Quoting: Brian2016
The Drew Doughty contract isn't the problem. He's one of the elite D's in the league. The problem in LAK is the following underperforms: Carter, Kovalchuk, and Toffoli account for $16M+ AAV. All three were terrible last season. Then, they're paying Phaneuf $8M+ over the next 4 seasons to "just go away." They're still paying Mike Richards, and will continue to pay him, for about another decade. And finally, they have not gotten any meaningful contributions from their young players. I don't blame them too much for this b/c they depleted their draft picks and prospect stockpiles during their Cup runs.
There it is: The myriad reasons LAK are terrible and will finish bottom 2 again next season in the Pacific. And bringing in Mitch Marner, or anyone else for that matter, will not be enough to propel them into the playoffs. They won 2 Cups...And now they need to rebuild.
There is no point paying Drew Doughty 11M a year on a team going no place... Jeff Carter had a bad season not recovering from injury while playing with trash... Dustin Brown I'm shocked hasn't been bought out yet when he was churning out those 30ish point seasons at nearly 6M cap hit... Kings are in $$$$$hitpit Pacific where only Sharks seem likely to be lock to make playoffs if anybody at all... I call it that since there is a lot of money sunk on certain players without anything to show for it....
Kings cap issues are as follows...
Quick 5.8M cap hit has been their worst goalie costing them Martin Jones, Ben Bishop, and Darcy Kuemper to name a few who performed better... They got Jack/Cal who both better than him...
Brown 5.75M cap hit... I had him being bought out but he had better season but Kings too stupid to trade him...
Ilya UpChuck 6.25M cap hit on a team that needed a right shot D-man if anything not another over priced winger past his prime a decade ago or 5+ years
...
Those guys alone are nearly 18M when factor in trash like Forbort making 2M+ its over 20M for trash crap... Add another 21M for Kopitar/Drew its clearly why Kings are not winning that 3rd cup this year.
Essentially for 42M dollars of payroll over 50% Kings have Dung Doughty, Krapitar, Brown, Quick, and Ilya
...
Having 16M+ is still better than Vegas who has over 17M for 5 D-men that all suck... Really over 18M if factor in minimum 700K or Engellend's contract
. Vegas will be in last place without any Cups... Kings got 2 more Cups than Vancouver who has President's trophy or Division titles compared to the Kings 1
. Sharks still can't win a cup but sinking in all that money haha... Kings would easily be fringe playoff team in weak Pacific w/ Laine or Mariner as offer sheet free add though... Getting rid of Forbort makes their defense vastly better... Moving Martinez back to left side where he belongs helps matters too... All their young D-men are better than any of the older ones they had like Forbort or Phaneuf
. Roy they are kinda high on, Walker is alright, LaDue seems constantly in dog house... They only have to play combined like 25-35 minutes a game w/ Drew on right side... Joakim Ryan was decent even if he is a 3rd pair... Ryan, Forbort, Martinez, MacDermid, Clague, Brickley, any of them is probably better than anything Knights got shooting left or right haha... They got Durzi or so from the Muzzin trade if he pans out this year it would help matters...
I think Kings were stupid to sign Kopitar to 10M, I"d trade his ass before signing him for anything in that range... His knee injuries or other issues are enough... Drew can only decline, they should have traded him for value as well... If team moved on from both of them, traded or bought out Brown they would be in better shape... Sooner they fire Blake the better, he screwed up losing every trade he has made. His drafts are not looking great w/ Vilardi seeming to be another bust like Turcotte will be for them... Both were ranked 4th for North American Skaters from site Wikipeida uses
... While the 2nd place European skaters won Calder for Canucks in Vilardi draft I wonder how the Russian who they took at like 10th will do
.
Kings would be in much better position to win a cup if had moved on from Quick, Brown, not kept Forbort, never traded for Phaneuf... Banned Gaborik from playing in those stupid world cups that ended his career getting hurt in game he scored like 2 goals in. Still to shed his 4.85M or so, Blake ends up taking on like 7M if include other player he got from Senators in that deal... Then another 6M for stupid Ilya move? So they spend about 13M instead of having Gaborik's 4.85M or so as LTIR
. Mike Richards contract will be on books for Kings longer then Luc, Blake, or that idiot coach they just hired
. I can't wait until Turcotte refuses to sign with Kings
. If Kings need to rebuild why would they hire the worst possible coach for something like that
? If he can't win w Sharks or Oilers, I guess they figure this will get them a lottery pick
? Montreal has 5 1st overall picks, Oilers are 2nd w/ like 4 of them
... Almost all 4 in a small span like 3 in a row then McDavid... Kings never drafted 1st overall so maybe if they had league rigging lottery for them instead of against they would have talent instead of trash
? Kings never hit on a forward in top 10 that is making 10M or more a year
. So I guess they would find a way to take Aki Berg or Hickey even if they had a decent pick
...