TREVOR LEWIS 
This season: 5 games, 0 goals, 0 assists, 0 penalty minutes, 9:08 average ice time.
The good: You might recall that Dean Lombardi once thought so much of Lewis that he, not Pavol Demitra or Patrick O’Sullivan, was the focal point of Lombardi’s first major trade as Kings GM. Lewis, a first-round pick that year, is a versatile player with a scoring tough — he had 20 goals for Manchester last season — and is increasingly known as a solid locker-room leader.
The bad: After being sent down by the Kings in October, Lewis suffered a major shoulder injury that limited him to 23 games with the Monarchs this season. In limited time at the NHL level, he has yet to establish a role for himself. He has yet to show enough offensive flair to demand a top-six role, and he has yet to show enough grit to play on the fourth line.
Going forward: Lewis is only 23 years old, so there’s still time here, but at some point soon, he needs to show that he can rise above the level of simply being a good AHL player. With the expected departure of Jeff Halpern, it’s likely that Lewis will get another crack at a roster spot when training camp begins in September.
training camp will probably decide his future with the team…
i gave him a “c”…
not much to grade…
[Reply]
I like how many of Rich’s typos actually have some meaning – in this case he turned “scoring touch” into “scoring tough”, which is exactly how Lewis has found scoring to be at the NHL level.
[Reply]
it’s sad when an injury impedes a players prgress.
[Reply]
Fastest skater in the organization, he will step into a third or fourth line center role next season with the big club. Once he finds his wheels, he’ll be very good imho
[Reply]
Sebastian Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 11:14 am
@Brent A,
Really? He can’t possibly be faster than Fro. I think Fro is close to stealing Bure’s nickname of the “Russian Rocket”.
[Reply]
Quisp Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
@Sebastian,
Fro? As in, lov?
What about Greene?
[Reply]
puck73 Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
@Brent A, Couldnt disagree with you more about him making the team next year. I go to the training camps, and all the exhibition games locally and both him and Cliche are totally invisible on the big club so far. Guys that made an impression so far in my eyes when they played here in the regular season..Bernier, Moller, PARSE, and Elkins. Who knows, maybe this year will be different for Lewis, but he will also have a lot more competition this year as this organization is getting deeper.
[Reply]
Like many young centers I think Lewis should be playing wing until he’s more seasoned. It would be nice to see him playing on a line with a mentoring Handzus but he’ll need to earn that right in camp first.
[Reply]
Tookie Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 11:55 am
@Bickleton wigglesworth III,
Lewis – Zues – Simmonds ????
could be good…TM should try it in preseason at least.
[Reply]
Lewis was so invisible when he was up that I didn’t even notice he’d been sent down until after several games went by (that was before I started reading this blog). If the fans don’t notice you as a forward, the coaches are probably not seeing much, either. Hope he does better next Fall.
[Reply]
“You might recall that Dean Lombardi once thought so much of Lewis that he, not Pavol Demitra or Patrick O’Sullivan, was the focal point of Lombardi’s first major trade as Kings GM.”
Actually Rich, I’m pretty sure you are wrong on that one. Please correct me if I’m mis-remembering this or there is some piece of info I’m missing that shows otherwise, but I clearly recall Lombardi being interviewed on TV on the floor of the draft being asked about the trade. He said it was O’Sullivan that he had knowledge of and wanted and that he was trusting the scouts for what they had liked about Lewis.
Lewis was taken 17th overall in the 2006 draft. This was Lombardi’s first draft as a King (hired April of 2006, just a couple of months before the draft). At the time of the draft he still had not put “his people” in place and went into the draft with the guys who had already been working for the Kings previously. A quick search is showing me Al Murray, Grant Sonier, and other scouting staff were fired in January of 2007.
Again, I clearly recall when the trade was made, on the floor of the draft, Lombardi saying it was O’Sullivan he was knowledgeable on and wanted, and that although he wanted the pick and the young prospect it represents in the deal for Demitra coming his way, he was left trusting the old scouting department and what they were telling him on the selection of Lewis (because he had yet to put his own selection of scouting staff in place).
So, not to knit-pick, but I do believe the basis of your statement calling our attention to Lewis as the focal point of Lombardi’s first big move is off base. It was O’Sullivan according to his account at the time.
[Reply]
Rich Hammond Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
@Captain Material,
Actually, the story goes that at the time the Kings and Wild were discussing the trade, Lombardi was only going to make it if Lewis was still available. To show he was serious, Lombardi wrote down Lewis’ name on a piece of paper and put it in someone’s pocket. When the time came, and Lewis was available, the deal went down. Unless I’m recalling the wrong person/trade, that was the backstory.
[Reply]
Captain Material Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
@Rich Hammond,
Doing a google video search (“2006 nhl draft lombardi”) shows a few clips on youtube from the draft and Lombardi being interviewed, but I can’t view them from work to find the clip I’m recalling, so it’ll have to wait until I get home tonight to check the tape. If you recall any documentation of the story that was posted previously that might help.
I’m not covering the team professionally, so I assume there may be more info that I don’t know, but I’ve been addicted to watching the draft for 15 or so years now and recall at the time it being odd he’d even mention how, basically, Lewis was not “his” pick after appearing to trade for the guy directly.
Not at all a matter of significance, but I’ll try and double check my recollection when given the chance.
Thanks for the response.
[Reply]
Rich Hammond Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
@Captain Material,
Here’s the relevant part of a feature I wrote on Lewis for the Salt Lake Tribune in 2006:
After much deliberation, Lombardi decided that he would make the controversial move, but only if Lewis, a 19-year-old center and the most valuable player of the junior-level United States Hockey League, was still available at No. 17.
“That’s how highly we thought of him,” Lombardi said. “We weren’t going to make that trade for just any player in that [draft] spot. [Lewis] was a guy we had at the top of our list.”
Before the draft, Lombardi told Minnesota GM Doug Risebrough that he had a specific player in mind for the No. 17 spot, and tentatively agreed to the trade, pending that the player – Lewis – was still available.
“[Risebrough] didn’t really like that,” Lombardi said. “I didn’t want to tell him who we wanted to select, and he said, ‘How do I know you’re not just going to back out?’ So I told him I had an idea.”
Lombardi tore off a piece of paper, wrote down Lewis’ name, folded it and told Risebrough to initial it.
“I said, ‘If I call off the trade, I’ll show you the name of the kid who got picked,’ ” Lombardi said.
Captain Material Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
@Rich Hammond,
Here’s the interview I recall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdYZXWsfIYE
Hopefully that link works. At the 9:00 mark is the interview. Lombardi does say when asked about Lewis, “well, I’ve got to rely on my scouts in LA for that one (picking Lewis). To be honest with you, I haven’t been involved with this one like I had in the past, so… But everything they tell me about him…”
So, apologies for thinking you were “wrong” on that, but it seems we’re both right to an extent. Clearly the organization wanted Lewis and made the deal based on him being available at 17, and the pundits are talking about that earlier in the clip, just like you are recalling.
Also, it seems clear from Lombardi’s quote he is relying on the scouts for the call on Lewis and wasn’t so much involved in the specific selection of Lewis, and does say O’Sullivan he likes.
Thanks again.
Marc Nathan Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
@Captain Material, not to nitpick, but it’s “nit” not “knit”pick…
[Reply]
Captain Material Reply:
May 7th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
@Marc Nathan,
Nope. The spelling seems to have changed over time to be acceptable either way, but I’m actually referring to the origin.
Knitting is when you makes cloth out of yarn or thread. With so many interconnections between the tread (or knits) in any item of clothing, not all of them are going to be perfect. When someone over criticizes minutia that isn’t terribly significant (you know, like we’re doing here), that is referred to as “picking knits” or “knit-picking”.
On the other hand, Nitting is a commune in France. Apparently. I can’t say I know how they pick there, so I wouldn’t even know how to begin using an analogy referencing them.
[Reply]
DougS Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 2:35 am
@Captain Material,
Gotta call this one in favor of Mr. Nathan. Check “nitpicking” on Wikipedia. A nit is the head of a louse, and the expression goes back to when it was much more common than now to find lice in people’s hair, clothing, etc. Picking lice out of where you didn’t want them was not unusual, hence “nitpicking.”
Captain Material Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
@DougS,
Do truly think what you are adding to the conversation is wonderful, but with the info we have it’s hard to justify calling a side. I’m seeing it used and spelled both ways all over the place on the web and seeing both definitions converging on the same meaning despite coming from different origins.
But considering I was the one using the term and have correctly defined and referenced what my intended usage was, even though there are multiple spellings/references for the term, in the specific instance I’m going to still say, “no, I did not mean “nitpick”, I meant “knitpick”, and used the term correctly.
You want to reference lice, I prefer knitting. I have no issue conceding we are both (trice) correct on the broad usage, but the specific instance was mine and I retain the right to define my own terms as long as they work in the context of the broad usage also.
Captain Material Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
@DougS,
And I realize I misspelled “thrice”. It’s been an amusing exchange on spelling intent, but not eager to continue on based just on typos.
DougS Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
@Captain Material,
Well, not to knit-pick, but so far you’re spending more words on the subject than anyone else, so don’t pick on me for sidetracking the conversation.
I will say, though, that I’ve lived for 46 years and done a great deal of reading, high-, low- and middle-brow, and I’ve *never* seen the usage “knit-pick.” Never. But I have seen “nitpick” many a time. So yes, I am calling you out on correct usage, or at least on dominant usage.
DougS Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
@Captain Material,
How interesting. Google “nitpick,” and on the first page you find mostly definitional entries, like Wikipedia and dictionary sites.
Google “knitpick” and you find 1 Urban Dictionary listing, but almost everything else on the first page is commercial entries that seem to be using “Knitpick” as a pun.
So yeah, I call bullshit.
Captain Material Reply:
May 8th, 2010 at 7:09 pm
@Kripes dude, at no point in time did I ever have any intention of picking on you. My apologies for being irreverent and silly, which was at worst my intent. My thought in even keeping the thread going on the language issue was mainly to fill time until there is hockey to obsess over.
Great, “nitpick” it is. I mean my usage makes perfect sense in context of the analogy, even if not dominant, but please don’t let that stop you even after I’ve conceded that fact within the comment you are replying to.
I mean, why allow someone to reasonably define their own terms in their own statements? I mean why settle with everyone agreeing in a common understanding of what everyone else is saying when changing the standard to dominance instead of correct or broad acceptable usage allows you to throw a “bullshit” out?
I’ve lived a couple years fewer than you, but I guess since my academic background is not lit or language, my usage is lacking. My failing Doug; thanks for the pleasant interaction and the education. Again, please accept my apologies for being so silly.
Lewis was half of the Demetria trade a few drafts back. If POS didn’t turn into Justin Williams the trade would be a total bust.
To be fair, not sure Lewis got enough of a look to judge where he is developmentally.
[Reply]
I don’t remember this guy…
[Reply]
Lewis sucks can’t be any better or worse then Purcell. I understand he is young and only time will tell, but wow there is NOTHING good with his game with the Kings. Maybe he is good in the AHL, so was Purcell. If DL re-signs him better be cheap Lewis is a waste of a #1 pick. Not like the Kings have ever done that one before.
[Reply]
Bust!
[Reply]