THE TURN OF A CARD

LOS ANGELES, CA -- As bad news and negativity engulf Southern California this week in the fight against Covid-19, Los Angeles Kings fans experienced a less gloomy June with the turn of a card at the NHL Network Studios on Friday night. 

Criticize (and to me it’s over criticism) the process that determined which team will receive the assumptive first-overall pick, Alexis Lafreniere (to be determined at the end of the qualification/play-in round) as you like, but there is no question Los Angeles is a major beneficiary of the process that resulted in finishing runner-up to The Team To Be Determined. 

Unless you’ve ignored Los Angeles hockey for the past 18 months, you know the Kings organization has built a critical mass of prospects that many believe is the best in the NHL. The pool of the next generation of Los Angelenos is wide as it is deep; it does not want for talent along the forward wall, the blueline or in the net. With change being a constant in the management of professional sports (hello, Buffalo) the L.A. executive suite left their amateur scouting function intact, led by Mark Yannetti and if things go as planned, there should be an exciting, contending team hitting the ice for the 2020-21 season. 

The past months have provided us a chilling reminder that there are no guarantees in our journey of life, but with the number of prospects in place, the odds are much greater that multiple players develop into legitimate NHL players, if not stars. And though the crown they wear continues to increase in value, the one facet lacking was the no doubter, the elite talent to place at the top as a crown jewel to make the collection complete. They will possess that jewel once the full menu of Return To Play details are released next week as the formal date of the virtual 2020 NHL Draft will be disclosed. 

The coming months stand to be a continuing debate on which youngster (and remember, they are all kids) lands in Los Angeles when training camp commences. The two prominent names are Sudbury Wolves pivot Quinton Byfield and Adler Mannheim forward Tim Stutzle, both a tick behind Lafreniere but foundational players in their own right. With the caveat of great expectations for teenagers shifting the fortunes of a franchise immediately (Jack Hughes wound up playing left wing in the latter stages of the Devils season, Kaapo Kakko had fourth line duty in New York), even Rob Blake admitted to me on a media call soon after landing The Pick, that The Plan had been accelerated due to quality of the player that will be selected. 

Handicapping the selection, I lean towards Byfield, but you’re truly splitting hairs between him and Stutzle after reviewing numerous scouting reports leading up to the lottery. Stutzle’s skating skills match Lafreniere’s with the added flexibility of being a first liner either at center or left wing (a positional player L.A. has been seeking forever) with comparisons stylistically to Toronto’s Mitch Marner or Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux. 

Byfield projects a pure center and though some observers displaced him from his consensus second-overall position entering the season due to the ascension of his German counterpart, he is a player who draws comparisons to Evgeni Malkin in some corners and Anze Kopitar in others. A snippet from TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie’s final Draft Primer should make the long wait until next season more palatable for Kings fans:

“All the physical ability in the world,” one scout told McKenzie. “If he doesn’t turn out to be an absolutely elite No. 1 NHL center, he’ll still be a top-line player.”

With Kings players dispersed to their summer homes, it makes it difficult for immediate reaction, but I was able to reach an unnamed player somewhere in Eastern Europe during our “The Hot Stove” show on SiriusXM on Saturday. When told that comparables for Byfield was Malkin and Kopitar, the response was, “I’ll take another Kopi on my team.”

Another indicator of a lean towards Byfield goes back to the speculation around last year’s draft – had L.A. landed at No.3 instead of No.5, Kirby Dach (selected by Chicago) would have been chosen – not a slight to their eventual selection of Alex Turcotte but an affirmation of finding a pivot in the mold of Kopitar (Dach is 6’4” 197, Byfield 6’4” 215). One thing is certain, Yannetti and his team will scrutinize every report and millimeter of video available to make a selection that will impact both the short- and long-term future of the franchise. 

While this pivotal selection will take center stage for the balance of the off-season, the undersold aspect of this draft is the three second-round picks Blake warehoused from the Tyler Toffoli and Alec Martinez deals at the trade deadline. In addition, if Kyle Clifford re-signs in Toronto at season end, they will have three second rounders in the 2021 NHL Draft, too. By that time they will simply have too many prospects to fill their depth chart and while this off-season stands to be quiet in the trade and free agency department (Covid-19 and non-C19 impacts), look for the summer of 2021 to be one where Blake can flex his muscles both via trade and free agency. 

KOTP RETURNS... SORT OF

The Mayor John Hoven and I were able to crank out a couple of Kings Of The Podcast episodes after the formal conclusion of the season. We grabbed former Ontario Reign coach Mike Stothers and L.A. Director of Player Personnel Nelson Emerson along for the ride. For those looking more after whetting your appetite, we did the next best thing, bringing The Mayor to “The Hot Stove” on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio earlier today for a mini-KOTP, if you will.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

I’m done with all the negativity regarding the return of sports by a faction of society. Not for a second am I minimizing the impact C-19 has on our society and the way of life we are accustomed to, but I choose to remain positive through it all. There is a faction of sports fans and media that have turned into sports haters and some have rebuked the “we need sports to provide us some level of normalcy” road I have traveled down since the middle of March. If you don’t like the 24-team post-season or the complex path to determine the first-overall draft pick, that’s your prerogative. If you think that we should just scrap the NHL season and try again whenever, I’m not there with you ... but please don’t be a hypocrite and watch the games when the League and the NHLPA craft a methodology to bring a conclusion of the season. 

The return of all professional sports boils down to a conversation about risk management – how much risk are athletes willing to accept to return to play and having the belief that a) the protocols in place will protect you sufficiently from C-19 and b) if you do contract the virus, what are the health consequences. If any athlete is looking for full mitigation from risk, it’s not present in any plan to play and it doesn’t occur in life. I don’t begrudge professional athletes the salaries they earn as they risk their bodies every time they venture out to play in a career that is limited to just a few years for prime earning. For hockey in particular, there’s risk every time a player lays out to block a 100 mph Shea Weber slap shot or comes inches away from a sharp skate blade, so to ask for zero risk in any human venture is asking too much.

It’s my hope that the players see how returning to play like their MLB, NBA and MLS cousins are attempting to do benefits us all, for if we don’t have hope to return to better days, what do we really have?  

Be safe, be smart, but most importantly, stay hopeful.