Player evaluation: Stoll

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JARRET STOLL
This season: 74 games, 18 goals, 23 assists, 68 penalty minutes, 17:05 average ice time.
The good: The Kings’ power play wasn’t great this season, but how much worse would it have been without Stoll. With his particularly strong shot from the point, Stoll finished second on the team with 10 power-play goals. His 18 goals and 41 points, overall, were his highest totals in three years, and Stoll’s defense and faceoff ability were also strengths.
The bad: Ideally, Stoll is a third-line center, but it’s been a bit hard for him to find a fit with the Kings because they already have the ideal third-line center in Michal Handzus. Stoll isn’t exactly a playmaker, which makes it difficult to pair him with high-scoring wingers on a first or second line, but he also has too much talent to be forced into a fourth-line role. Then again, that’s more a problem for Lombardi and Murray, not Stoll himself.
Going forward: As a reliable two-way player and a good presence in the locker room, Stoll has a stable place on the Kings’ roster. His play took a somewhat-mysterious dip in the early part of the season, and it would still be beneficial to the Kings if he could provide more offense, but the Kings knew what they were getting in Stoll, and he has held up his end of the bargain.

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