To party, or not to party?
There was a question earlier about whether the Kings will be hosting a ``draft party'' this year, similar to the one they held at Nokia Theater last year and at Hollywood and Highland the year before. The short answer is, no. There will be a ``watch party'' on the afternoon of June 26 at the new ESPN Zone across the street from Staples Center, for the first round, but it's not an event officially sponsered by the Kings.
Why? It's sort of a two-part answer, I'm told. One, to put it simply, the Kings don't want it to be pereived that they're ``celebrating'' a high draft pick every year, because obviously you only get a high draft pick when your season didn't go well. The attitude is that the Kings want to ``graduate'' from that and want to change that perception. The other part is, the Kings are putting their summer focus on the Hockey Fest event that's coming up in August. Details of that event are expected to be released over the next few weeks, but initial details can be found here.
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J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey.
E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra@inlandnewspapers.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
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Vincent Bonsignore is a sports columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News. E-mail Vinny at vincent.bonsignore
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the answer is "no, we're trading our pick."
In other words, let's not offer a small bit of thanks to our loyal season ticket holders who have sat through several years of watching this team suck...
You're all invited to my house, BYOB. I'll BBQ some hotdogs.
There are two other potential answers....
1) The Kings are too cheap to spend the money and give season ticket holders something for free for a change.
2) They don't want the "hear a pin drop" effect (a la the Thomas Hickey pick in 2007) if DL lays a goose egg either by making an unpopular trade or choosing an oddball pick in the first round.
Personally I think it's more #1 than #2....
actually...
the kings are now asking all fans who want to watch the event together to go to ANTHONY(Y)'s house for his/the first annual "DAFT DRAFT AND DRAUGHT"...
jk...mr. tony...
well...talk about yr pretend and/or p.r. produced "non-answer(s)"...
in other news, the kings are planing to unofficially give away a pink elephant to one lucky espn zone fan on that day...
Quote:
"the Kings don't want it to be pereived that they're ``celebrating'' a high draft pick every year, because obviously you only get a high draft pick when your season didn't go well. The attitude is that the Kings want to ``graduate'' from that and want to change that perception."
**************
But its not a perception, its a reality, again this year. They ARE picking 5th this year. Call a spade a spade. You can only change the "perception" of a high draft pick by winning and not getting that high draft pick. Hopefully from now on they won't have to worry about it anymore....
To me it doesn't matter if they pick 1st or 30th. The NHL draft is still an exciting event for all hockey fans.
And I agree with what's been said above. The Kings are picking 5th. Remember what Tampa Bay was doing with the 'Seen Stamkos' thing last year? How about building some excitement for the team when there was little to speak of last year?
I agree with the fact that DL doesn't want a draft party cuz he's going to trade the pick! I still feel they should have a party though. It is an exciting event even if we do trade the pick
Thanks for providing the info Rich. I think everyone has done a great job covering the angles that Kings management and ownership is working here. I'd like to add that if the Kings do trade the pick at the draft then wouldn't that be great for the fans to "celebrate" obtaining an elite winger?
ya an elite winger coming off a serious injury I'm sure.
Before the "draft party" talk. Let me first say that DL has made some very good draft picks. Hickey has been one of the best young D in Canada/Juniors, and did not look out of place in Manchester (for you Meg).
I don't think that getting a "elite" Wingman to skate with the young guys we have is the exact solution to more wins. Look at the teams skating in the playoffs now. These are teams that have built their rosters through the draft, not by trading 1st round picks to get a player with a window of 2-3 years max.
Bottom line is that DL is trying to turn the Kings in to contenders for years to come, and not just a team that competes for 2 years with "rent-a-players" and then 3 years later we are sitting in the exact same place. Seen Evander Kane??