Season Preview, acquiring Dubois was a solid move by LA but is their goaltending enough to get them in the top 3 in the Pacific, while the reigning Cup Champions did little this offseason as all they did was keep around Hill and Barbashev, so can they get back to the Cup Final.
Now Brining in Dubois is a fantastic move for LA as they may have the best 1-2-3 Center punch in the NHL and adding Dubois to their top 9 gives them a lethal forward group, but adding Dubois did mean making subtractions on defence and not bringing in a true number 1 goalie in net, so can LA’s strong offense lead LA to a top 3 spot in the Pacific, while Vegas is coming off of winning the Stanley Cup after a fantastic season, and besides keeping Hill and Barbashev and losing Smith this offseason, they didn’t do anything, so will running it back with basically the same roster lead Vegas to another division total and possibly back to back Cups.
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LA Kings
2022-23 regular season record:
47-25-10 for 104 points, 3rd in Pacific, 5th in West, went to Edmonton in round 1 of the playoffs and after being up 1-0 and 2-1 in the series, they would lose 3 straight and lose the series in 6 games to Edmonton.
Significant Offseason losses:
RW,C G.Vilardi 23-18-41 63GP (WIN)
LW A.Iafallo 14-22-36 59GP (WIN)
C,LW,RW R.Kupari 3-12-15 66GP (WIN)
RW,C Z.MacEwen 4-6-10 56GP (OTT)
LW A.Dudas 0-0-0 0GP (UFA)
C,LW L.Anderson 0–0-0 1GP (MON)
LD A.Edler 2-9-11 64GP (UFA)
LD/RD S.Walker 3-10-13 70GP (PHI)
RD H.Grans (AHL Numbers) 2-7-9 59GP (PHI)
LD/RD S.Durzi 9-29-38 72GP (ARI)
G C.Petersen 5-3-2 REC 3.75 GAA .868 SV% (PHI)
G J.Korpisalo 18-14-1 REC 2.87 GAA .914 SV% (OTT)
Significant Offseason Additions:
C. P.L Dubois 27-36-63 73GP
RW,C T.Lewis 9-11-20 82GP
C,LW M.Maltsev 0-0-0 5GP
LD A.Englund 0-4-4 47GP
LD/RD K.Connauton (AHL Numbers) 3-12-15 63GP
G C.Talbot 17-14-2 REC 2.93 GAA .898 SV%
G D.Rittich 9-8-1 REC 2.67 GAA .901 SV%
Top 3 Kings picks in the 2023 draft
2RD #22 LD J.Dvorak
3RD #14 RW K.Ziemmer
4RD #22 G H.Slukynsky
My Current projected 23 man lineup
Q.Byfield-A.Kopitar-A.Kempe
T.Moore-P.Danault-V.Arvidsson
A.Kaliyev-P.L Dubois-K.Fiala
C.Grundstrom-B.Lizotte-T.Lewis
M.Anderson-D.Doughty
V.Gavrikov-B.Clarke
T.Bjornfot-M.Roy
C.Talbot
P.Copley
A.Englund
CAP: $83.38, SPACE: $.123
Offseason review and Season Preview:
Now the Kings were once again a top 3 team in the Pacific division for the 2nd year in a row, and for the 2nd year in a row they drew McDavid’s Oilers in round 1 where they would wind up exiting in round 1, so their objective for this season was to get better so if they were to draw a good team in the playoffs next year again they would be better suited to face a team like Edmonton and maybe even take them down, and in my eyes they were able to get better in some aspects but not in others.
So in Net last year the Kings started with a completely different goalie tandem then they finished the season with, as they started with the team den that finished the 21-22 season and that was long time King goalie Quick and goalie of the future Cal Petersen, but early on last year those two had a awful start which would lead the Kings to eventual send down Petersen to the minors after clearing waivers and calling up 3rd string goalie Phoenix Copley who played absolutely fantastic hockey and in a lot of ways saved the Kings season, and then later in the season around the deadline in what was a unpopular move, they traded franchise goalie Jonathan Quick for Jackets goalie Joonas Korpisalo who became the Kings started and played some fantastic regular season hockey before being quite average in the playoffs, so the Kings changed up their goaltending in season and were rumoured to be looking for a major goaltending upgrade this offseason after last year as even though they signed Copley to a decent 1 year extension and he can be a good 1B or backup, he isn’t someone who should have a starter role, so there was a ton of rumours about the Kings having interest in big name available goalies such as Hellebuyck, Gibson and Hart, but after moves they made early in the offseason they didn’t have enough cap space to go after one of those big time goalies, so they went to free agency where Korpisalo would sign with the Sen’s and they would wind up signing the Senators starter from last year in Cam Talbot to a cheap one year deal to be the teams 1A and with Copley going from the 3rd stringer to backup and the Kings finding a way to get rid of Petersen earlier in the offseason by moving him to Philadelphia in a trade, the team didn’t have a 3rd string goalie so they signed David Rittich in free agency to be the number 3 goalie in LA. So in my opinion the Kings should be able to make do with a Talbot-Copley tandem as I did think this team could use a major upgrade in Net and thought they would have gone after a bigger name, so I do think that not getting that true number 1 goalie was a bit of a downgrade in my opinion, but they should make do with the tandem they have as they still have a solid forward and defensive group and I think if Copley can play close to the level of what he played at last year and Talbots can stay healthy and have a solid bounce back season with the 3rd string situation a bit better now that they have Rittich, I think the Kings will be alright but just like last year they don’t have much room for error in Net and although they didn’t get the monster upgrade I thought they were would’ve gotten this year in net, I do think that Talbot and Copley is a bit better then Petersen and Quick from last year and I have a strong feeling they will do alright in Net this upcoming season.
On the defensive end the Kings went into this offseason with a very crowded blueline and not much room for solid young rookies like Clarke and Bjornfot to get much time at the NHL level last year, so they were able to free up cap space to do other things and free up some roster spots this offseason. Now last year after acquiring top 4 D Gavrikov in the Korpisalo trade at last years deadline, the Kings top 6 looked stacked and had some amazing NHL quality players on that blueline but they would up getting rid of some of them. Now the teams top pair from last year in Mikey Anderson and Doughty is still there as Anderson has his 8 year contract extension kicking in this year and Doughty is still signed, but the Kings did have to make some moves to the other pieces of their defence. Now the Kings really liked what Gavrikov brought to the team after being acquired at the deadline but was a pending UFA and the Kings didn’t have enough money to bring him back, so on top of moving Petersen they also moved 3rd pair defensemen Sean Walker who was entering the last year of his deal at a $2.6 Million dollar cap hit and was someone I think the Kings new they could live without on the blueline, as they shipped both Petersen and Walker in the same deal to Philly and were able to clear enough cap space to sign Gavrikov to a 2 year deal and keep around the top 4 defender for more then just one season, but they still didn’t feel like they had enough cap space to do all that they wanted to do, so they would then moved solid offensive defensemen Sean Durzi to Arizona for a pick, and even though Durzi is a great offensive force, I think the Kings realized that young prospect Brandt Clarke has more upside and Durzi’s next contract was going to be pricey, so even though Durzi had fur in well in LA’s lineup the past two seasons, getting the $1.7 Million in cap space was a big win for them, so now they had lost two solid D-Men and they would also wind up losing Alex Edler who was a solid 7th D for most of last year in LA go as a free agent, so all in all the Kings lose 3 regular defensemen this offseason from last year in Durzi, Walker and Edler, but they did go out in free agency and pickup Englund who showed last year in Colorado/Chicago that he can be a decent 6th/7th defender and I think is a prime candidate to take Edler’s spot on the team, while these moves open the door for Brandt Clarke, who got a short look at the NHL level last year, to emerge as a everyday NHL defender this upcoming season and I think he should be able to nab a top 4 spot, while other young defensemen could challenge for the other open spot on the team as I think Moverare, Spence and Bjornfot all stand good chances to be regular NHL D-Men on the 3rd pair this season, so does losing solid and proven NHL defenders like Walker and Durzi hurt, of course it would but, A they got enough cap space to do other things like keep Gavrikov and B, they now have open roster spots for some of their young players to step into and although I don’t think the Kings defence is as deep as it was after the deadline last year, I think it is still one of the better NHL defences and I think as long at the young players fill the open spots well, LA should be a pretty good defensive team this upcoming season.
And finally we go onto the forward group: now the Kings have a solid forward group that was probably the most dominant position on the team last year and the position I thought the Kings probably didn’t need to do much on this offseason, but man did they improve this forward group a lot more then I think a lot of people thought they would going into the offseason as I think a lot of teams had them improving in Net and maybe a bit on the defensive end, but I don’t think many had much major improvements coming on the forward group. Now a few weeks into the offseason it sounded like the Kings had some interest in Jets Center Dubois who was rumoured to be on the move and it sounded like even though Montreal was his first preference, Dubois was going to be open to a contract extension with the Kings if a trade was to be worked out, and right around the draft the Kings and Jets pulled off a massive trade as after getting rid of the Walker, Durzi and Petersen contracts earlier in the year, the Kings were able to acquire top 6 Center Pierre Luc Dubois from the Jets in exchange for Kupari, Iafallo, Vilardi and the pick they got in the Durzi deal. Now this was their big move offensively this offseason as besides this single trade, all the Kings did was bring in 2 depth forwards in form King Trevor Lewis as well as Maltsev and they would lose bottom six/spare forwards Lias Andersson and Zack MacEwen, so all in all they didn’t lose or add anyone significant in free agency so this was their big move offensively. Now they do lose three quality forwards, but it isn’t actually that bad, as Dubois basically replace Vilardi who had a breakout season last year as the teams 3rd line Center but with getting Dubois that is a major upgrade on Vilardi, Iafallo I thought would be Traded as he is a solid middle six forward who was getting boxed out in LA so to make the money work and give him more of a opportunity the Kings moved him, and then while Kupari had high upside, he hasn’t to this point been more then a 4th line forward, and with so many good Kings prospects passing him, he was getting lower on the depth charts, so moving him as not a overly drastic move for LA to make. So LA now has Danault, Dubois and Kopitar down the middle which I think is the best 1-2-3 punch down the middle we have seen in quite sometime and if Byfield plays the wing for the next few years, they can have a top 9 that has those three down the middle with Arvidsson, Moore, Byfield, Kempe, Fiala and Kaliyev on the wings, and with guys like Thomas, Fagemo and Turcotte coming up as well, I think this was really well thought out move by the Kings, and even though I didn’t like the fact that all of their cap space was used up giving Dubois a 8 year extension with a AAV of $8.5 Million and they weren’t able to get more defensive or goaltending help because of it, I do think that the offense looks at this point in time even scarier then it did last year and even if the defence isn’t as deep as it was last year or if the goaltending has some big questions entering the season, I think more often then naught this team will score their way out of problems and even if they lost a few decent forwards this offseason, the amount of top tier forward lines the Kings have on this team will lead them to victory time after time this upcoming season and I think the major improvement up front was probably the teams biggest win this offseason.
Now after losing the first round series to the Oilers last year, I said the 3 reasons the Kings fell to Edmonton last year was the fact they couldn’t stop the Oilers high powered offense, their inability to win tight games and the poor play on special teams. Now I think adding a starting goalie would’ve helped the team be able to stop other teams offenses but they should be able to make do with Talbot as the starter, adding Dubois and hopefully having some young up and coming defensemen play this year should hopefully help the team with their special teams while they should hopefully be able to win more tightly contested games this season and get some more points then last year and be better suited to win the tightly knit games in the playoffs they could t win last year, so all in all I think the Kings, besides not getting a solid number 1 goalie for their system, actually did pretty well this offseason and although I am not sure how well they will play this year in tight hockey games, I think they should at least be better on special teams and maybe better defensively too.
Offseason Grade B-: the Kings came into this offseason knowing that they needed to improve this team so they are better suited going forward to face lethal teams such as Edmonton in the playoffs, and I think they did alright as I think a Talbot-Copley tandem isn’t fantastic but should give LA a better start then last year, they do lose a couple of decent D-Men but are able to keep around Gavrikov and should add Clarke this year which will be welcome adds, and even though they lose some pieces offensively, they have the young players to help replace them and they add Dubois which was the piece of the offseason for them and makes their top 9 one of the scariest in the NHL and gives the team the best 1-2-3 punch down the middle in the NHL, so I think a B- rating is deserved here as I think adding a true number 1 goalie would’ve helped them even more or adding a veteran 3rd pair D-Men to work on the last pair, but all in all they did quite well and I think a very deserving of that rating for this offseason.
Current 2023-24 record prediction: 46-28-8 for 100 Points, 4th in Pacific and 1WC in West, 4 less points then last year.
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Vegas Golden Knights
2022-23 regular season record:
51-22-9 for 111 points, 1st in Pacific, 1st in West, they would lose game 1 to Winnipeg in round 1 before beating them 4 straight times to take the series 4-1, they would climb out of a 1-0 and 2-1 hole to win 3 straight and down the Oilers 4-2 in round 2, they would win the first 3 against Dallas in round 3 and would end them in 6 games taking the series 4-2, while they would beat the Panthers in the first two and last two games of the Stanley Cup Final to take that Series 4-1 and win the first Stanley Cup in Vegas 6 year history.
Significant Offseason losses:
RW P.Kessel 14-22-36 82GP (UFA)
LW,RW R.Smith 26-30-56 78GP (PIT)
C,LW T.Blueger 4-12-16 63GP (VAN)
C,RW N.Patrick 0-0-0 0GP (UFA)
G L.Brossoit 7-0-0 REC 2.17 GAA .927 SV% (WIN)
G J.Quick 16-15-2 REC 3.41 GAA .882 SV% (NYR)
Significant Offseason Additions:
LW,C G.Quinney (AHL Numbers) 25-39-64 66GP
LW,LD M.Geertsen (AHL Numbers) 4-4-8 61GP
Top 3 Knights picks in the 2023 draft
1RD #32 C D.Edstrom
3RD #13 C,RW M.Cataford
3RD #32 LD A.Kärki
My Current projected 23 man lineup
I.Barbashev-J.Eichel-J.Marchessault
B.Howden-C.Stephenson-M.Stone
B.Brisson-W.Karlsson-N.Roy
W.Carrier-P.Cotter-K.Kolesar
A.Martinez-A.Pietrangelo
B.McNabb-S.Theodore
N.Hague-Z.Whitecloud
L.Thompson
A.Hill
P.Dorofeyev-M.Amadio-B.Pachal
(LTIR R.Lehner)
CAP: $82.72, SPACE: $.777
Offseason review and season preview:
Now the Golden Knights had a pretty good 21-22 season, but do to a slew of injuries missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, but came into this last season and put on a show as even though they were banged up they always got contributions from different sources and were able to win the Western Conference in the regular season and then in the playoffs would beat Wildcard Winnipeg in 5 games, 2nd in Pacific Edmonton in 6 games, 2nd in Central Dallas in 6 games in the Western Conference Final and in their 2nd trip in team history to the Cup Final, they would take down the Florida Panthers down in 5 games to win the first Stanley Cup in team history in only the teams sixth season, so being the league champions from last year and not having much cap space, the Knights took this offseason to try and figure out a way to keep most of the band together for this upcoming season and I think they did a fine job of it.
So in Net the team used 4 different goalies last season due to injuries that plagued the team all year, as Lehner was out all year due to a hip injury and the team started the year without Laurent Brossoit which lead to them starting a Hill-Thompson tandem, then after Brossoit became healthy Thompson got injured which put Brossoit back in the lineup and with their injury troubles they went at the deadline and got Jonathan Quick who mostly was their 3rd stringer for the rest of the year and in the playoffs Thompson missed the entirety of it due to his injury and Brossoit started before getting injured in round 2 which lead to the Knights putting in Hill to finish the playoffs with Quick as the backup, so having used 5 different goalies (young AHLer Patera also played a few times last year), helped the Golden Knights win the cup last year by riding the hot hand, but they had three goalies in Brossoit, Quick and Hill all heading to free agency and didn’t have enough cap space to keep all of them, so they had some decisions to make in Net. Now it seems like Lehner at the moment is still not healthy so if that is true the Knights would get $5 Million dollars to put on LTIR and would be able to get some cap relief there but Lehner wouldn’t be playing so they would need another goalie, now Thompson is the goalie of the future and should be the teams starter this year and looked fantastic early last year and with a extremely team friendly contract the Kinghts kept him around to be part of a tandem this season, and then before free agency they would bring back Hill who lead the team in the playoffs from the middle of round 2 to the Stanley Cup Win to a 2 year contract extension at a $4.9 Million dollar cap hit, so the team was able to keep him around to work together with Thompson this year while the other two goalies wound up leaving this year, so they can place Lehner on LTIR and that will give them enough cap space to be compliant with Hill in the lineup and will give Vegas a solid tandem this year with the same two goalies that started last year in Hill and Thompson, while they weren’t able to keep Brossoit and Quick as Brossoit signed back in Winnipeg to be the Jets Backup, while Quick left Vegas and signed a cheap one year deal with NYR to backup Shesterkin this year, so the Knights don’t have as much depth this year as they did last year, but I think a Hill-Thompson tandem as long as it can stay healthy should be able to work this year, and both goalies looked fantastic as different times last year and should continue to be great this upcoming season, so I think it was the right move by Vegas to bring back Hill, and I think even though their depth isn’t as good as it was last year, it should still be a solid tandem in net and if Hill can play like he did in the playoffs and Thompson continues to grow as the teams starter, then I feel the Knights should be just fine in Net this year.
Now on the defensive side of the puck there is literally nothing to talk about as surprisingly the Knights didn’t have to make any moves of substance on the blueline as they were able to keep that part of the team pretty much intact from last year. Now at the beginning of the offseason I said the Golden Knights may have to move a substantial contract off of their blueline as they didn’t have much cap space and wanted to keep around guys like Hill and Barbashev, and I said a very likely trade candidate was Alec Martinez who makes over $5 Million and is in the final year of his deal, and with Vegas having the defence they have I said they could make do without him if they needed to move on from him in order to get cap flexibility, but they wound up not needing to do that, as they were able to move a different contract and should be able to place Lehner on LTIR, which meant they didn’t have to move Martinez and their D-Corp was able to remain intact over the offseason. Now they still have a solid top 4 lead by their top 2 defenders in Pietrangelo and Theodore who are still signed for the next few seasons and remain huge pieces of the blueline, and to round out the top 4 the Knights still have Martinez and McNabb who are solid top 4 D and work well with the other two and even though I am not sure Martinez is back next year with Vegas, I do expect him to continue to do well this year as a top 4 defender, and then they still have a solid 3rd pair of young D Whitecloud and Hague who are still solid 3rd pair defensemen and I think are on the brink of needing bigger minutes as I think by next year both could easily be top 4 defenders, and then you have a couple of solid depth options in Pachal, Hutton and Korczak who should be able to step into the lineup if the team has injury troubles, so all in all I think the Knights were smart not to move anyone off of their roster this offseason as we know how big that defence was to Vegas last year and it should continue to be a dominant force in Vegas ahead of the goalies this year.
Lucas Peltier USA Today Sports
And on the forward group, Vegas did have to make a few moves to keep most of their forward group together for the upcoming season, but I do think they did quite well in being able to keep most of this offensive group intact. Now The Knights still had most of their forwards locked up over the next few years, and didn’t really need to make many moves this offseason. Now they did have a few lower end forwards who were on expiring deals who were really good bottom six forwards in their cup run in Kessel and Blueger who was a in-season acquisition, as both were pending UFA’s and the Knights let them go and allowed them to sign elsewhere in free agency, but with the teams outstanding depth up front I expect the Knights to recover well from losing those two. Now the bigger potential loss they were facing this offseason was the fact that in-season acquisition Ivan Barbashev was without a contract after helping the team win the Stanley Cup, and although he fit in really well with the team playing with guys like Marchessault and Eichel, there was a lot of talk that Vegas wouldn’t be able to afford the money he would be demanding (which was around $5-6 Million dollars) and that he would hit free agency as one of the highest players in free agency, but we know how Vegas has a agressive attitude to keeping players they want to keep or acquire players they want, and they were once again able to work around their cap problems and keep the fantastic middle six forward. Now Barbashev would sign in Vegas on a 5x5 deal as the Knights would sign him to what a lot of people were expecting him to get on the open market, and that is good but Vegas, not new to needing to sacrifice meaningful players, wound up trading Original Knight Reilly Smith to the Penguins and that freed up the money they needed to sign Barbashev as Smith also makes $5 Million, so the $5 Million Smith was making was given to Barbashev to keep him in the fold long term, so all in all besides losing Smith to keep Barbashev and losing depth options in Blueger and Kessel this offseason, the Knights really didn’t do anything to their offense this offseason as they kept the rest of their top end core like Marchessault, Karlsson, Eichel, Stone etc, so moving Smith to keep Barbashev in my opinion was a smart move by the Knights and even though Smith meant a awful lot to the Golden Knights during their six year history and personally I am surprised he was dealt, I think to keep Barbashev it was a trade that Vegas did need to make. And on top of that Vegas has so many good young bottom six forwards who can replace Kessel or Blueger in the lineup like Brisson, Dorofeyev or Cotter as I think all 3 stand a good chance to make the roster and produce in the bottom six as well as Vegas already has Amadio, Roy and Kolesar so in my opinion even though they didn’t add anything and all they did was resign Barbashev while moving on from Smith, Kessel and Blueger, they are still a extremely balanced and solid forward group that should still be able to role 4 lines and score with the best of them, and I have a feeling Vegas is going to have another solid offensive season just like last year.
Now the Golden Knights I don’t think did much of anything wrong last year as they won the West in the regular season and wound up being Stanley Cup Champs in the playoffs, and the two things I said they did well was have a lethal special teams which I think keeping around Barbashev will help the Knights keep that lethal special teams unit, while I said their ability to role 4 forward line and 3 D pairs was a huge factor in them winning the Cup last year and I feel they will be able to do the same thing this year, if I did have one concern for Vegas it would be the fact that in both of the last two years they had to deal with a series of injuries that was a major reason they missed the playoffs two years ago and a huge thing they had to overcome last year, but if they can stay healthy and not have a Stanley Cup hangover, I think the Knights are well suited to once again have a deep playoff run and possibly challenge to take the Cup for a 2nd year in a row.
Offseason Grade C+: for the Golden Knights I am giving them a C+ Rating as I feel they did above average this offseason but really stood pat for the most of the offseason, as they kept around Pending UFA’s Hill and Barbashev which were huge wins in my opinion, and although they did lose forwards Smith, Kessel and Blueger, as well as net-minders Brossoit and Quick this offseason which leaves them a bit less deep in the offensive and goaltending positions, I think this team is still poised to do great with a couple of good goalies, still having their towering blueline and a solid forward group, and even though they only kept players around and didn’t add anyone, I think they had a good offseason which is why I am putting the teams offseason grade at just over average at a a C+.
Current 2023-24 record prediction: 51-25-6 108 Points, 2nd in Pacific and 4th in West, 3 less points then last year.
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