Leaner (and meaner?) Ivanans
There's a lot less of Raitis Ivanans this year. Ivanans weighed in at roughly 260 pounds last season, and he said the Kings asked him to drop a significant amount of weight during the summer. Ivanans said he lost 17 pounds.
``They want me to be a little more mobile and have a little more speed out there,'' Ivanans said.
And does he feel any different on the ice?
``I don't know,'' Ivanans said. ``I feel the same, but hopefully it will show during the year.''
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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.
``They want me to be a little more mobile and have a little more speed out there,'' Ivanans said.
Translation: They want me to stop grabbing and holding onto players that keep flying past me.
I believe the correct answer, if you value your job, is "Yes, I really feel the difference out there."
Agreed. He's good for one minor a game and the occasional fighting major.
Sorry, but after watching Ivanans at camp he looked like a whole different player this year. He looks much leaner and was buzzing around the rink in practice. He looked just as quick if not faster than most everyone out there. I know this sounds crazy and believe me I was shocked, but he looked very much improved. Who knows if all this will mean anything when the season starts but he actually looked good out there. Here's to keeping our fingers crossed!
How much speed do you need to skate to the penalty box?
At least he was honest lol...
Don't you guys remember? He had 2 game winners last year!!! He took off 17 pounds, skating faster, still as mean, I bet he's good for 4 goals this year. And as many beat downs on Parros as possible. I didnt see the game, nor hear anything about it. But did anyone take a shot at Artunin, or whatever that ass clown for the sucks (formerly Lighting)???
@ Dave in Torrance
Yeah, he had two GWGs last season, but they were both in 4-0 victories. I think it's fair to say that he didn't really have a positive impact all season long in a game where his effort would've been the difference between a win and a loss.
That being said, I think he's gonna be on the roster this year. He has been for a couple years, and I don't see him just disappearing, unless he's a healthy scratch for a lot of the games. If they didn't want him on the team, they would've done something already.
They have to try trading him because that's the only way they'll get anyting out of him. I mean we were able to get a 7th round pick for LaBarbera from a team who already had Roberto Luongo, their goalie of the future (even though he was injured and they wouldn't get him back for a month). I'm sure we can get at least a late 7th round pick for him, or maybe even a 6th if there's a team that wants an enforcer.
If that doesn't work, buy him out of his contract. I don't know if you can buy out players of their contracts at this time, although I think you can any day before when rosters must be set. We did that with McCauley and Cloutier. Even though we're still paying those two (McCauley for another year after), we have enough cap space, and if DL is planning on using some of it to get another veteran defenseman, we have like $7 million in cap space. The buyout would be less than $500,000, which still leaves us plenty of space.
But I think it's fair to give him a chance to see what he can do. Give him five games to prove himself. If he sucks, send him down. If he gets claimed, okay. If not, send him to Manchester and give him 4th line minutes.
The kings need Ivanans to be our enforcer. just the mean look of his face scares most teams out there. If we get rid of him then the Kings will be the pushovers of the NHL... Ivanans is a far superior enforcer than Westgarth. He is a better fighter and more intimidating. show me a 50 plus point a year enforcer who is disciplined that we can get for him then you guys can talk, but then again that type of player doesnt exist except for the be a pro player I made on EA NHL 10.
-Gello-