Topics in this edition of the mailbag include players who have overachieved and underachieved relative to expected production, an updated look at the Calder Trophy race, and more. If your question doesn’t appear here, check back in next weekend’s column.
rpoabr: How do you solve the Kings?
This is a hard one. I’m a proponent of roster shakeups over coaching changes but doing anything of consequence with this group is going to be difficult. Of their current healthy top six forwards in terms of cap hit, they probably aren’t moving any of them (or can’t, in Pierre-Luc Dubois’ case with his struggles; they wouldn’t get full value if they moved him now). Viktor Arvidsson’s value is down since he hasn’t played this season so he’s not being traded. They only have two other ones making more than $1MM and both of them are under $2MM. That makes it hard to salary match and they’re in a spot where they need to do so.
On the back end, maybe there’s a shakeup move with Vladislav Gavrikov whose shorter-term deal could make a player-for-player swap more palatable. With the right team, perhaps that frees up a bit of money to take a run at another upgrade. But Drew Doughty and Michael Anderson are on long-term pacts and moving the underappreciated Matt Roy probably isn’t going to help. From there, the options make $1MM or less so again, money matching is difficult. Meanwhile, I’m not going to pick on the goaltending, it’s doing well enough under the circumstances.
So, if a Gavrikov trade isn’t palatable, there are three options. Tweak the depth players (try some different fourth liners, for example, to see if one provides a spark as they did with Alex Turcotte yesterday), do nothing, or make a coaching change. Option one doesn’t move the needle much so that isn’t going to solve anything. Anyone who reads these knows how much I don’t enjoy speculating about a coaching change but if you’re of the mindset that this roster needs a shakeup, that’s the one card they can play right now. Until Arvidsson gets back, it might be the only card they can play.
Personally, I don’t think the Kings were as good as they were early nor do I think they’re as bad as they are now. They’re somewhere in the middle as a mid-tier playoff team. That’s basically where I pegged them heading into the season so I’m not really inclined to say they should make a change but if GM Rob Blake decides that something needs…
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