Trade Deadline: Acquiring the best defense first prospects

[236nOT]

I think everyone on the board can pretty much agree that Dean Lombardi inherited an outstanding crop of young offensively gifted forwards. Between Kopitar, Brown, Cammalleri, Frolov and O'Sullivan the Kings should be scoring plenty of goals at below market salaries for the next 5 years.
Most likely, there will only be one or two scoring forwards added to the top 6 in the next two years (depending on Cammalleri's contract demands). As of right now, 2nd line center is still a major issue as is overall depth of NHL ready right wingers. It doesn't appear as though the Kings have anyone ready to take over the 2nd line, so Lombardi must be looking at either trades or free agents to fill that void. Names like Ted Purcell, Oscar Moller and Wayne Simmonds are potentially top 6 right wingers but are atleast 2 years away (which is fine so long as Cammalleri is not traded). The top 6 next year looks very productive and inexpensive, which is good considering the Kings will be in the market for a quality center.

Considering the relative stability of the top 6 forwards and top 6 forward prospects this means that much of Lombardi's attention has been spent searching the globe for the best young defensive forwards in the game (ie bottom 6). Now, this isn't to say that the Kings don't have young defense first prospects, they do. Marc Andre Cliche is a very good defensive center, Tukonen is very efficient defensively, Trevor Lewis can skate like the wind. Moulson, Zeiler and Purcell look like they have careers on the bottom 6 as well but...
Generally the bottom 6 should be much more diverse and much deeper than the top 6. Of all the players and prospects mentioned the Kings do not seem to plan have anyone willing to drop the gloves, (legitimate prospects, not enforcers) and sadly that's a problem. And finally, the Kings bottom 6 prospects don't seem to have a potential leader. Now, this is not an insult to the current group but there doesn't seem to be one bottom 6 player that the other players look up to.

So with that in mind I think putting together a list of players that can or will fill those few gaps is what the Kings should be looking for. I'll start with a few of my favorites:

Brandon Sutter
Tuomo Ruutu
Daniel Cleary
Chris Higgins
Sami Pahlsson
Drew Stafford

Any others?

[Brodeur]

Brandon Sutter

Carolina loves this kid. Not nearly the same situation with Jack Johnson where Carolina traded him to make a futile attempt to defend their Cup.

Tuomo Ruutu

Wouldn't shock me to see Ruutu moved. For all of his potential talent (his goal from the 2004 World Cup was phenomenal), he's never been able to put it all together partially due to injuries.

Daniel Cleary

Detroit's got no reason to move him before the deadline. He's UFA after this season though. Cleary's taken an interesting path to the NHL. He was an uber prospect at age 15 and plateaued into his draft year. Then he bounced around for ten years before landing with the Wings.

Chris Higgins

Already an alternate captain for the Habs. Nothing short of severe overpayment would get him out of Montreal.

Sami Pahlsson

UFA after next season. Don't think Anaheim would give him up to the Kings.

Drew Stafford

Another guy who Buffalo has little motivation to move unless you coughed up a decent young defender like a Ryan Suter.

Anyways, another name to consider:

Chris Kelly - UFA LW from Ottawa. Turns 28 in November, had 38 points and was +28 a season ago. Stats not quite as gaudy this year (His 06/07 stats are likely a little inflated like Preissing's), but he might be one of the best 3rd liners in the league.

[MightyMike]

I think it is far too early to tell if one of the mentioned prospects like Lewis or Cliche are or will be leaders at the NHL level.
There are some special players like Drury who lead the way at every age but a not so small percentage of players learn to be leaders after playing years in the NHL.
And Lombardi explicitely mentioned Lewis and Cliche as character players.
So not everything is lost on this front......

A guy I'd really like to get is OTT Chris Neil but he is under contract until 08/09 season.

[236nOT]

Brodeur,

Not to be critical but the idea is to identify target players that woul fill a need. The thing that all of the players I listed have in common is that not one of them has signed a long term deal. So, in that sense though these teams may be hesitant to trade a player, their contract status may force them to.
Truthfully, I should have made my first list more prospect oriented since no legitimate team would cough up a world class third liner at the deadline but realistically free agent targets or trade targets are identified years before they become either available through trade or free agency. In this case the timeline more or less corresponds with Cammalleri's tenure in LA and Lombardi's expectations for a few of the rookies.
As for Kelly and pretty much Ottawa in general, that's the plan. Build third and fourth lines that resemble Ottawa's third and fourth lines. Take Fisher, fantastic third liner, everyone would love to have him but he's locked up tight for the next four years, so he's pretty much out of the question.

Here's a couple of unrealistic message board trade ideas: (soon to be Eklund rumors)

Blake to Detroit for Abdelkader?

Cammalleri to Buffalo for Stafford?

Stuart and Nagy to the Islanders for Bergenheim?

[EvanP]

Originally Posted by 236nOT

Now, this is not an insult to the current group but there doesn't seem to be one bottom 6 player that the other players look up to.

ARMY???

[SFKingshomer]

I don't agree on Stafford,he is one of the best prospects in hockey and I highly doubt the Sabre's trade a guy with top line potential.Trevor Lewis is a damn good 2 way player,I saw him alot for Des Moines in the USHL.I think he has 2nd line potential,he reminds me of Trevor Linden in his prime.Ruutu is the only one of those named I feel could be moved,but he has been a problem in the past with his contract demands.