Forum answers V

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Question: Do you see Jack Johson being dealt seeing as though he has played extremely poor defensively as of late...or do you see the kings signing him to a long term deal and making him a project...

Answer: If I had to guess, I think it will be somewhere in betweem like a two- or three-year contract. The Kings have the clear advantage this summer because Johnson gave up arbitration rights for this contract when he signed his entry-level contract. It's a stretch to call Johnson a ``project,'' given his talent level, but it's also hard to see the Kings wanting to go big years and big money, the way they did with Kopitar.

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Question: My question relates back to how DL dealt with you just prior to the O'Sullivan trade. It seems to me he could have told you "off the record" that a deal was close, as I assume he has done in some of your interviews with him in the past on other subjects. Instead, he chose to mislead you. Have you gotten any clarity as to why he responded as he did?

Answer: Yeah, I actually have pretty good clarity on it. The thing he didn't understand is that I wasn't the one who was breaking the story about Williams; it was the Toronto paper. He thought he needed to throw me off the trail completely, when in fact that didn't accomplish anything, because the report was already out there, from Toronto. He didn't want me to know that a deal was close, at all, because he was trying to keep the details hidden from Edmonton. Lombardi has been around long enough to know that if a reporter gets a story, it's going to be published. If I had come across that news independently, and went to him and said, ``Hey, I heard this,'' and he said, ``Yes, it's true, but I don't want you to report it,'' I'm not going to sit on the story just because that would be helpful to him. He knows that, and that's why he felt he needed to lie.

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Question: Is it true that when Vancouver scored on Quick from the blueline last night, LaBarbera turned to Sundin and said 'I taught him that'?

Answer: You're sure it wasn't Roman Cechmanek who said that?

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Question: With the acquisition of Justin Williams and the team gunning for a playoff spot this season has there been any shift, perceived or factual, in the teams rebuilding process? More to the point, should we expect the team to retain their picks at the draft or is Lombardi ready to trade picks n' chips for a sniper/playmaker/difference maker/shake n' baker/candlestick maker?

Answer: I do think the Williams trade signals a bit of a shift. It's probably the first time that Lombardi has truly made a move focused more on the short term and not the long term. He didn't get back prospects or picks. In fact, he gave up a second-round pick. To me, that's an indication that he's ready to start using these ``assets'' to fill the remaining holes on the team. I don't know exactly what Lombardi will do at the draft, but I think it's fair to say that he's at least open to trading picks and prospects, which is something I wouldn't have said a year ago. He knows he needs another top forward, and there are only two ways to get that done: free agency or by trading some assets. For the first time, Lombardi is at the stage where he's seriously looking at that.

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Question: Why did ref Rob Schick retire with a month to go in the regular season and playoffs remaining? Would he have been told by Supervisor Stephen Walkom that he was not being selected for the playoffs despite being such a veteran?

Answer: The way I understand it, it had to do with the way Shick's schedule was set up this season. Not every official works every night, obviously, and Shick's schedule was apparently tilted heavily toward the start of the season. I don't know if he requested that it be set up that way or not, and it does seem a bit odd, but the officials' schedules are set way before any decisions are made about who will work playoff games.

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Question: Since fighting is outlawed at all hockey levels until juniors, when players like Ivanans played hockey growing up were they more skilled as goal scorers and then later realized their ticket to the NHL was only by being more of an enforcer? And what is your opinion on fighting in the NHL?

Answer: I've never talked to Ivanans specifically about this, but I have talked to George Parros about it, and I think your analysis is pretty spot-on. Parros, for instance, played at Princeton, and he wasn't allowed to fight in college even if he wanted to. Essentially, what happened there was, he got out of college and realized he wasn't going to be a 40-goal scorer in the NHL. He looked at his skills and said, ``I'm a big guy, and that can help me get to the NHL,'' so he worked that angle, to the point that he actually worked out with a boxing instructor to improve his skills. I don't know if everyone feels the same way Parros did, but it makes sense. As for my opinion of fighting, it doesn't bother me in concept, but the whole thing about ``staged'' fights does get a little old. When you see guys dropping the gloves 10 seconds into a game, it's like...come on. Clearly that's not a ``heat of the moment'' thing. That said, I think it's problematic to start trying to judge which fights are ``staged.'' Who is determining that? What is the criteria? Who is going to know exactly what was said on the ice? I don't want to see guys getting hurt, but I also don't want to see dumb rules put in place.

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Question: How do the Kings feel about the progress of Geordie Wudrick this year. He seems to the big winger type that DL wants. How do they feel about Colten Teubert's progress this year? Off Season Strength Programs for Moeller and Simmonds what are plans? If the Kings can't host a Winter Classic are they planning to be a road team in one?

Answer: These are more questions for Lombardi than me, as I don't really have access to their scouting reports or training schedules. It's safe to say that the goal for Moller and Simmonds will be to put on some weight and strength. Simmonds clearly looked bigger at the start of the 2008 training camp than he did in 2007, and there's still the potential for him to get bigger and stronger. Moller can put on weight as well, but his frame isn't quite as big as Simmonds'. As for the Winter Classic, it's hard to see the Kings being a participant unless it's a team like the Ducks, Sharks or Coyotes hosting. The NHL seems inclined to make those games into regional/rivalry games. And out of L.A., Anaheim, San Jose and Phoenix, L.A. would certainly be the most likely to host.

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Question: When the Kings traded Sully for Williams last week one of the reasons was that Williams is a proven winner having won the cup in 2006. I'm wondering if too much is placed on being a winner. Back in 1980 the Kings traded Butch Goring to NYI and they (NYI) then won 4 straight cups with Goring being the playoff MVP in 1980. Had the Kings not traded Goring, would he not be a winner? Isn't hockey a team sport and sometimes you get lucky and are on a winning team and sometimes your career is lost on a losing team. Was Marcel Dionne a loser and his brother which played on the 1993 cup winning Montreal Canadians a winner? Marcel was 10 times the better player then his brother was. What do you think?

Answer: Yeah, I understand the point completely. Not everyone on a winning team is a ``winner,'' just like there can be ``winners'' on a losing team. To base that idea strictly on how many Cups a player has won isn't a good measure. You need to look at a guy's makeup, the way he reacts on and off the ice, to see if he has those intangibles. Drew Doughty and Oscar Moller, just to name two young guys off the top of my head, are ``winners,'' even though they've never even been in a NHL playoff game. They have that winning mentality. But bringing in a Cup winner, such as Williams, can do something for your team. If nothing else, it's a guy who has been there. He knows what it's like to be in the locker room before a huge game and he can show younger guys, through his words and actions, the proper way to deal with that. Thing is, he has to WANT to show that and be able to express it the correct way.