Player evaluation: Westgarth
KEVIN WESTGARTH
This season: 9 games, 0 goals, 0 assists, 9 penalty minutes, 5:02 average ice time.
The good: Westgarth, the Kings' second Princeton-educated enforcer, had developed a solid reputation in Manchester for his willingness to mix it up. Westgarth, mentioned as a probably successor to Raitis Ivanans, got his first chance in mid-January, not so coincidentally, after the incident against Tampa Bay when the Kings didn't respond to a hit on Drew Doughty. Westgarth got another call in March after Ivanans suffered an injury.
The bad: It's hard to make too much of two brief NHL stints, but Westgarth didn't really do anything to force the Kings to keep him on the roster. His size (6-foot-5) and willingness to drop the gloves allow him to fill a prescribed role, but what did he really show beyond that? Westgarth had 10 points in 65 games in Manchester this season.
Going forward: Westgarth is a restricted free agent this summer, and Ivanans remains under contract for one more season and a paltry $600,000. At 25, Westgarth still has time to improve, and there's a decent chance that, a year from now, Westgarth will inherit that spot from Ivanans. At this point, is there enough of a difference between Ivanans and Westgarth to justify making a change in that spot?
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About the bloggers
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
Eh I wasn't all that impressed with Westgarth but maybe if he had played as many games as Ivanans then we could make a true comparison. Maybe he wouldn't have taken as many dumb penalties but then again maybe he also wouldn't have scored those two all important game winning goals. My grade for him is incomplete...didn't see enough of him to judge either way.
When Westgarth was called up, I was shocked he didn't find a way to make a statement. It was clear that he was called up because; 1) he had proven himself at the AHL level, 2) the Kings lack or response created an opening.
Makes no sense to me. Training camp will interesting.
You got it, Rich. Keep him in Man until such time Ivanans is no longer with us.
Grade: Incomplete
Does anyone have an opinion on the difference in their skating skills? Is one any better than the other? (RI-KW) RI's penalty's during the season were frustrating, perhaps we could get the same "effect" out of Westgarth without the hooking/holding calls..he must have SOME offensive ability if he got 10 goals in Manchester..
(yawn...)
i think the first princeton educated enforcer was parros...and he turned out to be pretty good...so, maybe westy is a late-bloomer...but he has to show/do more out there come next season, if we/he accepts a two-way option/offer...and i believe we/he will...
hard to believe that we, fans, have to light a fire under these guys with our commentary instead of them igniting us with their spirit, play and work ethic...
i guess they can't all be like simmer...!
I thought he would also get called up after hospitalizing that guy in Philly, and having Hershey's goons slinking away from him in fear the next night...I was eyewitness to both. The Kings I thought needed someone the other teams would fear, and those two incidents were over the NHL All-Star break.
That said, with Raitis under contract for one more year, it makes no sense to do anything BUT have Westy in Manchester another season to work on his actual hockey skills. And a noticable improvement would probably get him the job in two years.
Not impressed....... sign Chris Neil
best mullet on the team - that's about it.
honestly though he was pretty effective when physical. did what you expect out of that line. dare I say he seemed like an improvement over Ivanans at times.
Raitis is a better player all around from what Westgarth showed me.
Meh.
No need to give him a grade...he didn't do anything. Actually I'll give him a withdrawal...he dropped out upon callup.
I'd rather see Ivanans out there.
I don't think we need Westgarth or Ivanans. We should make the fourth line a combination energy + skill line instead of a thug checking line. We have a solid third checking line.
Westgarth was the one in the way of Oscar Moller,and Ivanans coming back. WESTGARTH IS USELESS. He hasn't even got an assist. 9 penalty minutes in nine games, you got to be kidding me. TIME TO THROW WESTGARTH TO THE CURB. There are many other players that could've played but NO, stupid TM decided to put stupid Westgarth in the lineup.