Quoting: Bf3351
I disagree. Both Lizotte and Roy were incredibly good for their first and second seasons. Way too soon to give up on them.
To assume Kapanen is a top 6 winger is sort of a stretch. Yes he has played very well for being tied to 3rd line minutes, but he also plays in a very offense oriented system which the Kings are not. Who would be shocked if his production went down significantly? Which is a likely outcome especially since he'll be playing on a rebuilding team for the first time in his young career. I don't know anything about that prospect so I can't comment on that.
While I'm with you on the AZ trade proposal, I think you seem to be a little more focused on helping out other teams more considering that Toronto doesn't make sense as well as the NYI trade if you think about it. Hjarmarsson and Grabner make way more sense than Leddy and Komorov so can we please get over the NYI idea... We have Bjornfot who is NHL ready, but may play another season in the AHL. Leddy and Komorov have 2 years left on their contracts starting next season while Hjarmarsson and Grabner have 1.
I also don't know why you are sold on seattle most likely taking Lizotte when we have Walker, Roy, Frk, and more. If Frk has a good season I'm sure he will be considered. Plus there are all kinds of ways Blake can convince Seattle to not take Lizotte. Like giving some kind of compensation. By the way, the expansion draft might be postponed. So I wouldn't start focusing on that right away.
I agree that both Lizotte and Roy were both good this season, but you have to account for their potential. Roy is a bottom pairing defenseman and Lizotte is a bottom-six forward. They both did admirably well for the Kings, but they're not going to climb much higher on the depth chart. In Kapanen, you get a quality winger that has proven that he can play at the NHL level. The Kings don't have much talent in the prospect pipeline at wing. If Kaliyev doesn't work out, then the Kings quite literally have zero top-six capable RWs under the age of 30. With Lizotte and Roy's trade value extremely high right now, there's no better time to trade them.
I agree that Arizona is the better option, but I also think that Arizona is much less inclined to trade Hjalmarsson than the Islanders are to trade Leddy. The fact that they each only have 1 year remaining on their deals means that Arizona is going to want more in return. You're not going to be able to give up a 6th and get Hammer, even if you take Grabner's contract. There's also Hjalmarsson's full NMC to account for. I think Leddy is a much more realistic option, which is why I went with that one.
For the expansion draft, if Walker and Roy are still on the Kings, they'll both be protected. That means the Kings will either have to go 4/4/1 with their protection list or leave Clague exposed. As we learned from the Vegas expansion draft, defensemen carry a premium, and Clague will surely be the one taken if he is left exposed. With the value he carries, I think that would be a mistake. The Kings could trade him instead, but having only a handful of games under his belt, he's not going to get anywhere near the return that they could get for Roy.
If both Frk and Lizotte are exposed, Lizotte will most certainly be the player taken, simply due to his age. He's 4 years younger than Frk and price controlled for another 5+ seasons. Don't forget, Frk is a player that Detroit, the worst team in the league, chose not to qualify last summer, making him a UFA. He spent the majority of the season in the minors. He's not the type of player that you use for your selection in the expansion draft.
I don't think there's any reason to suspect the expansion draft will be postponed. If the season runs long, they might postpone it from June to August or something, but it's not going to be pushed back beyond 2021. Seattle has spent a ton of money getting their team and arena ready. The draft is happening.
Due to COVID-19 related delays in arena construction, it might not happen in Seattle as originally planned, but it's absolutely going to happen next summer.