Quisp's 2011-12 Los Angeles Kings

Discuss.

The way I see it, there will be at least one big mean defenseman graduating by two seasons from now. The choices are Teubert, Campbell and Muzzin. Muzzin, who just completed a personal-best season, and was voted MVP of his team, has the leadership qualities that Teubert appears to lack (Tuebert’s leadership skills canceled out by madness). I have only seen Muzzin on YouTube clips and half of one pay-per-view CHL game. But he looks better than Teubert to me. And I choose to think Lombardi will be able to grow at least one big “tree” d-man by then. So Muzzin it is.

When he was playing in Windsor, I saw him make passes (in the Memorial Cup, I forget which game) that literally caused the crowd to gasp. Every time I see Kopitar get ready to make one of his mega-telegrapho passes, which everyone in the world sees coming, I think of Loktionov, whose fake shot passes and fake pass passes are mesmerizing.

Yes, he is short. And he also needs to put on some muscle, like Moller does. The Manchester coach had a great quote about him, which was something to the effect of “watching him skate, it’s like he’s gliding on air.” That sounds kind of lame, actually. But it wasn’t.

Your idea of putting him on the wing is probably closer to reality, but WTF, it’s my little fantasy. Parse/Loktionov/Moller were an insanely good line for the first few weeks of the season, before they all were called up. And I do like the idea of giving Frolov someone to talk to.

And yes, of course I know that Frolov is possibly moving on. Feel free to put Marleau in his place.

Well, I put him with Kopitar because Brown sucks with Kopitar. You could flip my first and second lines, really. They’re 1a and 1b. Simmonds I see as being what Brown was supposed to be but isn’t. He’s also kind of Ryan Smyth Jr with more energy.

I don’t think he’s better than Moller, no. He’s physically more mature, and obviously bigger. Also will be wearing the A at some point, I think.

Having said what I said about Brown, I don’t think Simmonds is better than Brown exactly. I just see him being a more likely top six winger than Brown. Brown is, and I mean this as a positive in every way, the best 3rd line RW in the world. Maybe the ideal third line RW.

To be fair, I’ve got Nolan in the Zeiler press box spot. Somebody has to be the 13th/14th forward. It’s not going to be Moller or Loktionov or Schenn. I like what I’ve seen from Nolan in the 45 seconds I’ve seen him. I’m not projecting higher than fourth line or anything. I’m not insane.

Very nearly made the team this year, as an 18 year old. In the OHL, his point totals have literally doubled every season, from 15 to 28 to 57 this year. And he has another year of junior eligibility left. The kid is literally the epitome of the Dean Lombardi player, crash and bang blue paint nose dirty Canadian kid with offensive skills that are growing exponentially. Also, we need a good #13.

Well, that’s a good point. And I think you’re identifying an interesting area, I would say “problem,” but it’s a good one to have. Loktionov and Schenn both project top six and are both centers. They can both play wing if need be. Schenn can play the two way game and could be a good fit on the third unit until he grows into the C2 spot. But Loktionov doesn’t fit on a bottom-six line (unless you’re going for a third speed unit, a la Millen/Donnelly). Stoll, meanwhile, is not a top-six forward; he’s a third line center, really. If Loktionov turns out not to be ready year after next, then my line-up looks cleaner, as Stoll or Schenn can both work in either the second and third lines. Stoll on the fourth line looks weird, I know. But in my configuration, it’s really more of an alt. line, where it would be Stoll and someone…RIchardson? …as a pair, and a rotation of deserving players (Frolov, etc.) getting double-shifted.

That doesn’t necessarily seem that bad. I’m surprised a number of these guys are on this liist for 11-12 though. That seems a bit too soon for me to have Loktionov, Clifford, Schenn, Muzzin, AND Voynov. Five of those new guys has me a little bit concerned, but I don’t know enough about all these guys to pass judgment.

I’m also not sure that Handzus won’t re-sign after his contract expires (after 10-11 season, I believe). Certainly not at the $4M cap hit he is for this contract, but I like what he does defensively, and he’s a better option (at least this year) on faceoffs than Kopitar.

I am also a bit surprised to see Frolov on your list here. I love him so much, and wouldn’t move him except for a huge impact player like Kovalchuk, but everybody’s saying he won’t be back, and Rich Hammond put it at less than 50%. But we’ll see.

I’m pretty sure one of Voinov, Hickey, or Tuebert (hopefully) gets traded away eventually for a picks. You don’t really see a whole lot of good teams trading players for draft picks while they’re good but obviously not all of our prospects are going to make it. I think Dean can hopefully manage the cap well enough that we won’t have to give prospects away through waivers (Quincey). Voinov, Loktionov, Schenn, and Clifford all look awesome. I think Bernier has better potential than Quick, but Quick seems to have a better attitude for a goalie (although plenty of assholes are/were decent goalies-Belfour, Roy, RudyKelly). It is going to be very interesting to watch the goalie situation play out.