May 2008 Archives

As part of its coverage of the NHL draft combine, TSN did an interview with Dean Lombardi, during which he doesn't tip his hand about which direction he's leaning (although we all know it's a defenseman) and talks about a couple of the prospects in particular.

Lombardi on TSN.ca

TSN.ca is doing an extensive blog about the NHL's draft combine in Toronto, where general managers and scouts are getting a look at some of the top prospects. The only mention of the Kings so far is about Dean Lombardi talking to Nikita Filatov. I think it would be more interesting to read about Lombardi talking to Doughty or Bogosian, but oh well. The blog is a good read...

NHL draft combine blog

Barry Melrose will be the new coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, according to Damien Cox of the Toronto Star.

Everything Old, New Again

Here's the interview I did yesterday with Patrick O'Sullivan. He discusses his experience at the World Championships this month, as well as his personal development as a player, his hopes for the Kings' improvement and his contract situation this summer.

It's been very interesting to watch O'Sullivan develop. I still remember watching him at his first prospects camp and thinking he had all the talent in the world, then watching him consistently go backward until he eventually landed back in the AHL. Then he started a tremendous comeback and essentially reinvented himself in the eyes of the Kings. Along the way, he's gone from being a quiet kid to a more confident player.

Here's the full interview with O'Sullivan...

The Kings announced today that they will play a preseason game against St. Louis in Kansas City, where AEG opened an arena last year. The game will be played on Sept. 22. The full press release from the Kings follows...

Here's the interview Don did this week with Danny Taylor, the much-traveled goalie who logged some big miles between Los Angeles and Reading near the end of last season. Don gets the scoop on what that was like for Taylor and also gets to know Taylor a little bit, going into what should be a crucial summer for him.

Hope everyone enjoys another of Don's great interviews. I'm working on getting the Patrick O'Sullivan interview up today...shouldn't be long. Enjoy...

Thanks to Thomas LaRocca of the Kings for passing along the second part of the Marc Crawford Stanley Cup Finals podcast. Here's the link...

Crawford talks Game 2

Also, we'll have a series of interviews in the next couple days. I talked today to Patrick O'Sullivan, who said that contract negotiations with the Kings are progressing but that he doesn't consider a deal to be imminent. I'll have the whole interview up tomorrow. Also, Don has tracked down Daniel Taylor and is trying to get a couple other prospects this week.

As part of Dean Lombardi's North American tour to visit draft prospects, he met with Zach Bogosian this week. Here's a short story from the Peterborough Examiner, with a couple quotes from Bogosian and the assertion, from Bogosian's father, that Bogosian wouldn't mind playing for a West Coast team.

Kings visit Bogosian

NHL.com is supposed to be doing podcasts with Marc Crawford after each of the Stanley Cup Finals games. I haven't seen the Game 2 version, but for those who want to here Crawford's thoughts about Game 1, you can click here. Crawford also comments here about the job Tomas Holmstrom did for Detroit in Game 1.

The Sports Business Journal published a story today about the NHL's financial resurgence. The story read, in part:

``The league's revenue rose 11 percent to $64.66 million over the same period. (from the 2006 to 2007 fiscal year). ... Licensing surpassed pre-lockout levels of $4.04 million for the first time, hitting $4.3 million, and playoff assessments hit an all-time high of $6.09 million for fiscal 2007. Savings and cash investments added another $3.5 million to the league's coffers. Those numbers represent only NHL revenue. Additional revenue from NHL Enterprises and member clubs pushed overall league revenue to $2.3 billion over roughly the same period.''

Meanwhile, a certain hockey team in Los Angeles is losing more money than ever. No wonder they don't want to talk about it anymore...

This story is a couple weeks old now, but it's a good read about how former Kings Jason Holland, John Tripp and Chris Schmidt have found new life playing pro hockey in Germany.

Ex-Los Angeles Kings making their marks in Germany

If you read Don's interview with Drew Doughty a few weeks ago, Doughty made no secret of the fact that he wants to play for the Kings. Doughty, one of the top prospects in next month's draft, could very well end up being a King, if the team doesn't go with Zach Bogosian.

Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times, stuck in Detroit for the Stanley Cup Finals, caught up with Doughty today and he talked more about his desire to be drafted by the Kings.

Playing for Kings would be 'dream come true' for No. 3 draft prospect

Dean Lombardi, Michael Futa, Mark Yannetti and the gang are out all over the continent this month, having sit-down meetings with prospects and their families, and the group will be in Toronto tomorrow for the draft combine. I'll do my best to get an update on how things looked in Toronto.

Hope everyone is having a good holiday weekend. It's hard to beat sleeping in on a Monday morning. But to get back into the swing of things, here's an interview Don just did with Mark Morris, coach of the AHL Manchester Monarchs. In the interview, Mark gives some perspective on the season and what it's like to coach at the highest minor-league level. It's another great interview by Don with an interesting subject...

Don tracked down Brady Murray for a wide-ranging interview that deals with the recently concluded Manchester season, his development as a player and the famous Murray competitive streak, passed down from his father. Here's the interview...

Thanks to our assistant managing editor (and blog contributor!), George Foulsham, for passing this along. Mattias Norstrom has told the Dallas Morning News that he's going to take some time to think about whether to retire or return to the NHL next season, and that if he does return, the Dallas Stars would be his first choice.

Family comes first for Norstrom

On a related note, George will leaving us in a couple weeks, for an exciting new position. It's a big loss for the paper and for me personally, as George has become a great friend and supporter of the blog. He's also an ardent Kings follower, so I've asked him to write something for the blog before he departs. Good luck, George!

Here's the third and final installment of the question-and-answer session from last night. Hopefully I did an adequate job of proving y'all with the major points addressed. And given that two-thirds of those who have voted in the poll say they don't care that the Kings are losing money, it seems that Chris McGowan, for the most part, was correct...

Here's the second part of the event from last night, broken down to give you some highlights of the questions asked and answered. I'll have one more after this...

I'll do my best here to give the high points (or low points, depending upon how you look at it) of the Kings' season-ticket-holder ``roundtable'' event from last night. If you have any follow-up questions, fire away, but I'll try to give a good summation of the questions and answers from the event. The participants in this event were assistant general manager Ron Hextall, chief marketing officer Chris McGowan and team president Luc Robitaille. Here's the first part of it...

Just got back a bit ago from the event. A very interesting night. Quite a few verbal grenades lobbed at assistant general manager Ron Hextall, chief marketing officer Chris McGowan and team president Luc Robitaille -- most of them directed toward the first two -- but they hung fairly tough and did a decent job of appeasing the crowd. Hextall, for not having a ton of management experience, seems very comfortable in these situations and isn't afraid to give frank answers, to the extent that he can without tampering and/or giving away closely guarded secrets. For those who might have been wondering, Dean Lombardi is out of town for some draft-related scouting.

So what did I learn tonight?

1) Lots of people are angry about parking-price increases. Lots of people. It's a huge issue, even more than the ticket-price increases. Most of the anger seems to be regarding Lot 8, which has increased from $20 to $30 per game. There was particular concern among the female fans, who expressed concern about walking to their parking lots, which are getting farther and farther away even as they're also getting more and more expensive. Not a lot of answers from the Kings folks on this one. They say they don't totally control the parking prices and that much of the problem comes from new construction taking the place of parking lots. That one got a lot of justified chuckles, because who's building the majority of those buildings? A fella by the name of Anschutz.

2) Fans don't care that the Kings are losing money. Fans didn't say that; Chris McGowan did, several times. They're done talking about the fact that they're losing money because, they say, the fans don't care. So either I've been way off base on the importance of this issue, or what I saw tonight was a real strong attempt at a Jedi Mind Trick.

3) There are some angry fans out there. And I'm not necessarily saying it's unjustified, but even people who were complementary of the Kings in some areas had some real stinging criticisms, in just about every area you can imagine. Parking prices, ticket prices, beer prices, price and selection of food, season-ticket representatives, time-share salesmen, free-agent signings, draft picks (including Thomas Hickey, a year later) and coaching. That's just off the top of my head. Again, I'm not saying all the questions -- or even most of them -- were unjustified, and there were a lot of strong questions as well, but I have to say that I underestimated how upset fans are.

There are so many other things. I took very detailed notes and starting tomorrow morning I'll go through and give you the highlights of the questions and answers. As I indicated before, Hextall gave the best answers, on topics ranging from acquiring a goalie (don't hold your breath), acquiring a defenseman (they will aggressively look to trade for a 30-or-under defenseman), Jonathan Bernier playing in L.A. next year (possible but far from certain), the re-signing of Patrick O'Sullivan (they're working on it), the buyout of Dan Cloutier (they're talking about it but haven't made a decision) and a bunch of other stuff. I'll get into more detail tomorrow morning...

I'll be at tonight's ``Kings Roundtable'' question-and-answer event for season-ticket holders, just as an observer, but I'll have a report about the event late tonight or tomorrow morning.

Pulling this from a comment from this morning...a good story from TSN about how Detroit and Pittsburgh built their rosters. It illustrates the value of a strong organization and it's definitely something Dean Lombardi and Luc Robitaille would like you to read and buy into, because it goes along with their philosophy.

Wings and Penguins build winners from within

Since this is a rather slow week -- although both Don and I are in the process of locking up some more interviews -- it's a good opportunity to look forward and see exactly where the Kings stand in terms of players and salary. With an assist to the folks at nhlscap.com, here's a look at all of the Kings' returning players and what they'll make (if they make the team, in some cases), in terms of salary-cap numbers.

The way I see it now, the Kings have players locked into 12 of their 20 spots. Those 12 players would make roughly $30.5 million. Add in Alyn McCauley's buyout, and that puts them at about $31.2 million. That does not include restricted free agents Patrick O'Sullivan, Erik Ersberg and Peter Harrold. Here's the whole breakdown, which doesn't include the prospects signed recently and is based, in part, on some educated guesses...

Here's the last set of answers for now. Thanks for all the good questions this week and how about Dallas, huh? One more win and things will get really interesting...

The answers continue...

The next round of answers on a blistering-hot Friday afternoon...

Some good questions in the mix. I'll start tackling some of the questions now, but feel free to keep adding them to the post below...

For those interested, I'll be glad to take questions and give any answers/insight I can. Fire away!

Finally...the end. Here's the last part of the interview with Mark Yannetti and Michael Futa. It focuses mainly on where the organization stands now and where it's heading and (hopefully) will give you some idea of their vision for the future. I hope everyone found the interview worthwhile! Here's the last part...

OK, I thought this would be the final installment, but there's still another one to come. In this part, Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti discuss what it's like to work for Dean Lombardi and discuss how it can be both challenging and rewarding. It's a bit of an insight as to what it's like to work for the Kings these days...

The United States (with Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan) lost to Finland 3-2 in overtime in the quarterfinals of the World Championships. The U.S. trailed 2-0 heading into the second period but couldn't pull it off. Friday's semifinals will feature Russia vs. Finland and Canada vs. Sweden.

It's two interviews for the prices of one today. Don talked to forward Matt Moulson, who made his debut with the Kings this season and totaled five goals and four assists in 22 games. Moulson also had 28 goals and 28 assists in 57 regular-season games with Manchester. Here's a video of Moulson's first goal, followed by his chat with Don...

Don tracked down prospect Alec Martinez, a defenseman who signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Kings, for an interview. The Kings think highly of Martinez, who was a fourth-round draft pick out of Miami (Ohio) University last year. Martinez's hockeydb.com profile gives his college stats. Enjoy the interview...

Here's the second-to-last installment of the interview with Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti. Unfortunately, the final installment will have to wait, since I left my recorder at home this morning. Oops. This part is some real meat-and-potatoes stuff about the job these guys do leading up to the draft...

Here's the update from up north on the World Championships. The United States, with Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan, will have a rematch with Finland tomorrow at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time. Tomorrow's other quarterfinals feature the Czech Republic vs. Sweden, Norway vs. Canada and Russia vs. Switzerland. The semifinals will be played Friday, the bronze-medal game on Saturday and the championship game on Sunday.

On the less-fortunate side of things, Slovenia, with Anze Kopitar, finished last in its group and has been relegated to the lower division for next year's World Championships.

In this third installment of the interview, Futa and Yannetti talk about preparing for all the different scenarios they might face on draft day, plus they discuss how there is a consensus, among the staff, about which player to select with the No. 2 pick...

Here's the second part of the interview with Mark Yannetti and Michael Futa, in which they start to go into some detail about what their lives are like these days, and how hectic the weeks leading up to the draft can be...

As I continue to sort through the Yannetti/Futa stuff, here's an interview Don did this week with Jason LaBarbera, who is recovering from his surgery to repair a sports hernia. Don also attaches a video of one of LaBarbera's best saves of the season...

Here's the first part of the long interview I did on Saturday with Michael Futa and Mark Yannetti, the Kings' co-directors of amateur scouting. The interview took place after I sat in on their session, so you'll read a couple references to that morning's meeting.

For a little background, Futa and Yannetti were named to their roles on June 5, 2007, so this is really their first year overseeing the Kings' draft efforts.

Previously, Yannetti worked as a scout for the Kings and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Futa spent the previous five seasons as the general manager of the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League.

What follows is the start of a lengthy, wide-ranging interview. As you'll see, it starts with a simple question but a long, involved answer in which the guys discuss their work and their philosophy. After this, the questions and answers will get more specific. Here's the first part...

The NHL has created nhlentrydraft2008.com, which is a great resource for many of the top prospects, with bios, photos, videos, a sortable database of prospects and other features. It's definitely worth a look...

I will be able to start posting some of the quotes from the extensive interviews with Mike Futa and Mark Yannetti later today -- stuff I really think you'll enjoy -- but I wanted to take a few minutes to answer some questions people had about the Saturday meeting.

Q: Does this mean the Kings have the final draft list done already?

A: No, it's still very much a work in progress. As Yannetti said, they'll be looking at guys up until draft day, and they always have to be prepared for possible changes.

Q: Did the Q word come up by chance?

A: Assuming you're referring to the first name of a recently-let-go coach, no.

Q: I agreed to not reveal certain details, such as specifics about how players are evaluated and which players are being discussed. Don't think of me as ungrateful, but isn't that really the only part of this that interests us?

A: That's for you to decide, but I think you'll enjoy the quotes that came out of it, if you didn't particularly enjoy hearing about the generalities of the day.

Q: When you say "later round prospects", do you mean late-first round guys or potential 3-4-5 guys?

A: More like sixth- or seventh-round guys, it seemed.

Q: Did you get the impression the Kings staff are in agreement on whom they will pick at #2, whomever that may be?

A: Yes, I do get that impression. I asked Futa and Yannetti about this specifically, so you'll see the full answer a bit later. But the short answer is, yes.

Q: Did the question of whether to trade down ever come up?

A: Not specifically. But if you're talking about the No. 2 pick, I don't think it will happen.

Q: Has DL ever made any comments about the various published rankings? Does the org use them in their own evals? I guess, does DL think that they are an accurate and useful tool at all? If they are useful, to what extent are they used?

A: No, he hasn't made any comments, but given what we know about Lombardi, I seriously doubt he takes scouting-service rankings into serious consideration. If he did, I don't think Thomas Hickey would have pulled on a Kings sweater last June.

Q: You say they talked about latter rounds. Was that intentional on their/your part?

A: Not on my part, and I don't believe on their part. I was initially supposed to come in on Friday but it got changed to Saturday. I think that's just who they happened to be discussing.

Q: What I am really curious to know, is that after all the reporting you've done since the DL era began, and especially after this recent meeting you attended (very jealous:), in your opinion, do you think the Kings are headed in the right direction?

A: This is a good question, one for everyone to discuss, and it deserves a better, longer answer so I will address it in the near future.

Q: What kind of food did they serve there Rich? Did they offer you coffee or anything?

A: They're always very gracious hosts, and there's plenty of food in the room to sustain the scouts, but I didn't have anything.

Dustin Brown caused quite a stir at the World Championships yesterday. With the horn about to sound in the United States' 3-2 loss to Finland, Brown drilled a Finnish defenseman behind the net and touched off a fairly major postgame brawl. The United States is playing Norway right now in the final ``qualification'' game. Quarterfinal games begin Wednesday.

The Kings gave me the unique opportunity today to sit in for a while as Dean Lombardi and his staff continued the process of evaluating prospects for next month's entry draft.

It's a fascinating process, the scope of which is hugely complicated but yet somehow seems very orderly and organized. As part of the agreement to let me sit in, I agreed to not reveal certain details, such as specifics about how players are evaluated and which players are being discussed. That certainly made sense to me, as I can understand why the Kings wouldn't want to reveal their tactics and thought process to other teams.

But in general, I'll do my best to give you a picture of how it went...

Here's the second part of Don's interview with Thomas Hickey...

Don tracked down Thomas Hickey, the Kings' top prospect on defense, who has had a rough few weeks. Hickey sustained a knee injury and a concussion and watched his Seattle team get eliminated from the WHL playoffs. Hickey discusses his season and his injuries and looks to the future. It's a good, long interview, so here's the first part...

Here's the Q&A Don did recently with Manchester Monarchs enforcer Kevin Westgarth, who will attempt to extend the not-so-long tradition of Kings enforcers who graduated from Princeton...

Now's a good time to get to know Kevin Westgarth. He's 24, a graduate of Princeton -- much like former Kings enforcer George Parros -- and Westgarth totaled 191 penalty minutes in 69 games with Manchester this season. That's not completely easy to do. Westgarth projects as a future King, although for the moment Raitis Ivanans fills a similar role.

Here are Westgarth's bios on hockeydb.com and hockeyfights.com.

Don tracked down Westgarth this week and did a really cool feature. He found eight of Westgarth's fights on YouTube and had Westgarth ``analyze'' them. Don, it seems has a future as hockey's Larry Merchant, doing post-fight interviews...

There's also a Q&A with Westgarth coming soon, but for now, definitely give this a look...

As you've, uh, probably noticed, the look of the blog has changed significantly this week. Not only that, it's actually MUCH more functional now. The number of headaches on my end has decreased dramatically, and there are a couple changes for you. First of all, the ``search'' function actually works now (imagine that!) and there are a couple other ways to access older posts. The list of ``categories,'' in the bottom-right section, will take you to posts that pertain to those particular subjects. The ``tag cloud,'' in the bottom-left section, is a neat feature that shows which names/subjects are being mentioned most. These are still a work in progress, because I have to go back and ``tag'' previous entries, so give it a couple weeks before it's completely done.

For now, if anyone has problems accessing, reading, posting comments or anything of the sort, please let me know, at rich.hammond@dailynews.com. Now is the time to fix all the bugs, so let me know if there are any issues. And, as always, thanks for the support.

The Manchester Monarchs, the Kings' American Hockey League affiliate, announced today that the contracts of coach Mark Morris and assistant coach Scott Pellerin have been extended for the 2008-09 season. Morris has coached the Monarchs to a 90-52-12-6 record in two seasons. Last year's team lost in the Eastern Conference Finals and this year's team lost in the first round of the playoffs. Here's the full press release...

This is the final day of the preliminary round of the World Championships. As far as the Kings' interests go, the United States (with Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan) finished second in Group B and will start the ``qualification'' round with a game Thursday against the third-place team from Group C. That's likely to be Slovakia (with Lubomir Visnovsky), but that group's standings won't be determined until today. Slovenia (with Anze Kopitar) finished fourth in Group B and dropped into the relegation round and will play Friday against the fourth-place team from Group C, which will probably be Norway.

Quite a game up in Halifax today. They're still in pool play in the World Championships. Canada took a 3-0 lead early in the second period. USA pulled within 3-2 on Patrick O'Sullivan's goal 3:09 into the second period, then within 4-3 on Dustin Brown's power-play goal 5:18 into the third period. O'Sullivan assisted on Brown's goal, and Brown had an assist earlier in the game. USA tied it 4-4 seven minutes into the third period and Canada scored the winner with 47 seconds remaining when Dany Heatley one-timed a wobbly pass from Ryan Getzlaf past Craig Anderson. Both teams will advance to the elimination round, which begins Thursday.

Slovenia, with Anze Kopitar, plays Latvia this afternoon and most likely needs a victory to avoid being dropped to a lower division next year.

There seems to be some debate about the Kings' assertion that they're losing more money than before the lockout. Keeping in mind, of course, that the Kings aren't opening the financial books, what do you think?

Here's the last of the prospect evaluations. Thanks again to Don for tracking down all this information and doing such comprehensive reports...

----------

Jeff Zatkoff
Goaltender
DOB - 6-9-87
Record/Stats:
Miami/Ohio (NCAA): 27-8-1, 1.72, .933

Zatkoff on his own play this year:

"From a statistical point of view I was very happy. I worked extremely hard at a few camps we had, working on my style and my stance and that helped me a lot in terms of this year just being bigger. I'm a butterfly goalie, but at the same time I don't like to stay strictly butterfly. I like to watch the puck and use my athleticism."

Development areas (from Hockey's Future):

While Zatkoff does a good job of steering pucks away from the crease, his puck handling, particularly in controlling rebounds is an area that should improve with continued growth and development.

Wayne Simmonds
Forward
DOB - 8-26-88
Stats:
Owen Sound (OHL)
- Regular season: 17 goals, 22 assists (39 points), 43 PIM
Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)
- Reg season: 16 goals, 20 assists (36 points), 68 PIM
- Post season: 5 goals, 9 assists (14 points), 32 PIM

Reporter Ben Leeson from The Sault Star on Simmonds:

"Simmonds is a tough player to contain because of his speed, strength and reach. He seems to maximize all three when he gets a little fierce and battles hard to get into scoring position and pursue rebounds. His wrist shot is hard and accurate and he uses it well even when driving off the wing under pressure from defenders. He's strong on the puck and smart away from it. He excels when he has a centre who knows how to find him. His conditioning is superb. He never seems to tire much."
"Wayne has an NHL frame, but at 175 pounds he could stand to pack on weight if he wants to make the most of it. Sometimes he needs to just let a shot go instead of looking for the nice play. He should be ready for the pro game next year. If he develops at the same rate he has been, I could see him becoming a 20- or 25-goal man at the NHL level."

Linden Rowat
Goaltender
DOB - 6-27-89
Record/Stats:
Regina (WHL)
- Reg season: 33-15-4, 2.68, .904
- Post season: 2-3, 3.17, .872

Regina Pats' Coach Curtis Hunt on Linden Rowat:

"His maturity level was just unbelievable the last two years, and even beyond his numbers I think he has done a real good job of changing the things that were maybe a staple in his play, and is just more aggressive and patient. He is really good at reading the rushes and reading the play."

"He's got a tremendous work ethic, whether it be in games, practice or in his sessions with the goaltender coach, and he's one of those kids that's a quiet leader in our room as well."

Development areas:

"He just needs to continue his learning in how to read the rush and understand the options on the rush for the opposing team, both with possession and with dump pucks. He needs to also continue to play with a predator mentality and be aggressive in the goal. You look at guys like Luongo who are big and when they get out of the net there is not a lot of twine to shoot at - we just want him to learn how to play aggressive all the time and trust his defensemen."

Jonathan Quick
Goaltender
DOB - 1-21-86
Records/Stats:
Kings: 1-2, 3.84, .855
Reading (ECHL): 23-11-2, 2.79, .905
Manchester (AHL)
- Reg season: 11-8-0, 2.32, .922
- Post season: 0-1, 1.02, .974

Manchester coach Mark Morris on Jon Quick:

"I definitely think that he has had the full gamut of experiences. I think he was real fortunate to get all the minutes that he could in Reading and when he got the call to the NHL he performed admirably. It really has been quite a roller coaster that he has been on in terms of movement, but he was as good as they get for us. In his playoff game he did all he could to keep the game close and he gave us every opportunity to win that game."

Development areas:

"He is an extremely competitive goaltender and he is so flexible and so acrobatic. Some of the body positions that he gets in and some of the ways that he finds to stop pucks is not normal. His compete level in practice is extremely high and if he just gets a little better positionally he won't have to rely on his reflexes so much."

Oscar Moller
Forward
DOB - 1-22-89
Stats:
Chilliwack (WHL)
- Reg season: 39 goals, 43 assists (82 points), 42 PIM
- Post season: 2 goals, 1 assist
Manchester (AHL)
- Post season: 1 assist

McKeen's Hockey.com on Oscar Moller:

"He's an undersized, highly skilled prospect who plays a strong all-around game," described one scout. "He's good behind the puck, he's good with the puck, he's solid defensively. He's got a great shot, probably his best attribute." While he's quite courageous for his size on most occasions, he can be a little inconsistent in his effort. "He's not very big," added another scout. "Sometimes he doesn't come out with maximum energy level." If Moller were two inches taller and had an extra gear, he'd be a surefire top-15 pick. "He is oozing with character and leadership qualities," gushed one head scout after the scouting combine. "He lacks speed; otherwise he's a top-end pick." The one thing scouts just can't overlook however is average speed in a small package, no matter how much character the player may have. Thus Moller may not be a top 30 pick, although he's close given his skills and drive.

(Moller goals at 2:04 and 2:40)

Here's the last of it. It comes back to the financial problems, although I must issue a disclaimer. They talk about salaries going up, and at the time, sitting in that conference room, I didn't have access to the fact that the Kings' payroll has dropped significantly since 2004 (although it has raised slightly since 2003). So what follows might seem like something of an incomplete answer. You can be sure this topic won't just die out though...

I hope everyone found the quotes from this meeting worthwhile...

Resuming the quotes from the meeting last week... Maybe the most interesting thing, at the beginning, is Robitaille's quote about the Kings drafting a defenseman. That's certainly no shock to anyone, but it's the first time anyone in the organization has outright said that a defenseman is on the way. Beyond that, there's some talk about how to market this team, as it develops, and about the proper way to bring along the top prospects.

Someone asked, in a comment, about a follow-up question regarding the Kings losing money. That's coming, in the next and final installment of these quotes. For now, here's some stuff on the young talent...

Alec Martinez
Defenseman
DOB - 7-26-87
Stats:
Miami/Ohio (NCAA): 10 goals, 20 assists (30 points), 42 PIM (final 2008 stats)

Accolades: Named Central Collegiate Hockey Association's Best Defensive Defenseman for 2008.

From Inside College Hockey.com:

12/20/07: Martinez does it all -- he's an extremely reliable defender.

3/14/08: Martinez continually exudes a strong presence at both ends of the ice. The junior notched 26 points on seven goals and 19 assists, all while maintaining a gaudy +26 plus-minus rating that many blueliners sacrifice in exchange for those kind of offensive numbers.

Bud Holloway
Forward
DOB - 3-1-88
Stats:
Seattle (WHL)
- Reg season: 43 goals, 40 assists (83 points), 55 PIM
- Post season: 5 goals, 5 assists

Seattle coach Rob Sumner on Bud Holloway

"Bud has great offensive numbers, but he is a very well-rounded player. He scores goals so that captures attention as it should, but he is very responsible and understands the defensive side of the game."

"Bud has taken the next step strength and confidence-wise, and he expects to impact every game, and he does. He's got an unbelievable shot, and he is a very good and fast skater. He's got great hands too, down low, in tight, he can play a physical, aggressive, down low, hard-to-play-against, protecting the puck type game. He's got the skills to make one-on-one skills to beat you. He's not one dimensional."

Development areas:

"I don't think Bud has glaring weaknesses. Going from playing against young men or kids at the junior level to playing against men who do it for a living, it is really about strength. Some of it will be physical, and a lot of it will be mental development."

Thomas Hickey
Defenseman
DOB - 2-8-89
Stats:
Seattle (WHL)
- Reg season: 11 goals, 34 assists (45 points), 49 PIM
- Post season: 1 goal, 9 assists

Seattle Coach Rob Sumner on Thomas Hickey:

"He was a year older, and physically he could really battle. The physically maturity helped him round-out his game. I think it has improved his shot. His skating ability and his shot are strong aspects of his game."

Leadership: "He's our captain, and as an 18-year-old player, that is rare in our league. Usually that is for 19 or 20-year-olds. He really go into the leadership mix at 16 because he was such a good player and logged so much ice time as a young player that he was a leader among that young group and respected by the older guys. He formally got in to the leadership mix at 17 when I put an 'A on his sweater, and that was very young, but he was ready for it. He is mature beyond his years."

Development areas:

"He dominates at our level against the young guys, but looking ahead to the NHL, there are very, very strong men at that level and he's going to have to take another step strength and physical development-wise. And I think his shot has improved, but I think the next step is to create more strength on the shot as well."

NHL next season?

"I know the guy and how competitive he is and how he comes to play and impact games, so I would certainly never count Thomas out. I think the world of Thomas and believe he is going to be a great NHL player."

Marc-Andre Cliche
Forward
DOB - 3-23-87
Stats:
Manchester (AHL)
- Reg season: 11 goals, 10 assists (21 points/52 games played), 25 PIM
- Post season: 1 assist, 9 SOG (4 games)

Manchester coach Mark Morris on Marc-Andre Cliche:

"Marc is a steady, reliable depth forward right now. He is extremely coachable, very mature and he's very responsible. His confidence grew when he returned from the injury, and strangely enough it has worked to his favor because he gave us a real boast with added goal scoring that we didn't know he had along with his ability to shut down the opposition. He's a key penalty killer and we just got better in that area when he returned to the lineup."

"His defensive game is pretty sound. His reaction time is improving. He is a strong guy on the face-offs, and he also is good at positioning himself to block passing lanes. He is a real character guy who is willing to do what it takes, especially in responsible roles, the kind that most guys aren't willing to pay a price for, he is willing to do it. He'll block shots and take a hit to make a play. He is accountable."

Development areas:

Speed?

"He surprises us with his speed sometimes, when goes after a loose puck. He finds a way to get there. He won't wow you at first glance with his speed, but he is a strong kid and I think his desire is going to negate any shortcomings he may have."

"I think he has made some huge strides and I can see him being a responsible third or fourth line guy in a few years."

Following up on the player evaluations from a couple weeks back, Don volunteered to do prospect evaluations as well, and did a ton of great leg work to track down information and get fresh quotes directly from coaches. Don compiled 10 top prospects and I'll start posting them in alphabetical order, along with, in maybe cases, a quick YouTube video to show what these guys look like...

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Jonathan Bernier
Goaltender
DOB - 8-7-88
Records/Stats:
Kings: 1-3-0, 4.03, .864
Lewiston (QMJHL): 18-15-0, 2.73, .908
Manchester (AHL):
- Reg season: 1-1-1, 1.63, .946
- Post season: 0-3, 2.76, .908

Manchester Coach Mark Morris on Jonathan Bernier:

"I've been sold on the kid since the very first time I saw him in development camp a couple of summers ago. I was blown away by his calm demeanor in net, his quickness, and he is very calculated in his movements, but positionally he is sound. He gives off an air of sure-handedness and calmness when there are mad scrambles in front of the net. There's no panic. He's got a high threshold for just holding his position and he doesn't seem to give up a lot of rebounds. The puck seems to stick to him like velcro."

Development areas:

"There aren't a whole lot of major things that I can talk about when it comes to his weaknesses. I just think that over the course of time he will learn how to be a better puck handler and just seasoning. I don't see a whole lot of holes in his game."

Mental aspects of the game (following demotion):

"I think most guys who come our of Junior think they should be in the National Hockey League, and I'm not saying this about Jonathan in particular, but some guys that are drafted high just don't have a clear understanding of the hockey that is played in the American League and the purpose of the league, which is to get these guys quality minutes and learning at a rate to get them ready for the NHL. You just don't want to see a guy get in over his head and I think it is something that he is starting to appreciate now with the quality of shots and level of proficiency in the American League."

Lewiston coach Ed Harding on Bernier:

"Jonathan is a very mature 19 year old. He is a professional with very good leadership qualities. Over his years in Lewiston, he has learned to compete hard every minute and his practice habits have developed tremendously."

Officially, that's USA 5, Slovenia 1. Anyone else sense a trend in these World Championships? I wonder if one player has ever scored ALL of the goals for his team in a major international tournament... I suppose it's possible. Anyway, Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan had assists for Team USA, which next has a big showdown with Canada on Tuesday. Slovenia plays Latvia on Tuesday and probably needs a victory to avoid being relegated to the lower division in next year's World Championships.

Here's the map of the season-ticket costs for next season. Rinkrat at LGK took the initiative to post a picture of the map. I have the same map but he had the ambition to post it!

Season-ticket price map

The United States is playing Latvia right now in the World Championships. Dustin Brown scored 7:21 into the game to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead, and Patrick Kane just scored, 8:22 into the second period, for a 2-0 lead. By the way, the U.S. is wearing the old-school, 1980-style jerseys. No names on the back, which makes it a little hard to watch, but still very cool.

Here's the big ``meat'' part of the ``meeting,'' in which the execs discuss how the ticket-price increases might help the on-ice product in the long term, and I discover that the franchise is losing MORE money than it was before we all endured the lockout. At the end, they discuss the plans for the new season-ticket holder website. Here's the next part of the interview...

The IIHF World Hockey Championships opened today, and Canada beat Slovenia 5-1 in a pool-play game in Halifax. Anze Kopitar scored the only goal for Slovenia. Kopitar's father, Matjaz, is an assistant coach for Slovenia. The United States, with Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan, plays Latvia at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time.

Here we get more into the question-and-answer part of the meeting, in which the execs talk about why the price increases had to happen now, and if they're prepared for the inevitable backlash from the fans...

What follows here is a statement, really, from Kings chief marketing officer Chris McGowan, about the season-ticket price increases and what the organization is doing to make the increases more palatable. In future posts, we'll get around to talking about why the increases had to be done this summer, coming off a terrible season, and why they're important to the health of the organization. Here's the McGowan quotes...

For those in the Valley/Ventura Country area, Kings goalie Jason LaBarbera will be appearing and signing autographs at the Robeks (smoothie place) in Westlake Village from 1-2 p.m. on Saturday. The store is located at 3835 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Unit H.

The meeting I had at the Kings' offices Wednesday lasted more than two hours, and I want to share as much of it as possible, so I'm going through the process of transcribing quotes and sorting it all out. I'll share the first part now, which deals with the Kings' vision for the future and, specifically, why the fans should have faith that things are improving. Dean Lombardi and Luc Robitaille address the issue...

Following up on Don's great feature yesterday, we bring you the answers from Kings color commentators Jim Fox and Daryl Evans. It's another great look at two guys who spend a tremendous amount of time with the Kings all season long. Thanks to Jim and Daryl for participating and to Don for tracking them down...

Some stuff that didn't make it into today's story includes:

-- The Kings will have a draft party at the new Nokia Theatre, across from Staples.
-- A third jersey will be introduced in November, one that incorporates several looks from the past, and all season-ticket holders will receive a jersey.
-- The Kings will now charge more (roughly $2 more per game) for tickets behind the goal where the Kings shoot twice.
-- There will be a new website for season-ticket holders, one that will be somewhat interactive. Ask a question of a front-office member and it might be answered on the website (hmmm, that sounds familiar...)

I'll start transcribing all the quotes today. There's some very interesting stuff...

Here's the story I wrote for today's paper, about the Kings' season-ticket pricing and their general financial woes.

Kings announce ticket price hikes, say they're not just losing on the ice

As I said earlier, I have a ton of quotes from Lombardi, Robitaille and McGowan, about these subjects and a few others. As soon as I'm confident that things are working OK with the blog, I'll start posting. Don also has a ``10 questions'' with Jim and Daryl ready to go, as well as some great prospect evaluations. So stay tuned!