If Roy is gone, Spence moves into the top-4, Clarke needs time to develop.

What in the fresh hell are these forward lines

Does he? I assume he is NHL ready. Looked elite level in the AHL

What line do you have an issue with? i assume bottom 6? Are you familiar with the Bears and who is good / not good down there

Gotta disagree here.

If someone is offering a 1st for Spence you take it. If Roy leaves, you can still sign a vet 3RD sometime this summer.

I 100% take this deal if I'm LA.

He's close, Spence jumped him purely on his 200-foot game, but Clarke is going to be a threat offensively. If he can get a vet stay-at-home to offset his defensive shortcomings he's going to be a terror in the next few years.

With Roy pricing himself out the lines will be something like:

Anderson-Doughty
Gavrikov-Spence
SHUTDOWNLD3-Clarke

I think someone who has played big minutes but settles into a third pairing like Brodie, Edmundson, etc.

Perhaps I should point out here that Calgary would profit from exchanging their first (9th overall) and second (41st overall) for the 17th overall and 21st overall.

Totally entitled to your opinion, heck, I would have agreed at mid-season.

But, in the playoffs maybe Kopitars line and Spence were the only ones who had a strong showing. Spence carried Englund, who knows how good he actually could be with someone capable.

I think that it's an extremely close question. I come down on the side of declining purely for the injury-risk reason: if we have Doughty, Spence and Clarke, losing one of them for a while would be a serious blow, but with Doughty and Clarke, losing one of them for any significant period of time would be a catastrophe, given that the cap situation precludes getting a high-quality free-agent third defenseman.

Similar thought here, some assumptions will be more clear when we find out who the new coach is.

The likelihood is the Kings pivot to a more offensive-oriented system which should benefit PLD and FIala greatly. This will also mean players like Spence and Clarke will jump into the play far more often than just in powerplay scenarios. I'm happy both these players have some chemistry with Englund and Moverare who are signed for next season.

I can't shake the thought that LA needs to get a defenseman who has killed 20+ minutes. I keep looking at free agency and keep ending up with T.J. Brodie. He can play both sides if Spence isn't ready for top-4 minutes, he can mentor Clarke, and in the event of injuries can move all the way to the top line if needed. He also can be had for dirt cheap.

i'm aware lol. A few notes. All of your speed is in the 3rd and 4th line. Those top two lines are terribly slow and would get demolished by younger and faster teams top 6's. Miro would get eaten alive on the fourth line, kid is just too small and skilled for that role. I love Ethen Frank, but they are not handing a 4 year, 5 million dollar deal to a guy that doesn't have a second of NHL time under his belt. Trineyev has been great, but I would bet on guys like Dube, Sutter, Frank, and maybe Cristall getting the nod over him. I know Shepard has been an awesome AHL goalie, but he's 28, he didn't look great in his stint this year, and, just personally as a goalie myself, I don't think his style of goaltending translates well to NHL game speed. I hope I'm wrong and he has a good career, just my opinion.

A few notes back

Miro is 6'1 185 lol plays a pretty physical game and Dowds line plays ABOUT 13-15 minutes a night....slightly more than he got playing on other players line.
McM and Protas made Mantha look like a top 6 player and they would be the perfect pairing for Ovechkin.... ALSO guess what? Backstrom... the guy who was our top center.... very slow.
Frank has proven hes an incredible AHL talent.... Can score a lot and is one of the fastest players in the league and if you send him down almost his entire cap hit is buried in AHL... 1.1m of it.
" Trineyev has been great, but I would bet on guys like Dube, Sutter, Frank, and maybe Cristall getting the nod over him." THE IRONY of this Frank 5'10 Dube 5'9 Cristall is a horrible skater and needs at least 1 year in the AHL most likely needs 2. Sutter is the only guy you said that makes sense but he's 24 will be 25 by next year and it would be dumb to prioritize him over Miro
Hunter starts up and if he fails you call up Stevenson..... Stevenson is a rookie and you give Hunter the nod over him and let Stevenson develop more in the AHL