Forum answers II

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Question: 1) What are your projected lines (realistic) for opening night? Please include any trade / free agent options. 2) What are the future plans of this blog? expanding?

Answers: 1) To be honest -- and this will set the tone for future answers, I'm not going to get into any possible free-agent or trade acquisitions. At this point, my ability to accurately predict such things is at a VERY low percentage, for a variety of reasons, and if I start throwing names out there, it's just going to lead to more bad speculation. So I'll do it this way:

(Summer acquisition)-Kopitar-Williams
Frolov-Stoll-Brown
Moller/Purcell-Handzus-Simmonds
Ivanans-Lewis/Boyle-Moller/Purcell/Harrold

That's harder than I thought it would be, because I think of Moller and Purcell being top-nine guys, but where do they go? 2) To be perfectly honest, it's hard to think about ``expanding'' anything when I'm already working 40 hours a week in the office for my ``other'' job, but I'll definitely be evaluating all options this summer.

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Question: 1) Do you think Boyle's rights will be traded, or is his upside to much to risk coming back to bite us down the road? He has so much size and when he brings the forecheck he is an effective player, even if the puck doesn't go in the net. Would the Kings consider trying to turn him into a left wing, considering our depth down the middle? 2) Do you see Drewiske making the team next year out of camp, or do you think his spot is taken by a free agent such as Mattias Ohlund? 3) Do you think the Kings might have interest in trying to sign Erik Cole? With Justin Williams here maybe he could try and sell him on what is being built here. 4)Are the Kings intrigued enough with Gaborik to trade for his rights at the draft? Obviously Frolov was too high a price at the deadline but do you think he is a free agent we would look at? He has played some left wing since returning in Minnesota... 5) Down the middle we have Kopitar, Handzus, Stoll and an open spot for next year. Who do you think, within the organization, is the leading candidate for that spot if you had to choose today?

Answers: 1) The odds are probably against Boyle coming back to the Kings next season, because of his well-chronicled struggles to meet coaches'/management's expectations and the fact that, of all the forward positions, the Kings are most stacked at center. It seems that Boyle wants to stay, so it's far from a slam dunk that he will be traded, especially since I don't know what the market would be for him. 2) Well, at the moment you're looking at Doughty, O'Donnell, Johnson, Quincey and Greene for roster spots. Then you're looking at Hickey, Voinov, Teubert and Martinez as other guys who will contend. Plus, I think the Kings might look for one veteran, so that O'Donnell isn't the only guy, even if it's only for the No. 7 spot. That's going to make it tough for Drewiske, but he will have an edge, going into training camp, because he has already had some NHL success. It's going to be all about how those guys compete at camp. 3) Probably not, just based on the fact that Cole is 30. If the Kings are going to make a big splash, it's probably going to be for a guy who is a couple years older, who is going to be in his prime when the Kings are (presumably) ready to contend. 4) I'm not sure I understand the question. Gaborik is going to be a UFA on July 1, so you're wondering if the Kings would trade for his rights on June 26? If that's the question, I'd have to say no. 5) I'd say Trevor Lewis.

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Question: Who do you think will be playing in the final for the cup this year? Who will win? What is the funniest thing you have witnessed in the kings locker room? Cubs = good or bad season?

Answers: 1) For the Hockey News, I believe I picked a Detroit-Pittsburgh final, although that was when the Bruins were wobbling so I might be open to amending that. 2) Some of the ping-pong stuff has been really entertaining this year. Watching Derek Armstrong prepare for that segment they did on FSN was some really entertaining stuff. 3) Oh, it will probably be another good regular season, followed by the traditional October disappointment. Throughout this decade, it's been the ``surprise'' team that usually wins the Series, and the fact that so many people are picking the Cubs this season probably dooms them, again.

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Question: 1) Do you believe the team will attempt to re-sign Frolov? It appears TM hasn't been happy with Frolovs overall perfromance but he remains one of the top assets on this team and he's still fairly young... 2) Looking to free agency... which UFA (sniper type) will be available and which of them do you believe would want to play for LA if the offer was right? 3) Given your extensive knowledge of the team, who do you think the Kings would package together in a trade for a sniper type, top 6 forward? Thanks for all you do. You make following this team so great with all of the insight you provide...

Answers: 1) They'll feel out his agent this summer and see where things are. Remember, they can't even talk about a negotiation until July 1, so anyone who is freaking out about the fact that he hasn't signed an extension are getting way ahead of themselves. If it seems that an extension isn't going to work out, it wouldn't be a surprise at all to see a trade. 2) Again, me tossing names out there is basically a lose-lose scenario. Look for wingers with size who can put pucks in nets. 3) Well, the Kings have two areas of depth that they can use as chips. They have a lot of young defensemen and draft picks. It's hard to see them trading a goalie until that situation is worked out, and the top young forwards are pretty much in the NHL already, except for a Loktionov or someone like that.

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Question: 1) Other than approving salary changes and that type of thing, has AEG/Lieweke been pretty much 'hands off' as far as the hockey side of things? 2) As far as DL's job security is concerned, is making the playoffs next year a "must"? 3) Do many of the bloggers here and elsewhere read too much into TM's different line combos and who gets scratched on a certain night, and if there is a message there as far as future contract negotiations, ....specifically with Fro and JJ.

Answers: 1) Well, that's a pretty big area for them to be inolved in. AEG setting the budget, on an annual basis, sets the table for what Lombardi can accomplish in the summer. It's pretty much the most significant thing ownership can do in terms of impacting the team. If you're asking whether anyone from AEG tries to influence which players get ice time, no, that's not happening. 2) I think it's pretty close, yes. The Kings are at the point where there must be continued progress, and it's pretty clear that the next step is the playoffs. It will be difficult for Lombardi to make the argument that progess is being made if the Kings miss the playoffs again. 3) Yes, yes, yes and yes. I'd love to know how some folks think these conversations go. And I'm not trying to be sarcastic about it. Do people really think that Lombardi calls Murray and says, ``Don't put Jack Johnson on the power play. We have contract negotiations this summer''? Because if so, that's just...fascinating.

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Question: Has there been any talk about the prospect of resigning Army or Calder? While I have my opinion about looking ahead, and not carrying too much "dead weight" on the roster, it would be hard to see Army go after his excellent service to the Kings over the years. I feel he still adds "tremendous" (TM's favorite word) value to the team. Your thoughts? Also, looking ahead at next season, do you think the Kings will have more or less games televised? I'm really unhappy about the home stretch not being televised.

Answers: 1) I'd say Armstrong is more likely than Calder, because Calder probably sees himself as a guy who can get a multi-year contract someplace and make a fairly big contribution, whereas Armstrong is at the point of his career where he knows that the end is relatively near, and he seems to enjoy the ``elder statesman'' role in the locker room. Based on a few factors, I see one of those guys coming back, but now both. 2) The reason these last few games aren't televised is because they're in Canada, and there's some issue about how much it costs to televise games from Canada. It's an issue with FSN, not the Kings. The Kings would love to have every game televised, and in HD, so if you're in the business of firing off e-mails, send them to FSN. The Kings are apparently working on FSN to get more games on.

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Question: What's the expected recovery time for Quincey? Will he be 100% by the start of camp?

Answer: Barring any setbacks, Quincey will be ready for the start of training camp. The question becomes, will be he set back by not being able to do his normal summer workouts? There really is no ``offseason'' for most of these guys, because they work out so much, so there might be a conditioning issue in September but there shouldn't be any back issues.

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Question: Is AEG/Lieweke willing to spend money in this economy? I've heard from many kings fans that if they dont spend money this offseason they'll completely stop going to the games.

Answer: That probably depends on your definition of ``spend money.'' Are they going to be a team that spends up to the cap? No, but that's partially by design, because Lombardi knows he has a handful of young players who are going to require bigger contracts soon. When I asked Lombardi last summer, he expressed confidence that AEG would spend money when it needed to, so we'll see how that works out.