Kings Gameday: Troubled Youth

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Kings Players Under The Age Of 28 Who Have Met Expectations This Season

-Jonathan Quick

-Trevor Lewis

-Dustin Brown

-Davis Drewiske

-Alec Martinez

Total: 5 of 16

 

Kings Players 28 And Over Who Have Met Expectations This Season

-Jarret Stoll

-Ryan Smyth

-Justin Williams

-Willie Mitchell (we all expected him to get hurt, right?)

-Rob Scuderi

Total: 5 of 7

A common belief amongst Kings fans is that the Kings need to use their defensive depth to make a trade for a winger to play with Anze Kopitar. Only problem with that: half our defensive prospects aren't playing well right now, and the ones that are have red flags that make them undesirable. To wit:

Thomas Hickey, 21

23 games, 2 goals, 5 assists, benched on Saturday

Colten Teubert, 20

Missed all of training camp with a broken wrist

Nicolas Deslauriers, 19

Injured knee, out 3-4 months

Andrew Campbell, 22

Sucks

The 3 that have actually had good seasons are Alec Martinez (23), Vyachelsav Voinov (20) and Jake Muzzin (21), but they all have issues that would make them unappealing to a team looking to add a prospect. Martinez is thought of as having a low ceiling (although he is NHL-ready, which may make him appealing); Voinov is Russian, which probably scares away some teams; and Muzzin just signed with the Kings as a free agent and it'd be kind of poor form to trade him this soon. Plus, Muzzin is still a late-bloomer and hasn't had back-to-back great seasons yet.

If either Hickey or Teubert were having good seasons, the Kings could probably use them for a decent winger since they'd both be playing well, would be fairly NHL-ready, and would have the pedigree GM's like to satiate an angry fanbase. Deslauriers could have if had made Team Canada at the WJC's. Campbell sucks. Instead, the Kings are kind of out of luck.

The good news is that all the Kings' younger offensive prospects are playing well. Linden Vey, Jordan Weal, Robbie Czarnik and Tyler Toffoli have all had fantastic starts, while Oscar Moller and Andrei Loktionov have been on fire lightly in Manchester. The problem, of course, is that the Kings need offensive prospects and would most likely be hesitant to trade one of them. And none of them are thought of as elite offensive prospects that you could build a trade around anyway.

The Kings don't have a defensive prospect that is both playing well and possesses a clean background to make the centerpiece of a deal. The Kings would most likely look to package a few pieces together, but getting anyone really good means that the Kings would have to give up someone already on the NHL team. That means someone like Kyle Clifford or Wayne Simmonds. Is anyone ready to do that?

(Note: There's also Derek Forbort but I don't think there's a chance in Hell Dean trades him.)

 

Prediction: Kings win, 5-3. Goals by a bunch of people courtesy of Anaheim's shitty defense.