LA Kings review/'47-'48 preview

[Cap'n]

'46-'47 Season Review

The Los Angeles Kings had to wait until the 3rd game of the season to hoist their first Stanley Cup Championship banner to the rafters and in that short span of time it was already readily apparent that this next season would not be near as easy as the President Trophy and Cup winning season from '45-'46. Gone were the two Conn Smythe runner-ups in C Bradley Zulyniak (dealt to New York) and C/RW Blake Cohen (dealt to Columbus) in cost saving maneuvers. Still, the team expected to challenge at the highest level and managed to secure it's 2nd straight division title and 10th of GM Capn's long continuous tenure at the helm of the Kings. The emergence of young defensemen Colton Potvin allowed the team to make a December trade with the Rangers moving out Bengt Fransson + Brent Hardiman for enigmatic but talented C/LW Brady Castonguay. While Casto didn't have the significant impact desired in his first partial season in LA the Kings found themselves rising up the standings and made two other significant moves at the deadline to acquire UFA to be Graham Sanders and former King C/RW Damian Whitney from the Coyotes. Both players saw significantly less playing time than on their previous squads and so, expectedly, their play diminished a bit. The playoffs brought about some familiar foes as the first round pitted the Kings versus a red hot Dallas Stars squad for the second year in a row, this time Dallas pushed us the full 7 games. Next was another rematch with a distracted Blues team which was dispensed in a brisk 5 games for the second consecutive year. Finally, the Kings took on the President Trophy winning Minnesota Wild and last years Conn Smythe winner C Jake Hodge after just 3:19 seconds of action and after that it was all the Kings could do to keep the games close into the 3rd period bowing out in 4 games to the eventual cup winners.

The Offseason

After another prolonged playoff run there was not a lot of offseason tinkering this year. 35 year old Garrett Thompson who had manned the Kings 1st line RW spot for the past 10 seasons was dealt to the Panthers for a 2nd rnd pick after seeing his ice time diminish the 2nd half of the season and into the playoffs. Likewise, 34 year old Kamil Augusta was bundled with a 4th rnd pick and dealt to Washington for a late 1st rnd pick and talented pilon Barrett Lawson. At the draft the Kings nabbed a speedy but undersized playmaker in RW Eddy Bertrand with the 28th overall pick in what surely was one of the weakest drafts of recent memory. Armed with 3 selections in the 3rd rnd the Kings looked to move up into the 2nd round to pick up their only other prized target in UNR defenseman Vance Rogers but decided that they could afford to wait until the 62nd overall pick for the unknown prospect from Minnesota. The Kings brass was walking their selection up to the podium when they were dumbfounded when the weaselly GM from Montreal stole the selection with the first pick of the 3rd rnd. After regaining their composure the Kings management went with a surprisingly fast hulking Czech defender in Jindrich Kasik. The rest of the selections were used to load up on wingers, mostly RW to restock a cupboard that had been spent bare.

'47-'48 Forecast

The Kings will once again be favorites to win the Pacific Division and have plenty of talent to go deep in the playoffs. They have one of the top 3-4 defensive corps in all of DMA with studs Colby Sigouin and Klage Stevens joined by minute eater Graham Sanders and ppg Colton Potvin. The bottom pairing is a slight mystery as it hinges on whether Buffalo chooses to match the RFA offersheet for RD Chris Wright. Goaltending is a definite strength with young star Stew Leroux manning the pipes. The past two seasons has built quite a resume for the former late 1st round selection adding the Jennings trophy to his Stanley Cup from the previous year along with finishing 3rd in the Roger Crozier Saving Grace award (and 3rd in Vezina balloting the year before that). The forward corps will once again rely on scoring by committee and expects to get contributions from the first 3 lines. Led by Leonard Walker and Darren Stein, the Kings are deep down the middle but could use an additional top 6 winger unless rookie RW Kaylen Pracey is able to step up to the task.

Projected Opening Night Lineup
(G-A-Pts)

Stein (56-51-107) - Walker (39-41-80) - Machacek (26-46-72)
Castonguay (8-36-44) - Hodge (17-30-47) - Pracey* (AHL 34-51-85)
Rashnikov (3-6-9) - Jensen (34-31-65) - Whitney (13-11-24)
Leroux (3-4-7) - Makarov (0-0-0) - Crowther (7-9-16)


Stevens (9-25-34) - Potvin (10-67-77)
Sigouin (10-35-45)- Sanders (15-34-49)
Wright (13-52-65) - Daoust (0-9-9)

Leroux (.903, 2.82)
Valkama* (AHL .879, 3.64)

*denotes rookie