, he’s GOT to be better there. He HAS to win that battle THERE because he’s gonna have to win it against Getzlaf some day and lets teach him NOW. Because once he’s here and established they can start tuning you out.

I’ll give you a little quiz. 5 guys were up here and went down. All of them probably could have played here. All of them when they went down sat down with their coaches and sat down with Hex and I and go over all their ISO’s and break it down piece by piece. Every loose puck battle, you’re held accountable for.

You hear Patrick O’Sullivan say the other day “I never knew puck protection was so important” – That started in the summer with repetition.

But going back to the character issue, if a kid gets sent down, they’ve got to understand that we’ve got to beat Anaheim some day. Its not playing in these games. You got to be prepared to play under pressure. Everything is explained to them so he’s not just given the ticket like the old days

I want to see your attitude these first few games. If you really love the game, if you have the character and leadership then your first game is gonna be one heck of a game. 5 of them went through that. One of them, within a week, gave lip to his coach. That would have never happened before.

That has to be taken care of. Those are those critical moments in teaching you say “uh oh” because you know what? If you’re gonna do it down there, what’s gonna happen when he gets comfortable up here and its him that’s giving them the crap?

And you got a one way contract and he makes 3 million dollars, you think you got a chance now? Too late. So you’d better get ‘em now while you still got that student paying attention and hopefully bring ‘em along.

PLAYOFF RUN????

COURTNEY FROM HUNTINGTON BEACH
When do you see the Kings making a playoff run?

DEAN LOMBARDI
This is not a slight on any player, this is not fair to the veterans… but realistically, when I get those boxes filled (only Johnson and Harrold were filled). I can’t answer it any other way, and yes it has to be fixed.

If we get one or two out of this group, we’ll be fine, but it’s not like Nashville’s back end. This needs some work and we’re gonna hit it again at this years’ draft. There’s a lot or work to be done here.

It doesn’t mean that we won’t look at the Johnson type deal again if its out there. We have some cards, it doesn’t mean I won’t move some of those people if I can get an ’85 born defenseman. It doesn’t meant hat if the right free agent isn’t there we wont go out and sign him as long as we can keep our kids but for me to tell you that this is gonna be fixed…

ANDERSON AND FRANSSON

STEVEN FROM CANYON COUNTRY
We have 2 defenseman in Sweden, Anderson and Frasson. Any chance of bringing them over next year

DEAN LOMBARDI
Anderson played for the National Junior team and he was “okay”. He seems like he’s got some jam to him, he works hard but he’s got some work to do. The problem we run into with Euro’s is its harder to get these guys to come over and train, they have a lot of incentive just to stay there and wait for free agency again.

Both those guys are clearly in the “project” mode. Probably your best shots right now are Martinez and Hickey. But that could change tomorrow.

BRYZGALOV

RANDY FROM TORRANCE
How come you didn’t go after Bryzgalov?

DEAN LOMBARDI
That’s a good one. One thing we had talked about. The jury is still out, to a degree. There were some issues, in terms of… things we heard out of Anaheim in terms of the team mate type thing, although in goalie you can sometimes get away with it, they’re always on another planet anyway.

I guess in retrospect we should have been more aggressive there. But again, this is where one mistake could lead to another. We’re a little log jammed obviously in the contracts there, it’ll cut off our flexibility, but I think the jury is still out, but I still maintain that I think the bona fide one has to come from our system here.

RON HEXTALL
We did talk long and hard when he went on waivers there and they’d been wanting to move him for months and called every team in the league. Finally, they had to put him on waivers. Nobody was willing to give anything up for him.

Like Dean said, I think he’s an untested goalie. He was going to be a UFA this summer so we didn’t feel like there was enough upside there. Phoenix ended up resigning him and paid him a good chunk but to be quite frank, I’m very interested to see how he does next year. I think the jury is still out as well.




(i'm not finished either!)

[Frolovian]

1st!

Great job, man and thank you VERY much for the writeup

[twistedwrister]

CBGB, you the man!

Thanks again for your worthy effort.

[TonySCV]

It's interesting when people focus in on DL's Q&A about the draft and the need for quality defensemen, people (understandably) assume Stamkos would not be DL's choice... yet there's this response to the FA question:

"Lets talk about free agency. Let me give you an example… the thought process you have to go through. (a free agent chart is shown) This is going to come back to a point I’ve been making since I got here but I think sometimes when you show people the issues, it’ll consolidate your thinking.

Here were the centers in last year during free agency. If we were looking at an immediate need there was no question if you looked at our team a #2 center would be ideal. The great teams in the past have always had a 1-2 punch. Forsberg-Sakic, Modano-Niewendyk. Ideally you like to have two scoring lines so the other team can’t key in on one line and you can spread your scoring out a little. So you’re looking at a possible hole."

Stamkos and Kopitar as that 1-2 center punch? Why not.

- T