Los Angeles Kings

[Sudden Death]

Mayors Manor posted two interviews today:

Mike Richards

Aiding in his rising comfort level are his linemates, (Simon) Gagne and Dustin Brown.

"It reminds me of a couple years ago when Simon and I had a lot of success, and then (later) with Mike Knuble in Philadelphia," recalled Richards. "It has a lot of the same characteristics - Brownie's probably a little bit more physical and a little faster. But, he's still similar to what Knube's had - being in front of the net, a hard worker and finishing his checks. So, I think it has a lot of potential. Obviously, we still have to learn to play with each other a little bit more. That's why we play exhibition games and we still have a couple weeks before it really has to click."

Willie Mitchell

Yesterday, after his on-ice workout, Mitchell seemed to be a little slower than usual.

"Just some wear and tear on the groins this time of the year," said Mitchell. "We're doing a lot of skating and in the first game I played quite a bit, so I just have a bit of tightness in the groin. I'm just making sure it doesn't become an issue."

[Sudden Death]

Willie Mitchell spoke with Kings Insider and praised the league and Brendan Shanahan's new stance on discipline.

The first thing I'd like to say is that, from last year to this year, the videos that they sent out have been so professionally done. It's hands down, night and day over what we saw last year. The stuff they had on there last year, the same check was on there for a legal hit and an illegal hit. Players were in that locker room saying, 'Which ones were legal? Which ones were illegal?' You couldn't even tell. They did such a tremendous job with the video this year, defining the terms, the rules but also showing examples of that, slowing it down and talking about it. It was a good job. (Shanahan) and Matt Schneider did that, and I thought it was an excellent job.

"Obviously you can see early on, they're saying, 'We're going to take care of our players. They're important assets to this game.' We all like to play the game hard and we all like to play physical and stuff. I love to do that, but I also want my peer to be healthy when he's done playing hockey. We need to get to a point where we can keep it a physical game, but everyone can walk away from the game for the most part healthy. Early on, (the league is) saying, 'This is how it's going to be. Repeat offenders, we're going to come after you.' And I think that’s good. To me, if you miss hockey, you hurt your team. And if it's money out of the pocketbook, you think twice about doing it. So I like it."

[Sudden Death]

Kings lost to Ducks in pre-season game last night.

Few tidbits:

Power Play still sucks (0-6). I expect to see "Fire Kompon" message board threads any day now.

Kopitar lead all Kings forwards with 19min of ice time. Guess that ankle is in good shape.

Coach Murray unhappy with Scott Parse so far

"He's still not moving the way I would like to see him move," said the Kings coach. "Some plays, just inside of his own zone, on breakouts, turning the puck over. He has a chance there, off an offensive-zone attack, and there's not much happening on either side of the puck for him right now." He later added that he's not worried about stats right now. Instead, he wants "to see him get back to work." Then, Murray again reiterated that he wants Parse on the third line with Jarret Stoll. BUT, "His plays and decisions with the puck are not real good (right now)."

[HockeyHobo]

Parse not looking good right now, the coach seems to be riding him pretty hard. I cannot decide whether to be patient and keep him or drop him and move on especially with him now expected to start on the 3rd line.

[Sudden Death]

Parse not looking good right now, the coach seems to be riding him pretty hard. I cannot decide whether to be patient and keep him or drop him and move on especially with him now expected to start on the 3rd line.

really depends on how deep of a league you are in.

two things to keep in mind about Kings coach Terry Murray.

1-Murray shuffles his lines all the time. Parse could be on the 3rd line for a while, then the 4th, then take Penner's place with Kopitar, then a healthy scratch, then back to the 3rd line (repeat).

2-Murray seems to always have someone in his doghouse for lack of effort, making poor decisions with the puck, etc. Parse seems to have filled that role now that Penner showed up in shape. Not only does Scott need to play better, he needs to hope someone else falls into that whipping boy role.

[Sudden Death]

Mayors Manor posted comments from Coach Terry Murray about prospects Brandon Kozun & Tyler Toffoli.

"(Kozun)has the speed, he has the quickness. Obviously, he can score some goals. But, he needs to go and work on his game," explained Murray. "He needs to go back down to Manchester, where there's more time - there's a lot more to the game than what I just talked about. Those are the areas that are going to take some time and are going to take some attention in order for him to nail that part of it down."

"(Toffoli) was one of the better players on the ice (during the Kings pre-season game in Phoenix last Wednesday). He played tremendous hockey," Murray stated. "He was looking like a real pro, right from the very first day of rookie camp, through the rookie camp and on into the main camp. He's never missed a beat. His play making, his attitude about taking pucks to the net and playing in the hard areas are tremendous. I think he's going to be a real top pro."

[ultrawhiteness]

Sudden Death, what are your thoughts on Loktionov?

I need some hope with this guy. Really, outside of Kopitar/Doughty/Johnson (all top 10 picks), the Kings have done a shockingly poor job of developing (and keeping!) their prospects.

[Sudden Death]

Sudden Death, what are your thoughts on Loktionov?

I need some hope with this guy. Really, outside of Kopitar/Doughty/Johnson (all top 10 picks), the Kings have done a shockingly poor job of developing (and keeping!) their prospects.

I think their prospect system has improved over the past 4-5 years, however, it has mainly been with goaltending and defensemen.

I love Loktionov's skill, but he is a but undersized (Kings list him as 5-10, 179 lbs). Also, each of last two seasons have ended with injuries.

With the top six intact and about a dozen guys competing for the bottom six slots - management may decide to have him stay in Manchester. I am curious whether he will make the squad to start the season. Right now, I would say that Clifford, Stoll, Parse, Richardson, Lewis all have spots locked up. I think it comes down to Lokti or Moreau for that last spot - and I would bet on the veteran right now.

quote from Terry Murray via Kings Insider (9/18/11)

MURRAY: "Loktionov is looking very good. This is a young player that I've known now for three years. He's just maturing now into a solid player, a solid man. He tests so well in all of his scores, physically. He's very strong and he's a skill player who likes to have the puck on his stick, sees the ice and makes plays. The veteran players that are with him, they enjoy playing with a player like that because they know they're going to get the puck. He just continues to climb the ladder. It's going to be interesting for me to see, as we get into the exhibition games, how he's going to deal with it."

[Sudden Death]

Tim Leiweke spoke with LA Times about Drew Doughty negotiations.

As chief executive of AEG, their parent company, Leiweke said he supports General Manager Dean Lombardi in not exceeding an average annual salary of $6.8 million for the unsigned defenseman because the Kings must save salary cap space for upgrades and allocate money to retain the nucleus of a promising young group.

Doughty's absence is becoming crucial as the Kings assemble their lineup and prepare for an exhibition game next week and regular-season contests in Germany and Sweden. Leiweke called the 21-year-old "the cornerstone of our organization," and said the Kings' offer reflected their high regard for him and his potential.

"He needs to get back in here. And we need to get him ready to go to Europe. He should not miss that trip. It would mean that we would begin to move on without him, and that's a bad thing."

"When I look at that, I think there either has to be a miscommunication or Drew's a 21-year-old and probably hasn't done what he may need to do here, which is stand up and take charge of the decision," Leiweke said.

Leiweke said it's Lombardi's call whether to raise the offer but that's unlikely.

"More importantly, tell me which player we're now starting to carve this $300,000 or $400,000 out of," Leiweke said. "We're carving it out of someone's salary next year and it's no secret we've got some restricted and unrestricted free agents that we have to deal with in the next two years."

Leiweke said the Kings intend to stand firm. "If someone's whispering in Drew's ear that ownership is going to get impatient and blink, they're wrong," he said.

[Sudden Death]

from Kings Insider:

Slava Voynov seems to be getting the longest look on defense in the absence of Drew Doughty. Voynov will get his third preseason game tonight, and Terry Murray recently said he believed Voynov to be "ahead" of Thomas Hickey in terms of readiness to grab an NHL spot. Tonight, Voynov is scheduled to partner with Davis Drewiske, as Willie Mitchell gets the night off. Dean Lombardi declined trade offers for Voynov last year, and reviews were strong for Voynov in the preseason opener against Phoenix.

[Sudden Death]

another piece from LA Times with Tim Leiweke:

We have offered to make him (Doughty) the fourth-highest-paid defenseman in the NHL and equal the highest-paid King in our history.

He is the cornerstone of the franchise long term and we're not going to let him go anywhere. Dean's 100% [correct] that a trade solution's not in the cards

[Sudden Death]

Kings shut out the Avalanche 6-0 in a pre-season tilt last night.

Kopitar had a hat trick, Johnson racked up three assists, Voynov and Williams each had a goal and an assist. Trent Hunter helped his case for winning a roster spot with two assists.

The Kings went 3-5 on the power play, which is a better conversion than earlier pre-season games.

Quick played the entire game.

[Sudden Death]

Glad to see that Dean Lombardi and Drew Doughty came to a compromise to get this deal done. Eight years at seven million per season. The team budged on their public stance of not exceeding $6.8M per season, while Doughty gave up a few years of UFA status down the road.

Doughty's comments

Tim Leiweke's comments

Terry Murray's comments

Let's take a quick look at salary structure. With Doughty's $7 million now on the books, if we assume the following lineup still very much "subject to change" here's what the great website Capgeek.com comes up with, in terms of the Kings' payroll. It still leaves them a cushion of $2.35 million, which Dean Lombardi likes to have going into a season in case a midseason trade comes up.

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Dustin Penner ($4.250m) / Anze Kopitar ($6.800m) / Justin Williams ($3.650m)
Simon Gagne ($3.500m) / Mike Richards ($5.750m) / Dustin Brown ($3.175m)
Kyle Clifford ($0.870m) / Jarret Stoll ($3.600m) / Scott Parse ($0.900m)
Brad Richardson ($1.175m) / Trevor Lewis ($0.725m) / Kevin Westgarth ($0.525m)
Ethan Moreau ($0.600m)

DEFENSEMEN
Drew Doughty ($7.000m) / Willie Mitchell ($3.500m)
Rob Scuderi ($3.400m) / Jack Johnson ($4.357m)
Alec Martinez ($0.737m) / Matt Greene ($2.950m)
Davis Drewiske ($0.616m) / Vyacheslav Voinov ($0.816m)

GOALTENDERS
Jonathan Quick ($1.800m) / Jonathan Bernier ($1.250m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $61,947,976; BONUSES: $135,000
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $2,352,024

[dyzfunctioned]

That's a very nice looking lineup now and going forward. Richards was a huge huge acquisition, and Gagne was a nice pickup too, especially if he can at least log 65 games.

I'd like to see them replace Penner and Williams (maybe Toffoli can replace one of them soon) and would like to see room made for Voynov (not a big Scuderi fan, but...).

[Sudden Death]

That's a very nice looking lineup now and going forward. Richards was a huge huge acquisition, and Gagne was a nice pickup too, especially if he can at least log 65 games.

I'd like to see them replace Penner and Williams (maybe Toffoli can replace one of them soon) and would like to see room made for Voynov (not a big Scuderi fan, but...).

I think the reason Williams, Penner and Scuderi are important is they all have their names on the Stanley Cup.

Also, Scuds is a necessary defensive anchor to pair with Jack Johnson. Voynov will either need to beat out Alec Martinez, or wait for an injury. He is ready, there just isn't any room this year.