With less than two weeks to go until the trade deadline, the Los Angeles Kings look set to strike a blow.
After giving up first-round pick (Liam Öhgren) and defensive prospect Brock Faber last summer to get Kevin Fiala, they would be among Jakob Chychrun’s main courtiers.
In a sense, their strategy can be defended, provided they don’t overpay. Their two pillars, Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, are aging. We want to give them one last chance to win a Stanley Cup, especially in the case of the Slovenian. Kopitar turns 36 this summer. Doughty just turned 33.
The Kings are not a power like the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Boston Bruins or the Colorado Avalanche, but they have enough resources to attempt such a blow without mortgaging their future too much.
The current price the Coyotes are asking for Chychrun, two first-round picks and a top prospect, is exorbitant. Can they get it for a little cheaper?
Fiala cost two big coins, but he’s just 26, is their first scorer with 55 points in as many games and has been signed for seven years by GM Rob Blake.
Their third scorer, Adrian Kempe, already 27 goals, is 26 years old; Quinton Byfield, 20, plays on the left of the first line and has seven points in his last eleven games.
2017 No. 1 pick Gabriel Vilardi, 23, is having a strong season with 31 points in 45 games. Regular roster members Blake Lizotte, Arthur Kaliyev, Rasmus Kupari and Jaret Anderson-Dolan are all 25 or younger.
The defense is relatively young. Three of the members of the first quartet, Sean Durzi, Matt Roy and Michael Anderson, are between the ages of 23 and 27.
Their school club in California is led by a band of young people, Lias Andersson, Jordan Spence, Martin Chromiak, Samuel Fagemo, Alex Turcotte, among others.
Unlike organizations that are aging or short of hope, the Kings are therefore in a position to offer additional tools to Kopitar and Doughty to touch up the Cup, thanks among other things to 13 choices in the first three rounds between 2018 and 2020, including three top five picks.
Let’s just imagine if they had preferred Moritz Seider, Dylan Cozens, Trevor Zegras, Matt Boldy or Cole Caufield to fifth-tier Turcotte in 2019, but all clubs are entitled to their Mulligan !
So far, the Kings seem to be resisting the idea of trading one of their two top prospects, center Quinton Byfield, second overall pick in 2020, or young defenseman Brandt Clarke, eighth pick in 2021, in a possible transaction for Chychrun. They would be rather reckless to do so.
Like the Canadiens of 2021?
In some ways, the Kings’ situation may be reminiscent of the Canadiens’ situation two years ago. Marc Bergevin, now Rob Blake’s right-hand man in Los Angeles, wanted to give Carey Price and Shea Weber one last chance to win a Stanley Cup. He missed three wins.
Like the Kings, the Canadian had several young people already in the organization, Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Cole Caufield, Alexander Romanov and, freshly drafted, Kaiden Guhle.
But Price and Weber’s bodies gave way after that final and they were no longer able to help make a smoother transition.
We also observed shortcomings in terms of development in Montreal. No complaints about Nick Suzuki, but Kotkaniemi, Romanov and Caufield struggled to win favor with management.
The three moreover were in the stands during the first game of the playoffs in 2021 and it took a combination of favorable circumstances for us to deign to insert them into the training.
At the time of Marc Bergevin’s dismissal, then that of Dominique Ducharme, Kotkaniemi had accepted a contract elsewhere, Caufield seemed morally broken and even Suzuki was going through a downturn.
Aiming for short-term success while ensuring sustainability requires a great deal of skill. Let’s see if the Kings, and also Marc Bergevin, well served by his previous experience in Montreal, will be up to the challenge.
Fire Sheldon Keefe?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are third in the Atlantic Division, fifth overall in the NHL with a 32-14-8 record. They are 6-3-1 in their last ten meetings despite missing Auston Matthews in the last five games.
Toronto comes at 8e NHL rank in goals scored per game and 5the rank for average goals against.
The Leafs’ power play efficiency is at 4e rank with a success rate of 25.4%, but they slip to 15e rank in numerical inferiority with a rate of 80.2%, only one percent from 9e rank though.
Despite everything, the colleague Damian Cox, of the daily Toronto Star, this week suggested the idea of firing coach Sheldon Keefe.
The arrival of Bruce Boudreau would, according to Cox, help restore the Leafs’ passion to get through the first round.
Boudreau may have revived the Vancouver Canucks last year, but not enough to get the struggling club into the playoffs. The Maple Leafs aren’t in a rout like the Canucks were last year.
Perhaps we should also remind fans of Boudreau that he allowed his teams (Washington, Anaheim, Minnesota and Vancouver) to cross the first round only four times in thirteen seasons, and only once the second round. He also missed the playoffs three times and was fired three times before the end of a season.
Sheldon Keefe must be wondering what more he needs to do to deserve some love…