The Los Angeles Kings Were Active This Offseason but Was It Enough for a Better Playoff Run?

The Los Angeles Kings Were Active This Offseason but Was It Enough for a Better Playoff Run?

The Ken Holland era is underway in LA, but are the Kings a better team? Eddie Garcia of Locked on LA Kings joins us to discuss that and a lot more about this off season coming up next on today’s Locked On NHL podcast. [Music] You’re Locked on NHL, your daily podcast on the National Hockey League, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. your team every day. Gil Martin here. Welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Locked On NHL podcast. We’re part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. I want to thank everyone who makes Locked on NHL your first listen every day. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss an episode. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new FanDuel customers can get $150 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. It is my pleasure to welcome back to the show the host of Locked on LA Kings, Eddie Garcia. And Eddie, it’s been a busy off season for the Kings, Ken Holland, comes on as the new GM, and a lot of people have mixed reviews about his moves in free agency. What’s your take, and where does this team stand as of right now? Well, I think uh a lot of those opinions are very understandable. Um he was active, but um the players that were added were brought in to fill a specific need um that he hopes that they can uh you know, contribute to getting this team finally out of the first round of the playoffs. Um, I think I understand what he’s trying to do. Whether it works out or not obviously will ultimately not be determined until the playoffs get here. Um, but I completely understand a lot of the eyebrow raising, a lot of the skepticism with not only the players who were brought in, but the contracts that they were given as well. Um, there were reports that the Kings were one of the finalists for Mitch Mner. that obviously didn’t happen. Um, encouraging that they would be in on some of the big-time free agents out there because that’s something that historically they’ve never done very well at. They add pieces. They’ve never hit a home run uh with big-time free agents as far as signing them as free agents. you know, they’ve made obviously huge trades. Wayne Gretzky being one of them, but for whatever reason, free agency is not a place where the Kings usually do any kind of damage, and that has continued again this season. But again, they’re hoping that the pieces they brought in fill specific needs, and that can be part of the puzzle to get them past the first round of the playoffs where they haven’t been out since the 2014 championship. What specific needs do you think that Holland was trying to address and how much of it is we have to be better than the Edmonton Oilers? Well, considering they’ve lost four years in a row to him, that’s a pretty big component. And and obviously Ken Holland knows the Oilers very well, having been the GM of them for many, many years recently. Um, so as far as what they were looking to improve upon, it was instead of maybe getting that big name up front, and they did apparently explore that with Mitch Mner. Uh, when that wasn’t going to happen, it was making the bottom part of the team better. Uh, strengthening the fourth line, which they have done, adding Cory Perry and, uh, Joel Arma. uh big guys who are veterans who uh can give the Kings hopefully four lines that they can roll through and use in the playoffs because they didn’t do that this year against the Oilers who are basically a three-line team and I think that hurt them as the series went along and also the bottom pairing defensively. They got bigger, they got more veteran, if you want to put that kind of a spin on it. um in Brian Dumalan and Cody Cece. Um they’re again bigger guys who have played a lot of postseason hockey. The Kings played like four and a half defenseman in the playoffs and that didn’t work ultimately against the Oilers because it looked like they were worn down as it got into games five and six. So that’s where they hope that they’re going to be better, bigger, more physical, and that will eventually be part of the puzzle to lead this team where they want to go with everyone else either doing what they did last year or hopefully improving a little bit on what they did. They resigned Andre Kuseno, who was wonderful after he came over at the trade deadline. Greatly helped on their power play, which had been very mediocre to bad all season. Um, so a full season of him hopefully will help their power play and he’ll be playing in their top six. They’re also hoping Quinton Biffield takes a big step forward. He took a nice step forward last year, but they’re looking for a a bigger role from him. And then also on the back end, Brandt Clark, a young player that they are hoping will take another step forward as well. So losing Vladislav Gabriov, your best defenseman from a year ago, obviously is not good. It’s certainly uh I think very easy to say that the defensive core isn’t as good as it was a year ago. But when you look at the King’s strength, which is team defense, I think they’re hoping that Dumlain and CC in a reduced role in that scheme will help them still be very adequate defensively. and then the depth on the fourth line. Again, they they hope the whole team is a bit more solidified and then that will be the difference in the playoffs. What do you think about the criticism that you’ve heard about Holland and how fair is it? I think in particular the Cody CC deal has gotten a lot of uh push back and I think very fairly so. Um, I do think in a third pairing role he’ll be fine. But if it’s anything more than that, I think then that’s asking too much. I know he played a top pairing role in San Jose. Of course, that was a really bad team. A second pairing role in Dallas, and that didn’t work out very well. So, I think a third pairing role, he’s okay. Um, but giving him four years, 4.5 million a year for a third pairing guy does not seem like a very wise investment to me. Um, yes, the Kings had plenty of cab space, but you know, there’s still business to do now and and down the road, especially if you want to add somebody at the trade deadline. They still want to resign Adrien Keente to a long-term contract. He’s a UFA after this year. So, uh, yeah, I I I I completely understand when you look at that contract, you’re like, and you think that’s an overpayment, and why would you want him for four years? I don’t have an answer for that. I can understand wanting him maybe for two years at $2 million a year or something like that, but anything beyond that seems unwise, but he knows the player. He signed him in Edmonton. He apparently liked him there. But I I I totally understand why that signing in particular has drawn a lot of criticism. I think that’s fair. I like Brian Dumalan. I I understand, you know, the term for him was was not great either, but I think, you know, if he’s a second pairing guy, if he’s the guy they plug in to replace Gabberov, you know, I can I think he can handle that role. He was really good in the playoffs for New Jersey this past year. But these are all, you know, looking at one year, how is it going to work out? Beyond that, I don’t I don’t know. But for the Kings right now, the it’s all about just having some progress in the playoffs. And you know, it’s it’s uh been very frustrating. Um now, granted, playing the Oilers four years in a a row, a team that obviously has had success in the playoffs, two straight finals appearances, you can make the argument it’s just bad luck. And I think we’re all very curious to find out if the Kings could get by them. How far could they go? You know, is it just that they can’t get by that very good team? It’s kind of, if you want to call it, bad luck with the way the playoffs are set up in the format. We’ll see. But it all depends on just getting past that first round and then seeing what happens. What were your feelings about the draft for the LA Kings? I thought it was solid. Um, a lot of picks. Um, you know, they’ve been a team of late because they’ve been a playoff team that has obviously picked farther down the line. They they’ve not been, you know, they’re in that position. a lot of fans talk about and and it’s fair uh good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to get any real impactful players uh in the draft. That can be true. I did think last year they did really well in the draft with their first two picks uh in a guy named Liam Greenree who had a phenomenal year in the OHL this past year and then a goalender Carter George who’s the world junior goalie for Canada. those are their two number one prospects now and I think those guys will be NHL contributors in the next couple years or so. Um so that was great. Um hopefully they did more of the same this year. Um you know this draft was apparently not as deep as a lot of drafts. So I think they’re you know hoping that and they the Kings have done really well with their later picks. you know, with fourth, fifth, sixth round picks, they’ve done very very well, which is pretty surprising. But, uh, I think the the draft was okay for them. I I don’t think there’s any certainly any stars that are coming out of this crop that they that they selected, but they hope that there’s two at least two solid contributors at some point. All right, Eddie, why don’t you tell our viewers and our listeners where they could find the podcast and where they could find you on social media? Uh, Locked on LA Kings, wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. always encourage people to put the LA part in there or else you’ll get a basketball team in Sacramento. Uh and uh they can follow the show on social media, locked on LA Kings. All right, Eddie, thanks so much. Thank you. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. And whether you’re all about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes soccer action. FanDuel is the best way to make every game even more exciting. You’re already following the action. Why not make it a little more thrilling? With FanDuel, you can get in on the game while your friends are getting sunburned at the beach. I’ve been using FanDuel to track my favorite matchups, and the app keeps it fresh with new daily promotions and fun ways to bet. 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The Los Angeles Kings made several bold moves in free agency under new GM Ken Holland, but are these the right moves to help them advance in the playoffs?

Eddie Garcia of Locked On LA Kings joins us to discuss the signings and how they improve the team plus what else the Kings need to do to get past the Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division.

All this and more on today’s Locked On NHL Podcast with Gil Martin.

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