Anthony, you’re a deam man.

Anthony,

I submitted the comments below yesterday afternoon for a different thread, but they are relevant to your post so here they are again.

To anyone who did see this before, apologies in advance for the re-post.

Cheers!

The Voice Of Reason

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I wouldn’t give a whole lot of credence to the ‘Spezza to LA’ rumor.

First, the source of said rumor was Eklund at Hockeybuzz. Since Eklund’s identity and racket are hardly secrets any more, it goes without saying that just about anything he exclusively reports as being something he “was told” by one of his “sources” can be all but safely be dismissed out of hand. Now while the discussion boards at Hockeybuzz are usually pretty lively and can even be intelligent and insightful once in a while, even there it’s a rule of thumb that the only folks who really take Eklund’s “rumours” seriously in 2009 are either young, unsophisticated, or both.

Second, there tend to be a lot of wacky trade rumors coming out of Ottawa because of Bruce Garrioch, a “legit” beat journalist there who “reports” a lot of trade rumors that tend to be suspiciously one-sided and heavily favor the Senators or another Canada-based team. And, Hockeybuzz used to have a Senators blogger named Kevin Lee who was (in)famous for instantly running with anything Garrioch told him or wrote and then getting publicly burned within hours. I think it may have been a combination of Eklund, Garrioch and Lee who were responsible for those ridiculous Kopitar/Emery/Khabibulin trade rumors last summer.

Third, some larger perspective. It has become a trendy thing for journalists and media types whose base audience is either Canadian or a large, eastern conference team (or both) to view the LA Kings as some sort of farm team whose rising stars are just destined to be traded to their audience’s favorite team. On top of that, these scenarios are usually yet another one of those classic one-sided deals where a high pick (usually first round), a top prospect (Hickey, Teubert, et al) and/or a rising star from the Kings (Johnson, O’Sullivan, Moller, et al) heads east for an out-of-favor player, an impending UFA veteran, or a salary dump, or some combination of the above.

Don’t believe the hype.

I haven’t seen anything of substance in weeks about a Spezza deal. Where is this new wave of rumors coming from? Or is it hype being built up on our own forum?

Also, just speaking from logic, if a new coach comes in, I highly a doubt a trade will be made the very next day. It is in the best interest of the management team to gauge the impact of the new bench boss before making any other changes.

Just my 2 cents…

Well, Anthony is right that those rumors are circulating. The Voice of Reason is also right about the source(s) of those rumors and the fact that they are just about always completely baseless.

I think it’s safe to assume, in general, that the Kings will be involved in a handful of “seller” trades — bringing in picks for Calder, Preissing, maybe Armstrong, maybe Gauthier, maybe Ersberg — in the next few weeks. All but Preissing in that list are UFA this year.

Since DL is one of the few GMs with cap space, it’s also safe to assume he will be considering some pretty interesting deals to bring in a big salaried forward before the deadline. Whether a deal will happen is anyone’s guess.

But I don’t think he’s going to be trading Frolov to bring in another scorer. That just doesn’t make any kind of sense, unless it’s an upgrade (e.g. Frolov and a pick for Heatley). I think we all know how DL thinks by now.

He’s looking for a top-line forward. Not top-six. Top TWO. Top ONE.
Nobody old.
Long term; no rentals.

The trading partner is going to have to be a non-playoff team looking to dump salary, Ottawa, Atlanta, NYI etc.. It’s a pretty short list, and the forwards who are on those teams are known (Kovalchuk, Heatley, Spezza, etc.).

Quisp,

The only Islander I would want Dean-O to consider would be Kyle Okposo. But keep dreaming, y’all – the Kings aren’t gonna be buyers at the deadline this year.

Voice of Reason,

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Your comments are exactly my sentiments! To summarize, almost any rumor to come from Eklund or the Canadian Sun papers is crap and should be immediately disregarded as a petty attempt to generate interest from hungry and myopic Canadian hockey fans. I sincerely ask everyone to keep Inside the Kings free from the mindless rumors spewed out by Eklund or the Sun. To paraphrase something said before by Rich, the only (E3) that the people of Los Angeles should worry about is a dropped ball by James Loney…

Ersberg/Pat, re NYI:

There’s no-one on the Islanders; all too old. Pat, yes, re Okposo, but they’re not going to trade their one and only blue-chip prospect.

Pat:

The reason I think the Kings might be buyers this year has less to do with the Kings playoffs chances than with the fact that this year may present a unique opportunity. I’m not saying “buyers” in terms of a short-term rental; I’m just noting that DL has cap-space that almost no-one else has; he is uniquely positioned to take on a big salary and cap considerations have been known to cause GMs to make deals they wouldn’t otherwise make.

I don’t think DL will make any deals that trade the future in order to “win now.”

Heatley for Stoll, Ersberg, Boyle and 1st 2009.

Heatley for Stoll, Ersberg, Boyle and 1st 2009.

Quisp, Although I’d do that in a New York minute, I believe Ottawa is in dire need of a puck moving defenseman.

I would bet my wallet they’d want JJ or an equivalent d-man. No, they can’t have Doughty.

Quisp,

You’re welcome. Thanks for the thumbs up.

You also have a good point about how myopic (excellent word choice!) things can sometimes get once you go north of the border. As a great and recent example,while the fans and media in Quebec are still preaching and moaning about the Gauthier hit and his subsequent suspension, I have yet to see any of these same folks discuss (or in many cases even acknowledge) the flagrant non-call on Higgins that led to the Habs’ game-tying goal in that very same game. Funny how that works.

Ersberg,

We have Hickey and Harrold, though I don’t want to see Harrold moved.
I also don’t want to trade Stoll.
I know Quisp doesn’t like him much, but he’s the type of 26 year old I want to keep in town for a few more years at least.
Ottawa, and any NHL team, would be mad to take Tom Preissing under his current contract.
I’ll return to my trade idea of a few weeks ago and say the Kings should try and pry Mike Fisher out of Ottawa (4 mil/year) for Handzus and Hickey or something like that. I like Handzus a lot, but if Fisher is healthy, he’s a big gritty 2nd line center that would allow us to move Stoll to the 3rd line for a good spell.
I think that centered between O’Sullivan and Brown, Fisher could be a 60 point a season center that plays here for 6-8 seasons.

Money is going to be a big issue this deadline and offseason. I think teams are going to be dropping salaries like crazy.
Dallas is just ahead of us but has the highest payroll in the league, last I checked.
Guys like Calder, Preissing, and Gauthier will have to start settling for around $1 million a year, poor souls.
The NHL has got to get salaries under control. There is just not enough profit in the game to justify this insanity.

Quisp.

Why on earth would the Kings trade one of the best 22 year old centers in the world away?
You seem to have this notion that Lombardi would do that.
If he does, he better get a body-guard.

“But what about this deal? Seriously:
Heatley and Spezza
for
Kopitar, Stoll, Ersberg, Boyle and a 1st (2009).”

- you are seriously risking your cred. with that one.

Quisp, That Heatley/Spezza proposal is pretty wild, you never know.

I don’t think they’d want Stoll, plus he’s awesome for face offs.

They’d probably want something like:

Johnson, Ersberg, Hickey, 1st

We’d have to give to get. And Heatley’s case, it would have to be a lot.

Eat, Spezza is 25, and is equally, if not more spectacular than our very own beloved center. I would rather stick with ours, though.

any rumor that becomes LIVE, doesn’t go through anymore.

Ersberg,

I respectfully disagree that Spezza is anywhere close to Kopitar in class.
Plus, we’re not desperate to GET something, so we need to put whomever we trade with over-the-barrell.
I like/love the way Handzus has played this season, but for me he’s the expendable one because of being slightly older, slightly overpaid, and a bit more fragile (in a sense).
I’d prefer to stand pat and take our chances in the draft than to trade away quality. We’re lucky that Stoll/Greene is working out o.k. (not great) considering we may have had a great piece of bait for this trade in Visnovsky. Sometimes 2 above average players can equal one pretty great player.
I can’t help but feel we could have had Heatley for Cammalleri and Visnovsky in a heartbeat.

Quisp.

Heatley for Hickey and a No. 1 = YES.

Quisp, We’d get laughed out of the building if we came to the table with Hickey and 1st. Dean would have to give 1-2 roster, a prospect, and 1st rounder for Heatley. Remember, a prospect and a pick is just that-a shot at getting something good for the future. Heatley is a PROVEN 50 goal scoring sniper. At age 28, he’s still got some years left in him.

Eat, Spezza is nails. Check out his stats. He’s scores 30+ goals as a center. He’s definitely top 6-8 in the league, depending on the type of center you’re after(faceoffs, goals, assists, goals/assists, defense, etc).

I gurantee Dean would bring either of them in, if the price was right, no doubt about it.

I do love the hypothetical trade discussions. Eat, I agree re “over a barrel.” And I don’t think DL needs to do anything.

I do, however, think Ottawa is in trouble. They have a big payroll and they have to clear some cap space even to get their prospects playing. They’ve basically made a mess that is going to necessitate moving someone, and that someone is going to probably end up being Heatley or Spezza or both. Whether that happens before 3-4 or this summer or next season is anyone’s guess. Where they land, also, anyone’s guess.

But if I’m right about this, Ottawa doesn’t want salary back, and the Kings are one of the only teams in the league with the cap space to make a trade like that without sending salary back the other way.

This is why I am more than usually focused on this scenario. Something eventually has to give way in Ottawa. Who will benefit?

Eat, re Cammy: you may be right about that. But it makes me think, maybe CGY will trade for Heatley. That’s ANOTHER trade DL would probably like to block. Cammy is UFA this summer, and there is of course talk about him being on the move, too.

I just keep thinking that DL knows Heatley can end up (1) staying in OTT, (2) in a Kings uniform, (3) going to a non-rival, or (4) going to a rival.

(1) and (3) are acceptible. (4) might not be.

Eat, I hear ya, but I’m thinking we have to give some credit to our neighbors to the south for shutting down Spezza. I.e. Pahlsson/ R. Niedermayer.

I’ll let you know my new name prior to the change if our friend, the Iceberg, sets sail to a destination yet undetermined.

At any rate, Quisp, I think you have it right in that Ottawa will have to make a move, especially since Spezza is nearing the end of his deal.

Spezza and Heatley are both signed through 2013 at $8MM/yr.

No Frolov, No Voinov, please. I want to keep those two.

Maybe – O’S, Hickey, Bernier for Heatley or Spezza.

I was underimpressed with Hickey in WJC’s despite the Gold, and Bernier is not my cup of tea at the moment (though its only based on rumors of being a malcontent).
O’Sullivan I would hate to trade away, but he’s the only one who may be underachieving currently and it’s hard to judge whether he’ll ever put it all together.
I would HATE to see him find himself elsewhere.

Bergie, good point about Anaheim’s guys and I think a reminder that it’s not just about scorers in the playoffs.
That’s where I was most impressed by Fisher.
I though he had a great playoffs that season.

That’s right. I was thinking of Spezza’s NMC that kicks in about a year. Not when his contract ends, my apologies.

Here’s a blurb from Bucci at ESPN…

Daniel Alfredsson/Dany Heatley/Jason Spezza: This is really interesting. The Senators have no goaltending and no defense, and therefore will be no threat in the Eastern Conference for years to come. They will lose Filip Kuba’s and Martin Gerber’s contracts (a combined $6.7 million) after this season and won’t need to be concerned with any restricted free-agent contracts.

Heatley has a $7.5 million cap number for five more years after this season, while Spezza has six more years at a $7 million hit. Certainly, trading all of the big three would bring a barge-load of younger, cheaper talent to Ottawa. The Sens could get multiple first-round draft picks. And if they were to trade the big three, or at least two of them at the deadline, they would almost guarantee giving themselves great odds of getting Tavares or Hedman. (Tavares and Hedman will be the top two picks in the draft and, I believe, will be impact players.)

The Senators could choose to trade someone such as Mike Fisher and his $4.2 million cap number instead of breaking up the big three and use the $11 million of space during the summer and make a run at Bouwmeester and Fernandez. Everyone would love to have Heatley and Spezza. I don’t think the Senators would trade Heatley unless he were to make it very clear he wants out. Los Angeles would be a player in any trade because it has assets and cap room. A deal that at some point would send Spezza to Los Angeles feels right. Whatever happens, it will be interesting to see which hard decisions Ottawa makes.

Crybaby, nice entry. Thanks.
Gonna be a crazy day on March 4th.

I don’t know about any of these trade rumors. I’d trade for Heatly because the Kings need a scoring winger. I might trade for Spezza, but it would depend on the package Ottawa wants in return. I wouldn’t trade for Alfredsson because of his age.

If I were Lombardi I’d trade one of our goalie prospects (pretty much any ONE of them), a D prospect that’s not currently with the Kings, and a 1st round pick for Heatly. Beyond that would be asking too much I think, and even that would probably be more then the Kings should pay. Remove one of those 3 pieces to get Spezza because the Kings already have good young centers, so they don’t need another one as badly.

I’m just happy I have the Center Ice package so I can watch this game.

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.