Fantasy land?
ESPN.com did its statistical projections for the 2008-09 hockey season. Here's how they have some of the Kings doing this season...
Anze Kopitar -- 28 goals, 44 assists, minus-19
Patrick O'Sullivan -- 32 goals, 34 assists, minus-15
Alexander Frolov -- 26 goals, 40 assists, minus-8
Dustin Brown -- 26 goals, 26 assists, minus-15
Jarret Stoll -- 15 goals, 27 assists, minus-13
Jack Johnson -- 9 goals, 33 assists, minus-19
Teddy Purcell -- 14 goals, 21 assists, minus-12
Drew Doughty -- 3 goals, 22 assists, minus-6
Jonathan Bernier -- 23 wins, 2.74 goals-against average, .915 save percentage
Jason LaBarbera -- 9 wins, 2.83 goals-against average, .912 save percentage

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 

My fantasy numbers:
Kopitar - 72 goals, 100 assists, plus234
O'Sullivan - 50 goals, 70 assists, plus 158
Brown - 61 goals, 89 assists, plus 900.
Frolov - 234 goals, 898 assists, plus - infinity.
Doughty - 58 goals, 99 assists, ....
fantasy leagues are so lam.........
Yeah Baby,
Marc Nathan and I have always claimed that Sully is the most talented player on this team. Not the best player, that easily goes to Kopitar. I love them both.
But I do strongly believe that Sully will compete with Kopitar for the point scoring lead.
I hate DL, but trading Demitra for Sully AND A FIRST round pick was a stroke of genius. Too bad that was pretty much it for DL.
I do disagree on the goaltending analysis. I believe Erik Ersberg will get the 23 wins and Bernier will play at Manchester for some much needed experience.
Ante up DL. Pay this player what he wants. Before you become the laughing stock GM in the NHL.
I find that any network that considers fishing and poker as "sports" let alone televises their events - should not be considered a viable source for hockey information. ESPN knows as much about hockey as Tim Lier-winkie....and both would do us all a favor if they simply STF up! Let's go Kings! ... and this is no way an endorsement of that second tier website.
to the tune of the classic Little Anthony & The Imperials song, "Hurt So Bad"
o/~this team is gonna... suck so bad...
it's gonna suck so bad...
this teams is gonna ... suck so bad
they're losing again... o/~
Seriously, who in their right mind could say that six of the people on that list can be expected to hold their own over an 82 game NHL schedule in this division... it's a joke!
Damn. The season went by so fast. I guess we didn't make the playoffs then.
Brown has improved his goal and point totals every single year without fail... totally reasonable to assume he scores 7 LESS goals and 8 less points.
Dustin 26 goals? who are they kidding...
Hey, at least we're only using two goalies!
Frolov 66 points? hmmm yeah if he plays 70 games which is not necessarily too unrealistic. I'll project 29 goals and 45 assists = 74 pts though
2.74 gaa for bernier? I don't know about any one else on here, but I'd take that in a heart beat! 1st full year, young defense, etc. That would be a huge upgrade to last year's numbers for the team as a whole.
Does that mean we will be in the Top5 pick next year ;)
Did they pull those numbers out of a reporter's ass or a computer's ass?
"anthony said:
I hate DL"
Really?
So you want to pay O'sullivan what ever he wants,that's great. The guy has had 1 good season and has a lot of potential, but that's it. If he's asking 4-5 million would you still pay him that?
Just because all the Sportscenter hosts other than Buccigross and Cohn are hockey illiterates doesn't mean they don't do a decent job on the website. The hockey specific people at ESPN are solid in my book. The problem is they fall into the same trap 90% of the East Coast/Canadian media does, they don't know s### about the Pacific division.
But this is good news, just makes it easier for me to nab Fro & Brownie in my league where I'm the only American West of Chicago.
how is it possible that all our players have massively terrible +/- numbers and yet our goalies are sub 2.90 GAA? Me not understand this math they speak of.
UNLESS of course it's b/c Brian Boyle is at a +98 and only scores goals when there are no other skaters on the ice...
I'm surprised ESPN even took the time. Seriously, I really believe The Kings are going to surprise a lot of people this year. We just are not going to be as horrible as everyone is projecting. For God's sake, we are the greatest last place team the hockey world has ever seen.
No stats for Boyle? ESPN has no clue about the Kings. Terry Murray is not going to stand for those high +/- stats.
Jack Johnson quadruples his point production according to BSPN. Then Deano can have fun trying to resign him to a new deal after the season is over. LOL
A little short on defense Hey!
Greene will protect the team, now Ivannan's has some help there.
How exactly are we going to get to the cap?
Too bad that was pretty much it for DL.
Yeah, that Jack Johnson trade really sucked.
You know, this may come as a surprise to you, Seitz, but the Jack Johnson story has yet to be written. So far, all we have to go on is one NHL season in which he really didn't do much more than Tim Gleason did for the Hurricanes... Honestly, he sucked more often than Gleason did in his rookie campaign. Expectations are high, and chances are he's going to be a hell of a good player in this league for a long time, but to say it's a sure thing? Not so fast...
Was it a good trade? The jury will be out for quite some time, IMO... Gleason is not just some pawn in a chess game. He's a solid blueliner who will be around for quite a while, and although he may not put up the points Johnson will, he's going to be an asset to his team, and his team may even make the playoffs in this decade.
Thirty-two wins by two goalies? Does that mean Ersberg is gonna have a monster year and post thirty wins? Where else would our other thirty wins come from? We are going to win sixty-two games, right?
Marc Nathan - you know, i've made that point a few times but you'll find few that concur with that. i, personally, have hopes for J Johnson, but its true that he's in no way outperformed Gleason yet, even disregarding Belanger. Johnson is also going to be counted on for "veteran" leadership as far as we can tell right now. That decision was essentially made by lombardi before he even had a coach since both the cammalleri trade and visnovsky trade occurred then. i'm all for good young players but the rebuild here is starting to resemble hiroshima. and, in my opinion, the prospect pool was never as good as it was when lombardi took over 2 years back with kopitar, frolov, brown, cammalleri and visnovsky. two of those are gone and management was able to turn the fans against their own, if you ask me. you know, i actually thought dean lombardi was an nhl player at some point, but i don't seem to be able to find him on hockey-reference. i know its not necessary, but i think it would have given him some perspective when considering cammalleri's requests if he knew how difficult it is to do what cammalleri does. especially considering his size. players of cammalleri's quality don't come along all that frequently and its obvious that teams covet that type of player.
http://worldhockeydaily.wordpress.com/
"No stats for Boyle?"
the data set that exists to project boyle's nhl stats next your is all but non-existent. even if there was a projection, it would be so speculative as to be meaningless.
i think o'sullivan's stats are way too high here. he may be "the most talented player on the team," but those numbers just seem far too optimistic.
A little too generous on the goalie stats I think...
"the data set that exists to project boyle's nhl stats next your is all but non-existent. even if there was a projection, it would be so speculative as to be meaningless."
think 40-45 pts, but if he somehow puts up anything more than that would be gravy. if you have a late round pick, can think about taking him but don't expect "high" fantasy production.
20 goals + 25 assists is really the most anyone should be seriously thinking, or they're completely bonkers. and we don't even know where he'll fit into Murray's system, or if he'll be asked to play on a more defensive line.
Shakes,
There is another way the Kings could end up with a 2.90 GAA with all their players at minus double digits. They would have to have a great power play unit. But that is even more unlikely with Blake and Visnosky gone.
"and, in my opinion, the prospect pool was never as good as it was when lombardi took over 2 years back with kopitar, frolov, brown, cammalleri and visnovsky."
Lubomir Visnovsky was 30 two years ago, so don't try calling him a prospect. and you're right... if the prospect pool only included NHL players. there's no way you can contend that our minor league system is weaker now than it was then.
"i think it would have given him some perspective when considering cammalleri's requests if he knew how difficult it is to do what cammalleri does. especially considering his size. players of cammalleri's quality don't come along all that frequently and its obvious that teams covet that type of player."
this isn't a dig on you, but it's unfortunate for Lombardi that a lot of this fan base is ripping him for trading Cammo when much of it (even some of the same people) were begging him to trade it. you weren't commenting here last season i don't know what you in particular thought about it. but unless Lombardi wins soon he'll find himself in a lot of these lose-lose situations with our fans.