LOS ANGELES – Coming in at the fifth spot in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, the Los Angeles Kings finally have something to cheer.
Yeah, that’s about it.
The 2018-19 NHL game schedule was hardly worthy of comment. But we’ll try.
Drew Doughty played in all 82 games for the Kings and had the most to opine on the season. He openly challenged his teammates in December about their lack of emotion. In fact, there was abject apathy across the roster, the coaching staff, fans, and the guys hawking wares outside Staples Center.
To say the Kings stunk up the joint would suggest they had enough interest to excrete a stink.
The club went 31-42-9 for 71 points.
Wait, the Kings won 31 games?
They were eight points back of the hapless Edmonton Oilers for 15th in the Western Conference. Only the Ottawa Senators had fewer points, 64, for the season.
Anze Kopitar missed one game this season and was the leading scorer with 22 goals and 60 points. He was a -20.
Doughty was 8-27-45 and a -34.
Ilya Kovalchuk was 16-18-34 with -26.
The picture comes into focus with numbers like that.
Wait, the Kings won 31 games?
They surrendered 259 goals and scored 199; you start to see where the math, even the new math, does not add up. The -61 goal differential was the worst in the NHL.
Los Angeles needs help across the roster. They were pushed around and bullied for much of the season and were unable to put up any kind of positive stretch on which to build. That they won 31 games is a miracle in itself.
And things are not looking pretty moving forward. The suspicion is that the Kings are two seasons away from being competitive again. Not winners, competitive.
That means this draft needs to be successful, quickly. The Kings have 10 picks this season and the first is at the fifth spot.
With $11 million in projected cap space for the coming season, the Kings may be able to to get the rebuild moving a little more quickly to appease fans and the front office.
But it can start with the draft.
The top four spots were almost written in prior to January 2019. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t quality players left. The Kings’ offense was dreadful and their defense was sluggish.
Los Angeles never adapted to the changing landscape over the last 4 years and their defense suffered at the hands of faster, stronger and more talented forwards across the league.
You can forgive LA for looking beyond the wealth of centers in this draft and focus on what got them to two Stanley Cups, defense.
At 6′ 193 pounds, Bowen Byram is a big defenseman and the classified at the top of the Entry Draft class for blueliners.
Byram will be 18 in the middle of June, ahead of the 21 June NHL Draft.
He iced for the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League and posted 26 goals and 71 points in 67 games. He was third in the WHL for scoring among defensemen.
On the bigger stage, the post season, Byram picked up 26 points in 22 games; the Giants lost in Game 7 of the final to the Prince Albert Raiders.
Byram has the talent and size to find a place in LA quickly. The scoring touch is an added benefit.
Los Angeles needs offense and defense and two-way defender on the order of Duncan Keith would be welcome. And with the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche going for offensive help in the PHN Mock Draft, LA will take the home town blueliner.
With the fifth pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft, the Los Angeles Kings select, from the Vancouver Giants of the WHL, defenseman Bowen Byram.”
The Detroit Red Wings are on the clock.
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