1 year, Hoffman is a defensive liability, flip him at the deadline 50% retained for a high pick.

Hoffman would sign that deal in no tax Florida not high taxed California, Try more like 2 x $6.5m for Hoffman at the very least.

So is Kaliyev, better get used to it.

Not disagreeing, but if Kaliyev doesn't improve his 2-way game he will not be a top-six winger for the Kings. If his defensive game never comes through, he will be a bottom six winger and PP specialist. But that's still valuable, and that's the value I see in Hoffman. Which is why a one year sign and trade sounds just fine to me.

Not many suitors right now, so he might not have alot of leverage. But even so, at $6.5, still not bad for L.A., even if he is a defensive liability. Besides, the whole team is an offensive liability. It would be nice to see someone score.

You don't put defensive liabilities in the bottom 6. If Kaliyev turns into a top 6 30 goal scorer like his comparible Hoffman, he will play in the top 6. Play him with good two way players like Andersson and Vilardi. Realistically they just need him to cover his d man in the defensive zone and thats it. Obviously back checking would be nice too, but both Vilardi and Andersson are good back checkers.

I think we just have different philosophies for how we should deploy players like him. I get what you mean play him on top lines maximize his minutes and maximize his goals. But I think you get better results if you limit his minutes play him primarily on the PP and offensive zone lower in the line up. I think I am just biased because Kings coaches typically play a conservative game, but maybe you are right he might do well and so could Kaliyev if they are on the top line. We'll wait and see.

I don't have a desire to sign Hoffman at this point in the rebuild. All I'm saying is the Kings will have 5 forwards with strong two way games in the top 6 so having 1 guy who isn't as strong defensively in their isn't a bad idea. I would agree if we were talking defenesmen. No team should have a defenseman if he is a defensive liability.

If Kings aquired Liane, would you want to play him on the 3rd line?

I'm not disagreeing with your logic either. I do think the Kings are trying to shift away from the conservative team they are used to being.

My future lineup looks like this:

Turcotte Byfield Simontaival
Andersson Vilardi Kaliyev
Kempe Kopitar Brown
Moore Lizotte Thomas/Fagemo

Bjornfot Doughty
Anderson Grans/Faber
Hults/someone else Roy

If you look at that lineup every player has a good two way game except for Kaliyev. I'm not counting Grans bc the only way he ever gets that spot is if he tightens up his defensive instincts.

If we had Laine his offense would be his defense the way he moves, but yeah I get your point. Also, I don't hate the idea of Andersson's conservative play as a countermeasure against Kaliyev with Vilardi holding them together, however, as you have it I believe that will be our third line for at least the next few years until Kopitars game has really lost a step. I think I like one of the top prospects moving to Center as you have it either Turcotte or Vilardi works for me, but Simontaival, Kaliyev, Andersson, Fagemo all are projected as top-9 wingers and I'm not sure any of them can become that top wing guy, I think that we still have areas of weakness that we will hopefully address at this next draft: our top line winger (unless Kupari somehow does it), our goalie of the future, and our number one defenseman to take the reigns from Doughty. But what you have listed above is definitely a playoff team.

The idea of "top line player" is ridiculous if you ask me. Is Kapanen a top line player? Is Staal a top line player? Is Iafallo a top line player? If you have 2 elite players on the same line, assuming Byfield and Turcotte pan out as expected. Simontaival has top 6 potential. He needs a lot of development first, but if he can become a 50 point player he certainly would gell well with Turcotte and Byfield.

Petersen is the Kings goalie of the future and they have 2 goalies in the pipeline who could become starters in Ingham and Parik.

I'm not saying that Kaliyev is or will be as good as Laine, but we are talking about one dimensional players the only difference is Laine is a 40 goal scorer. Kaliyev is expected to be a 30 goal scorer. That's a 10 goal difference and Kaliyev is and will be cheaper than Laine.

I agree on the defenseman though, I really think the Kings need to draft Brandt Clarke next year and should be taking bad contracts for 1sts to have ammunition in case they have to trade up for him. Clarke reminds me so much of Doughty.

As far as the Andersson Vilardi Kaliyev line, that won't be a line for awhile.

My top 9 projection over the next 5 years looks like this:

20-21
Iafallo Kopitar Brown
Kempe Vilardi Frk
Grundstrom JAD Carter

21-22
Turcotte Kopitar Brown
Andersson Vilardi Frk
Kempe Byfield Carter

22-23
Turcotte Kopitar Brown
Andersson Byfield Vilardi
Kempe Madden Kaliyev

23-24
Turcotte Byfield Vilardi
Andersson Kopitar Kaliyev
Kempe Madden Brown

24-25
Turcotte Byfield Simontaival
Andersson Vilardi Kaliyev
Kempe Kopitar Brown

I think with 1 season in the SHL and 3 seasons in the AHL I think Simontaival will have a really good development journey and roll right into the top 6. I also think Madden will be traded once Kopitar gets bumped to the 3rd line.