Player evaluation: Nagy
LADISLAV NAGY
This season: 38 games, 9 goals, 17 assists, minus-2 rating.
Positives: In spurts, Nagy showed the offensive creativity that led the Kings to give him a one-year contract last summer. He's still a creative offensive player with good hands, and had be been able to stay healthy, he might have been a 20-goal scorer, a plateau he reached in each of his first three full NHL seasons.
Negatives: He couldn't stay healthy. A neck injury took Nagy out of the lineup in mid-January and he never returned. Injuries played a big part this year, but Nagy's goal totals have decreased every season since 2003-04, from 24 to 15 to 12 to nine. Even when healthy, he probably produced at a level a bit lower than the Kings expected.
Looking ahead: Given his neck injury, and Dean Lombardi's hint-dropping about bringing more prospects into the fold, it seems highly unlikely that the Kings have Nagy in their plans as a top-six forward next season. If he's healthy, he will get a contract from another team and might be able to rebound.
Contract situation: Unrestricted free agent.
8 Comments
Leave a comment
About the bloggers
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
I really liked this player.
I actually thought he was a pretty good sign-up by DL (which says alot).
We can't argue that his talent is undeniable. He and Frolov were putting up some real big numbers when they were together.
Since he has alot talent, I wouldn't mind having DL keep him for another year. This time pay him less.
His motivation now would be to salvage his career. That might motivate him to play harder and put up even bigger numbers. He's too young and skilled to give up on.
I say sign him to a 1 year contract for less than $2.5 Million.
Please Dean, close the books on this one.
Hey at least he got in a couple games, before the 1 yr deal was done..unlike Val Bure
Bye Bye Nagy...we hardly knew ya.
Dean lets move on. The chemistery on this team is such that he was not a good fit.
Hey Rich,
Any idea how much of a role Mike O'Connell played in the Kings' last off-season signings of which arguably none worked out and the players were misjudged/evaluated?
If he played a role, lets all hope he doesn't convince DL of any of his recommendations this summer!!
too injury prone and we need the room for our younger guys. he's a good player, but we dont need him.
Thanks for the hat trick against Chicago, Jan 1st.
See Ya!!!!!!!