r/losangeleskings • u/hockeywithglasses • 10d ago

Ken Holland on Kings Insider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiMEdUBZM_k
16 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

15

u/draven_im 10d ago

Mentioning “personnel changes to the d-corp” caught my attention

12

u/72FJ 10d ago

We know Ceci isnt going anywhere , Holland loves him and gave him a M-NTC. No team is going to trade for him without a significant add on. Dumo has the same and Holland signed him. Edmunson has the same and noone is taking that contract. Doughty isn't going anywhere so that leaves Anderson and Clarke, the two youngest guys on the back end. They should be playing together for the next 4-4 years but with Holland in charge, it's scary to think he would deal either one of them

9

u/salparadisewasright 10d ago

Tough pill to swallow but with Kopitar off the books and the cap going up, Holland needs to swallow his losses and just buy out Ceci. It was a dumb contract at the time and it looks even worse given his truly abysmal performance this past year.

6

u/poptorched 10d ago

He might trade him to a team that wants a vet dman as he’s not god awful, but needs to be playing with younger dmen to look good (same for Edmundson and Dumoulin). They can be valuable on the bottom pair to stabilize a younger defenseman to focus on shutdown defense while his partner can do all the puck moving. However, if you pair Ceci with another shutdown, stay at home, immobile dman, all of his flaws are on display and it’s a hard watch. We can’t keep Ceci, Edmundson and Dumoulin if we’re keeping Doughty since he’s that same type of player now. 2 of them need to move on 🤷‍♀️

1

u/72FJ 9d ago

Doubtful that he trades him, he actually thinks he a good defenseman. The fact that he signed Ceci and Dumo with Edmunson already on the roster was a serious what the **** moment and just more reinforcement that he still hasn't learned to not sign bad players in free agency. It will take a miracle for him to trade either of those guys and if he does, it's going to cost assets to move them sadly

3

u/poptorched 9d ago

He did say he would speak to the scouting department to get their insight on what moves he should look to make this offseason. If they’re good at their job, they’ll realize we can’t have 4 bottom pair defensemen on the team. They’ll narrow it down to 3 that are moveable (they’re not moving Doughty and realistically he’s better than the others, so that only leaves 3) and try to pry anything they can from other teams that are desperate for vet dmen. Whether they get an asset back or just the roster spot + cap space, the move will be valuable. Gotta see what the offseason holds bc if worst case scenario, we’ll get a top 5 pick, which will probably be a center, and new management so…win win?

2

u/72FJ 9d ago

I don't know that I would buy into what he's saying about that. If those same scouts went along with him on signing Ceci and Dumo, are they going to go against him to move those guys? And on the flip side, if they objected to those signings in the first place, will he realistically listen to them on getting rid of them?

And if they did agree with him on signing both of them, can we really trust their judgement on players? I could see signing Dumo but Ceci was just a flat out horrible signing. No one was really out there offering him that much term and money. Two years too long and $2m too much. They might get a team to bite on Dumo or Edmunson without it hurting too bad but no team is going to take Ceci without the team really paying to get rid of his deal.

1

u/poptorched 9d ago

Apparently Ceci was a decently hot commodity, considering the player he is, after Rasmus Anderson pretty much vetoed every trade that came through that wasn’t from Vegas. Also, I don’t think we’d have Ceci rn if we got Anderson bc the right side would be taken care of, so I think Ceci was a panic signing (as awful as that sounds 😭). So maybe since he wasn’t the original RHD target and he doesn’t look like he fits with this team (and Holland has spoken to the underperforming players about underperforming), he may be seen as a more expendable player in a future consideration type of trade to a team who needs to reach the cap floor and they have a young or incomplete d core. 3rd pair dmen are going to be making this money for this term in FA this year so I’m hoping the contract won’t be too bad to stomach.

1

u/72FJ 9d ago

I wouldn't say he was a decently hot commodity and he's a completely different style of player than Anderson. No one expected him to get four years AND $4.5M with a M-NTC because at his best he's an average 3rd pairing guy who gets destroyed by opposing teams. And that's why he's considered the worst signing of the 25-26 FA class.

No way was he a panic signing. Holland had signed him before to a four year deal and he was signed on July 1st. For some unknown reason, he loves Ceci and made sure to sign him to that deal because no one else was offering anything close. His love for Ceci is as inexplicable as his love for Tyler Wright who he keeps hiring despite 15+ years of being horribad at his job. He's too loyal to people he needs to jettison but won't because he'd have to admit he made a mistake. If I had to take a guess, it will be Edmunson gone before anyone because he wasn't a Holland acquisition.

1

u/poptorched 9d ago

Holland came in taking a big game about making a “big splash” and his two big splashes went “leave me alone, I’m going to Vegas”. Then, Gavrikov didn’t want to sign here no matter how much Holland tried to convince him. So he was losing 2 dmen that he thought would be able to heavily support this dcore and he needed to do something as he was going to have 2 defensive holes (I also think Spence was originally part of the Andersson package and when he said he wanted to leave, Holland already saw him as expendable and wanted to trade him for actual assets, but nobody bit so he just settled with picks. Still stupid but yk).

So this is why I think the Dumoulin and Ceci signings were panic moves. Why would he need to sign them if he had Gavi and Andersson like he imagined he would? He didn’t have a plan b when those signings fell through, so he just went with what was easiest to do which was outbid the league to sign veterans who could just eat minutes and make the team “hard to play against” 🙄. He went with Ceci bc he was familiar with him and believed he was good, but he wouldn’t have signed him if we got Andersson bc there wouldn’t be any room for him. I’m just hoping that someone recognizes that the 3 bottom pair dmen don’t fit with this team and move at least 2 of them. I don’t think this team will be good with just those 2 moves, but it’s a necessary change imo.

Also, Dumoulin and Ceci are overpaid like $1.5M and their current terms are where they should’ve been last year. So, if we retained some and traded them or just accepted nothing in return from trading them, then I think a move is possible.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/72FJ 10d ago

He won't though sadly. This is the second four year deal he signed him too for some unknown reason and that's after how bad he was in Edmonton Dallas and San Jose

-1

u/draven_im 10d ago

If Holland were serious about wanting to win a Cup, he’d find a way to terminate the contract. Not buy it out. But that’s just me having winning expectations from my GM. Hope I’m not disappointed

2

u/salparadisewasright 9d ago

I mean, to terminate a contract, you need cause beyond just poor play. What cause do you have to terminate it?

-1

u/draven_im 9d ago

I guess I should have specified, he would prove his commitment to winning by mutually terminating the contract. Look, it’s shitty, and it sucks, but when a team doesn’t want a player on its roster they’ll do what they need to do to make a player waive any clauses they have. My point was that KH is so set that he “didn’t get anything wrong” while every visual and statistic is screaming that he should make a change here if he were serious about winning, and he won’t. So he’s not.

2

u/salparadisewasright 9d ago

Ceci has zero incentive to agree to that and leave more than 12 million dollars on the table, so this whole hypothetical is a ridiculous nonstarter.

0

u/draven_im 9d ago

I mean, I had you talking for a few posts, so you’re welcome?!

11

u/Optimal_Rise_627 10d ago

Dean Lombardi: Our goal is to win the cup.

Ken Holland: Our goal is to make the playoffs.

That's the Kings' problem in a nutshell.

22

u/hockeywithglasses 10d ago

I’ve enjoyed some of Ken’s cooking but I hope DJ Smith being on a shortlist is just a courtesy. The guy has energy sure but the coach bump has a short shelf life and hiring him back is basically saying “win now” is off the table.

7

u/poptorched 10d ago

Everything I’ve heard from insiders has been that they really do want to move away from DJ bc he just wasn’t impressive enough during his HC stint to convince management he should get more than a courtesy interview. I hope that’s still true bc I think there’s some really good candidates out there

1

u/Q50Fan 10d ago

You've heard from insiders? Like whom?

3

u/poptorched 10d ago

Pagnotta and Friedman mainly. No one else talks about the kings besides the guys who always cover the entire league so just them lol

1

u/Ilistenedtomyfriends 10d ago

Friedman said that DJ sticking around is not out of the question

2

u/poptorched 10d ago

Yeah I saw that today, but for the past couple of weeks it’s been the opposite. Idk what to expect and tbh, I don’t want anyone in charge to stick around so if hiring Smith gets Holland canned and hiring Holland gets Luc canned, then so be it. I’m ready for change and along for the ride ig lol

13

u/WearFamiliar1212 10d ago

I think DJ did OK, but it's time to break the McLellan chain.

5

u/SkateHuntFourtyTwo 10d ago

Jay Woodcroft, welcome to the Kings.

20

u/makesmashgreatagain 10d ago

It's chalked boys. Every answer is about little things. We're a little off, we need to be a little better. We were 30th in defenseman points, a while back we were 17th, we need to get back to the middle of the pack. We have to continue to get into the playoffs. We stuck with Colorado for the first 3.5 games (swept btw).

I realize LAKI is owned by the Kings. But grow some journalistic balls. Dont let your GM categorize the league as a league where only 6 teams win a playoff round. We didn't fail to win a round just this year. He's not trying to get us to excel, he's trying to get us into the playoffs and luck that we might win. Oh we played well against the President's Trophy winners, but lost? Mother fucker, we beat the President's Trophy winners in 2012 4-1, beat a 109 point blues (2 less points that the Canucks), dogwalked our rivals and dogwalked the Devils.

You guys remember when we lost to the dbacks and Friedman said the playoffs were random? He was right, got some shit for it, and still has 3 rings. Tf has Ken Holland or anyone done for the Kings to earn the right to try to pass it off as unlucky without saying the words?

edit: brother's he relinquished agency in some of the biggest trades hes made saying you wait for panarin to call you. that aint humble, its just stupid

5

u/Existing-Stranger632 10d ago

I’m pissed if it’s anyone not named Bruce Cassidy. Maybe Craig Berube

5

u/Time-Ad9436 10d ago

Why do the Kings insist that people want boring, bland video content? What an uninteresting piece of propaganda. It feels more and more like the Kings have a true distaste for their fan base.

2

u/ZiggyPalffyLA 10d ago

Why does his face always look like that

1

u/No_Crab_4363 9d ago

They could’ve fucking had Tortorella. There was so much talent available midseason

1

u/Successful-Tomato721 6d ago

We went from bad to worse when Luc hired Holland. It's going to be a very long time until this team is consistently competitive.

For a guy that constantly touts his experience and successes, he fails a lot. He had complete control and $25m in cap space and took a team that was tied for second most regulation wins (43, tied with WAS and WIN) and turned it into team that tied for second to last with 22 RW. Every move him made was either lateral or a downgrade. I'm not counting Panarin because he picked LA, Holland didn't do anything shrewd to get him.

1

u/MosesDoughty 49m ago

Luc didn't even let Ken hire more than 1 person with him. It's always Luc's show, but he's all politics and knows how to blame everyone else

1

u/the_last_third 10d ago

While a lot of this was coach focused, I don't think the best coach in the NHL is going to do much better with this roster. It's soooo average. Maybe even below average.

55 is the 1C??? ooof.

2

u/poptorched 10d ago

Gotta be bad to draft high 🤷‍♀️

0

u/AutoModerator 10d ago

Make sure to join the /r/LosAngelesKings discord as well for live game chat and more!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.