Prospect report: Evander Kane

We should be so lucky.

he has all the tools you love to see in a power forward...

i just don't think he will be available come our pick...
if he is...either kane or mps...would be excellent for us...
we are coming from a position of strength in this year's draft...i can totally see another team trading up to get our pick if both of these players are available at the time...

and then someone overpaying for it to benefit us is a scenario i would welcome...but it's gotta be great deal for us....

when everybody speculates on the possible trade scenarios for us...i think the draft pick position coupled with who will be available at the time...gives us the best trade/leverage in getting a high-impact caliber player for our immediate future...

I'd rather start with beef than hope for it. He's the Duchene runner-up. MPS/Duchene>Schenn>Kane

I'd rather have him then Svengali Paajarvi Svensson Magnus MPSP...
I think MSP is going to be a bust, but that's my opinion. You can never go wrong with canadians

If this guy is available, he's a no brainer over Duchene. Especially for the Kings. I'm almost positive that DL's intentions are to move up or down. We'll see.

Yeah, watch out for those foreigners. Selanne was a complete bust. Lidstrom was even worse.

Ersberg-

Of course you're going to name those players. You can't compared MSP to Lidstrom, no way.. That doesn't even make sense, but MSP doesn't seem like he's the type of guy that backchecks hard, and I know DL hates that..

I don't know, I guess the jury is still out on this guy

For me: Kane>Duchene>Schenn>MSRP or MSRP>Schenn

But I know not. Really.

Ak-

How do you know he won't be that good?

Like you said, the jury is still out on the guy. He looks damn good to me, though. Did you see that D-burn, with a twist shot move he did on youtube? Granted it was the Euro league, but it looked smooth.

But as Quisp mentions, we just don't know. His list of drafts back to '93 proves that. Kopitar was 11th, right? Would you say he's a stereotypical 11th? I'd have to say no.

Quisp,

I'm pretty close to the same rankings as you have. Kane and Duchene are pretty even in my mind, i'm having a tough time picking one over the other. Then I think MSP or whatever it is followed by Schenn.

Picking 5th means Tavares and Hedman are gone for sure. Then two of Kane, MSP, Duchene will most likely be gone. I say just take whoever is left from those three since they all look pretty good. Hopefully Duchene or Kane in my opinion. Really like Kane as Iginla Jr.

I had the privelage of watching Kane's vancouver giants take a 7 gamer over Spokane last night.

Game 6- Double OT. Kane forces a turnover by throwing his weight around. The puck gets picked up by one of vancouvers talented forwards who gives it to Kane-----buries it. game over, and, eseentially the series too.

I'll tell u guys that this guy is not only a goal scorer, he goes to the net. AND I MEAN HE GOES TO THE NET! He was whistld for slashing Spokane's goaltender across the mask, all becasue he was going for a loose puck.

He's the perfect balance of skill mixed with grit. If he's available, it's a no-brainer.

"You can never go wrong with canadians" - AK47

Paging Daigle...Alexandre Daigle please pickup the line for AK47.

You know it occurs to me that even though I've been all over wanting Kane, we already have Iginla jr... only his name is WAAAAAAYNE!

I keep going back and forth, since all these guys look great and everyone has made great arguments for all of them.

I think I'm gonna say we should draft the guy with the highest pure offensive talent and upside of who is left. In that regard I'd have to rate them

Duchene>MPS>Kane=Schenn

Kane, really?! Simmonds is what everyone hopes Kane to be....and 2" shorter. The next Iginla... why, cus he's black, and fiesty, and he plays for team Canada?! -Sounds alot like Simmonds to me
MSP is most likely going to be gone when our pick roles around, because he's flat out better! So all you masterminds choosing Kane-the Simmonds wanna-be-over MSP, must be smarter than every GM in the entire league.
AK47,
If you were a GM, you'd make Mike Milbury look like Ken Holland.
-Trade up to get "Lil Forsberg", or trade the pick for our gamebreaker.....

darko25o,

First of all, Simmonds has played great this year and I am glad he made the team earlier than anyone expected and proved he can compete and succeed in the NHL. Why wouldnt we want more guys like Simmonds on the team? Guys that play a great two way game, aren't afraid to take the body and play physical, and have a passion for the game and stick up for their teammates.

Kane however is different than Simmonds because he has a much better offensive skill set than Simmonds has. That is why he is being compared to Iginla. Why wouldnt you want two Iginla's on your team, the guy is awesome. Kane is a more offensively talented player than Simmonds that looks to play the game the same way always giving a ton of effort and contributing outside of just scoring points. I do like MPS and think I am starting to have Kane slightly ahead of MPS who is a little ahead of Duchene on my personal rankings of who I would like to get. No matter what we get one of those three which is great because they all look to be very good prospects.

-GoKings09

PS- unfortunately I think Kane may go to Atlanta because they already interviewed with him earlier in the year and seem to really like him but I hope not.

How do you figure it's a lock that MPS will be gone before 5? That's only 4 pick before us.
Tavares
Hedmen
Duchene
Schenn
MPS Kane
etc..

Ersberg,
You know, I think you might be right. With Colorado and Atlanta both needing centerman, I think that MSP could be a possibility for us. Atlanta already has Kovi and Kozlov on the LW, and with Sakic retiring, Colorado may look to the draft to fill that loss of a centerman. Realistically though, it makes more sense for some of the aforementioned to grab centerman in UFA, and give MSP time to develop. LW'rs are at a premium right now, and this draft is stacked with Centerman. So....it doesn't seem likely for the second highest rated european player to drop all the way to 5th, in a draft lacking pure LW'ers!

Still a toss-up for me but I still think I'd go Duchene then Kane if available......Duchene is bigger and more NHL ready. I won't cry tho if it ends up being Kane, both are excellent picks with big futures in the NHL.

Dark-

Good points. Beyond the scope of the draft, what the Kings really need is a generational talent(like Crosby or Malkin), which is most likely beyond anything in this years draft. Most of the teams in our division have similar players. I.e. Thornton, Selanne, etc.

Brickwall-

you've got to be kidding me? That's the only Canadian you mention that was picked first overall, right? Ok, how about we go through the rest of the Canadians picked in the top 5..

Ok so in 2000 you had
DiPietro
Heatley (canadian)
Gaborik
Klesla
Torres (canadian) (bust? not so much..)

2001
Kovalchuk
Spezza (canadian)
Svitov (bust KHL)
Weiss (canadian)
Chistov (bust KHL)

2002
Rick Nash (amazing player, canadian)
Kari Lehtonen (...)
Jay Bouwmeester (canadian cry baby, but still amazing)
Joni Pitkanen (...)
Ryan Whitney

2003
Marc-Andre Fleur (canadian, solid at times, but weak at times)
Eric Staal (amazing canadian player)
Nathan Horton (solid canadian player)
Nikolai Zherdev (... ok player)
Tomas Vanek (amazing Austrian, if MSP turns out like this guy, I will walk to wherever Ersberg resides and apologize with a hand shake and a hug)

2004
Alexander Ovechkin (stupidly good)
Evgeni Malkin (stupidly good)
Cam Barker (canadian player)
Andrew Ladd (somewhat of a bust for a 4th pick overall, canadian)
Blake Wheeler (solid player)

...

I can keep going.. Canadian players are always a sure pick, most of the time..

Let's look at our first rounders from 2006..

Jonathan Bernier (Canadian)
Trevor Lewis (American)
Thomas Hickey (Canadian)
Drew Doughty (Canadian)
Colten Teubert (Canadian)

Paging Tukonen... Lauri Tukonen please pick up the line for Brickwall
Paging Svitov... Alexandr Svitov please pick up the line for Brickwall
Paging Stefan... Patrik Stefan please, GOD PLEASE, pick up the line for Brickwall

Don't even get me started with Canadian busts because they are very rare.. Look at all first overall picks (Thornton, Lecavalier, Owen Nolan, Crosby, Rick Nash).. none of those guys will be busts..

You guys are just mad that we keep winning the World Junior Championships.. It's ok, no harsh feelings.

Um Ak47, you did say you can NEVER go wrong with Canadians, right? Anyways, in case you've forgotten or were too young to notice at that time, Daigle was touted as a "can't miss" super star and there were accusations that Ottawa tanked to take him (in case you didn't know the lottery was born in part out of this situation). So he was perhaps the best example given. There are definitely other canadians beyond Daigle who were taken high and were busts, Bonsignore, Jackman, Finley, Tkaczuk, come to mind.

Besides, by your own list, you've shown that most guys who end up taken in the top 5, are there for a reason, regardless of what country there from.

As for the canada comment at the end, it's not like you had anything to do with canada's success or that anyone really cares. That'd be like someone saying you're testy because the US keeps winning the women's championships or that the US has won more and medaled more in the U-18 WJC than Canada has. IT has nothing to do with anything. Makes no sense, does it?

lmao i guess you're right.. but Keith Tkachuk is nowhere near a bust..

All I said was that selecting MSP is scary because you don't even know if he'll even ever play for us. You got guys like Radulov who just leave their team completely for the KHL and I'm not saying MSP will do that, but you never know. I know he's got a big mouth though..

If Evander Kane is available, we should def. draft him, or even Matt Duchene. I'd love to trade back and take Jordan Schroeder or Zack Kassian..

Just to prove that I have no hate for the americans, I'm in love with Jordan Schroeder lol.

We need a big mouth on this team. At least it shows they give a crap. The Kings definitely lack in this area. They're way too passive. No, Brian Boyle's late season aggressiveness doesn't count; he's just trying to keep his job.

Actually, its Daniel Tkazcuk, not Keith Tkachuk, I was referring to.

You're absolutely right, that is definitely something GMs need to take into consideration, and they do, when choosing who to pick. Rest assured, DL will do his homework on whether non-NA guys are a lock to come overseas. I'm sure that came into play when DL took Voynov and Loktionov last year, despite having a historical aversion to drafting russians- both of them wanted to come over right away to NA and they did.

Isn't Loktionov playing on the same line as future #1 pick overall Taylor Hall? I think so.

I think Loktionov's been playing mostly on a line with wellwood and mitchell recently (palyoffs), though he puts up points with whoever he's been playing with, including Hall. He's got 21 points in 11 playoff games, 1 less than the league lead (Hall). Nice.

He might be the steal of the draft.

http://kwisp.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/north-american-scouting-services-mock-draft-mock-kings-pick-mock-kane/