KYLE QUINCEY
This season: 72 games, 4 goals, 34 assists, 63 penalty minutes, 20:59 average ice time.
The good: The Kings claimed Quincey off waivers from Detroit the morning after Jack Johnson suffered his shoulder injury, but they wanted him anyway. It wasn’t immediately clear why, since Quincey had only 13 games of NHL experience (over three seasons) with the Red Wings, but it became clear soon enough. Quincey finished second on the team in assists, even though he was dealing with back-pain issues for most of the season. Quincey was particularly potent on the power play, with a team-high 27 power-play points, and generally was a great surprise for the Kings.
The bad: It’s a bit difficult to classify Quincey. Is he a young player? Sort of, but he’s 23. Was he a rookie? No, plus he had 13 games of playoff experience with the Red Wings. So it’s sort of hard to judge how much a ceiling Quincey has. He could still improve aspects of his overall game, but it’s hard to criticize any part of the effort he gave the Kings this season, especially knowing that he played with a bad back.
Going forward: There’s little doubt that Quincey has earned a spot with the Kings. His back, surgically repaired near the end of the season, should be fully healed by the time training camp starts, but will his inability to do some conditioning work in the summer negatively impact him in training camp?