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About This Page: This is a discussion on LA Kings News within the LetsGoKings.com forums, at Los Angeles Kings Hockey Fan Forum. Dean is the man. He freakin loves to talk.
awesome read. slow day at work, time just flew by.
i wonder who the other defensman was? he had jack, doughty, teubert, hickey and martinez....that makes five i wonder who the sixth is? voinov? I'm assuming he meant a vet bc that was what he wanted the lineup to look like in 2-3 years...intriguing.
__________________ ``We do it, as a group, six times a year, maybe more. It's 8 in the morning until sometimes midnight.''- Mark Yannetti (king's co-director of amateur scouting)
part six is just GOLD... his had me yelling YES!.. we've got a GM that FINALLY understands that the last ****ing thing a die-hard Kings fan wants to hear is that a free agent is coming here "for the weather".
"And the other thing is, too, I don't think they're coming for the right reasons. I've had people call here, pretty good players who want to come, and I say, 'Why?' 'Well, he likes the weather.' I say, 'Goodbye.' I've had enough of this crap. There's too much of this nonsense.
"See, the Lakers got it goin' when they were winning. The players, whether it was (Karl) Malone and those other veterans, when they were winning - and they've obviously got it back now - the players said, 'I want to go to LA because they win. And, you know what, what a great place to play. What a great place to live down here.' We're still at the stage where they say, 'I want to come to LA because I like the weather, and I like that (expletive) beach down there,' which I'd like to put a frickin' wall in front of. Until we get that winning part first. Now we've got you. But it's backwards.
"I hung up on two agents. I said thank you, but no thank you. I don't care if he's a good player and would fit here. You're here because of the weather right now? That's the last thing I need around my kids. Goodbye. But when we do, like I said ... I remember watching Shaq and Kobe when they had it going. All those guys came here because they had a chance to win, first and foremost. Now you give them that, and I've got this (gesturing out his window)? I'll get anybody. I'll get anybody to play here. You're out of your mind if you don't want to play here.
"But we're not at that stage."
(Do agents understand that?)
"Oh, they understand it now."
"But to go back to your original premise, if we don't develop them right, if we don't have the right atmosphere down here, if we're running a beach club, (it all goes) right out the window."
__________________ The Kings are either on a magic carpet ride to the promised land or riding a psychotic horse running toward a burning stable. We'll know in 3 years.
- T
Last edited by TonySCV; July 11th, 2008 at 10:00 PM.
Can't wait until our new Defense comes of age to mesh with our Offense which is just about ready to explode. As for the goaltending, well...it will take some time...
How many time in the past have we heard just about every FA say they wanted to be here for the weather, then we sign them to some crappy contract. I'm glad Lombardi finally says if your coming here for the weather, it won't be as a King.
Quote:
...'I want to come to LA because I like the weather, and I like that (expletive) beach down there,' which I'd like to put a frickin' wall in front of
I read that earlier today and there was one thing that kind of jumped out at me. The fact that he kept referring to the Visnovsky and Camalleri deals as having to move some salaries. It was a good read for the most part.
I think this paragraph says it all regarding DL's evaluation of Cammalleri.
Quote:
"Everybody says, 'How's this guy get $4.5 (million)? How's this guy get an eight-year deal at $8 million?' But nothing surprises me any more. The fact of the matter is, there's more teams than there are good players. I don't care whether you're doing widgets or building a hockey team. It all comes down to supply and demand. So guys who got the big deals--Brian Campbell, eight years, holy smoke. That's a lot. Well, they're hard to find. So grin and bear it."
DL certainly wasn't about to "grin and bear it" with Cammy. On the other hand, moving Lubo and his salary makes perfect sense to give him space for the salary deals that need to be made in the next 2 years.
If I were Jonathan Quick and Danny Taylor I don't think I would like to know that Lombardi goes around saying that there were no goalies in the system when he was hired. Also, that 2006 draft, Lombardi went to great lengths to say that he didn't know the draft and that the existing scouting staff and Dave Taylor were really the ones making the picks that year. That equates to those picks being the in system before he took over. The goaltenders taken that draft were Bernier and Zatkoff. So really the only goalie that Lombardi has had a hand in choosing that is in the development camp is Rowat. Nice way for him to take credit for the depth that now exists. (I knew this is the way things would go as soon as I heard his comments about the picks in 2006.)
In case anyone forgets one little point, Harrold was signed by Dave Taylor prior to his demotion. Richard Petiot had been progressing pretty well until the knee injury in camp three years ago. The others, for the most part, didn't develop as hoped. However, the need for the defensemen wasn't as great as it is today since the Kings had a good young defenseman in Gleason, still had Visnovski, Norstrom, Weaver and Dallman. The guys such as TJ Fast, who was just signed by Pittsburg after not being kept by Lombardi, still had time to develop under those circumstances, as others might have had as well. By trading or not resigning all of those defensemen the small number of good defensive prospects becomes more crirical. It would be remiss to assume that Taylor would not have addressed the situation just as Lombardi has. The lucky part for Lombardi is that he has had higher picks in the draft than Taylor ever had and there have been some very good defensive prospects for him to choose from. As far as stockpiling picks, in 2003 Taylor had three first round picks, without wheeling and dealing on draft day, and it looks like two of those picks have or will turn out to be good Kings players. The third was traded, much to some fans dismay, but he has not yet stuck in the NHl.
So, all in all, Lombardi didn't start out from as bad a circumstance as he keeps talking it up as and, in fact, created a part of the defensive problem himself. Of course he likes to make it sound like he is the phoenix rising from the ashes, which he isn't.
__________________ "Of course , that's just my opinion, I could be wrong." -Dennis Miller
Some posters around here just like to make up things to suit their personal opinions and then others use them as facts in the future.
rajuabju
