Defense has been a topic of discussion early in the Los Angeles Kings’ season due to the absence of veteran stay-at-home types in Willie Mitchell and Matt Greene and a week-to-week injury to Alec Martinez, who had seen his minutes increase from a season ago. Though Slava Voynov’s emergence as among the more exciting young defensemen in the Western Conference has been a positive and much-needed development, there have been those perplexed by Drew Doughty, who is without a goal and has registered a minus-10 entering this weekend’s action.
6-foot-4 defenseman Andrew Campbell, who was recalled for the second time this month after spending four and a half seasons with AHL-Manchester, was the first topic of blue line discussion with Los Angeles Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi.
“The one thing about it, he’s paid his dues in the system,” Lombardi said of Campbell. “I think, obviously, when you lose Greene and Mitchell – because they’re guys with size and are hard to play against – he does bring that element. A lot of times when you bring up defensemen, until you put them under fire, you really don’t know for sure. All I can say is he’s paid his dues in the minors. He’s ready for his opportunity. His game will have to be: be physical, be strong below the dots, make the simple play to your partner – the first pass – and basically play that sound defensive game that Scuderi and Mitchell play. But, again, you’re talking about a kid that this is his first go at this level. But that’s what his game would have to translate into if he’s going to have success.”
Los Angeles recently traded for 24-year old defenseman Keaton Ellerby, who is looking to make the transition from being a talented but developing defenseman into a consistent, full-time player on the back end at the NHL level. Prior to joining the Kings, he had appeared in 125 NHL games over parts of four seasons with the Florida Panthers.
“There’s a lot that goes into that,” Lombardi said over the process of identifying, scouting and negotiating for a defenseman that would be an appropriate fit for the team. “We had been talking, actually for quite a while. Obviously, I had been in the marketplace looking for a defenseman for three, four weeks now, and essentially, there was nothing there in terms of a proven player, so to speak. A top-four defenseman – they’re more rare than left-handed pitching. So the next step for us was to find a player that we thought had the upside to maybe fit into that role someday, and also gave us that dimension.”
There were aspects of Ellerby’s game that appeared to fit within the current needs of the team as well as developable aspects that could allow him to grow alongside a young core.
“He’s big. He can be physical. He can skate, and he’s a classic case, I think, of a young player, as a 10th pick overall that had too much too soon,” Lombardi said of Ellerby. “I don’t like to use the [term] ‘fresh start,’ per se, but I think it’s an opportunity for him to regroup and get a foundation in place. I know a lot of these kids that are top picks, they bypass the foundation. His game right now has to be solid in his own end, be physical. He was really good in St. Louis. We saw flashes of it below the goal line in here. Have a good stick, get your picks, rub guys out, make good reads, and then like in St. Louis, too, where he kept that gap. Don’t back off too quickly. He can do all those things, given his ability. But he has to get in again and need a foundation. Then, go to the next level and worry about all the things that were probably, you know, when you’re the 10th pick overall, that you’re supposed to be a rock star right away. So I think it’s a good bet. He’s at that age where I think he’s learned from his mistakes. I knew the kid his draft year – we had interviewed him – I can already tell he’s way more mature. So this made a lot of sense for us, to hope we find a young defenseman that can grow with us, and considering that the only thing in the marketplace was essentially “6” guys – you knew that they were sixth defensemen, and that’s it.”
Acquiring top-four defensemen in this year’s trade market is a lesson in futility. Including yesterday’s Dustin Tokarski-for-Cedric Desjardins goaltender swap between Tampa Bay and Montreal, 19 trades have been made since the implementation of the new collective bargaining agreement. Of those 19 trades, only two included defensemen who had logged 100 NHL games at the time of their exchanges – Edmonton’s acquisition of Mark Fistric from Dallas for a third round draft pick on January 14, and Los Angeles’ acquisition of Ellerby from Florida for a fifth round draft pick on February 8.
“I mean, you see what happens like when a Wade Redden gets out there, and there are like 10 teams after him. What is he, 40 years old, and a guy who was playing in the minors for three years, and gets out there – that alone tells you, when you’ve got 10 teams after you, like, wow. Sometimes this goes in cycles. I said this when I first took the job – that’s why you sit and you draft a lot of defensemen. And it’s hard position to play. You just try and get as many good ones as you can, and hopefully some of them pan out…Historically, it has always been an issue, but I think it’s even more pronounced now.”
While some eyebrows have been raised over Drew Doughty’s start to the season – he has four assists and a minus-10 rating in 11 games – there’s still more to his game and evolution as a defenseman than the numbers depicted on the scoresheet.
“What I’m so happy with Drew is that he showed up in shape,” Lombardi said. “When I talk about the growth of these kids, that alone – because Drew two years ago, given those months off, we all saw what he was his first two years pro. That’s the first thing I say. He’s definitely grown up. Secondly, look at the minutes he’s playing. He’s still not where he needs to be physically to deal with those minutes. That’ll come. In junior hockey, he played 40 minutes [a night]. Eventually you want him to get there, but he’s playing an awful lot of minutes now, and quite frankly…he wouldn’t be playing those minutes if we were healthy. I think with Drew, the thing I’ve noticed, given that he’s started to take care of himself off the ice – again, Ray Bourque, they all went through it – when Drew struggles, it’s because he’s trying too hard. That’s something, like I’ve always said, I’d rather tame a tiger than paint stripes on a kitty cat. I’ll live with that. He’ll figure it out. Like, his subtleties, too, despite even, OK, is he putting up the numbers? No. But I’m not really judging him on that right now. Does he have to get better getting pucks through? Yes…You see his shots on goal should be a lot higher. OK, that’s something where I think at times he did better his first couple years, but now people are packing it in more. They know who he is, and he’s going to have to get better at it. In terms of his vision and seeing the iceyou still can’t teach that, and he makes a lot of that look easy.”
“A lot of the subtleties that guys like him have – Pronger had it. MacInnis had it – that’s still there. Does he need to get better? Absolutely.”
Lombardi makes so much sense to me
[Reply]
Dean Lombardi…..making just a “little” more sense then @Phil Sykes. lol
[Reply]
DesertKing Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 9:36 am
@puck73,
uh oh…… shhhhhhhhh, its sleeeeeeeeeeeeping……….
[Reply]
Michael J. Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:20 am
@puck73,
L…………………………………O……………………………L……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………;…………………………………………)
[Reply]
Nykingfan Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 11:15 am
@puck73,
Just a little???? Lol
[Reply]
Gustavo Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 2:50 pm
@puck73,
A little????
[Reply]
Okay okay… That’s all great, there are no available D men in the league (at a reasonable price). We have a limping D. Our team has lost 3 of our D and someone needs to figure it out quickly. If we lost tonight’s game we will be “dead last” in the NHL – Although we do have only a few GP.
IMO, It’s also not all about our D. We are giving up very few chances and have one of the least amount of allowed shots on goal. Comparing Quick to last year, he is not 100%. Is it the guy obviously needed time to recover from surgery? I don’t know…
Management talks about the system and the players are/should be interchangeable…. Well, IMO, the players have a large part of that system actually working. Teams we are playing are keeping us to the outside. Why is that we cannot enter the zone? Lack of skill? I think not! Carter, Kopitar, Gagne, Penner, & Richards… Come on!(reason we won the cup last year)
Is it a “Stanley Cup Hangover”?… Management and coaching better figure it out soon. We are almost 1/4 done the season.
Someone please fill up my kool-aid! It’s so disappointing seeing what you know your team is capable of and drawing very short of any special…
[Reply]
PRMan Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 9:56 am
@KingsGuy, All of this means that he REALLY didn’t think that Hickey would ever be more than a #6.
[Reply]
KC23 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:59 am
@KingsGuy, All we know about what this team is capable of has to do with Mitchell, Greene and Martinez in the line up. Without those defensemen we have no idea what this team is capable of, but we’re about to find out.
[Reply]
KingsGuy Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 11:24 am
@KC23, Very true…
[Reply]
mrbrett7 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:37 pm
@KingsGuy, You can lose a game 4-3 and give up 4 total shots. The amount of shots given up means nothing…the quality of those scoring chances mean EVERYTHING.
[Reply]
jet Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 3:41 pm
@mrbrett7, Ding ding ding, we have a winner. This is the biggest problem, giving up open looks in the slot. Secondary to this is the timing. We are giving up looks in the 3rd, when are vet dmen use to shut it down.
[Reply]
“Id rather tame a Tiger than paint stripes on a Kitty cat” Lol…
personaly id take the Kitty cat…there much cuter and way less expensive to feed. Not to mention I value my personal safety.
[Reply]
Bonvivant1 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 9:46 am
@BrokeKingsFan, you should see what our tame little kitty cat did to our silk pillows.
[Reply]
BrokeKingsFan Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:13 am
@Bonvivant1, Lol…I can imagine
[Reply]
Dean Lombardi: he took us to the promised land, I can never argue with his take on things…
[Reply]
DesertKing Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 9:40 am
@Goring 19,
Except our PP which still sucks.
[Reply]
Goring 19 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 9:49 am
@DesertKing, there’s one in every crowd
[Reply]
DesertKing Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 9:57 am
@Goring 19,
I think what stands out the most about Lombardi’s interview and the way this season has transpired for the Kings so far is that the Kings are not putting it together consistently. Irrespective of injuries, because every team is dealing with “significant” injuries to their lineup, the Kings are not playing complete games. I’m not going to single out any players. This is a team game. We know what this team is capable of and in this case the sum of the parts is not greater than the whole. It was our system that led us to a championship.
I have to give props to Chicago. They are a team that has figured it out. They will not sustain this unbelievable winning percentage but they have put themselves into good position to with stand some hiccups. The Kings, once again, are going to have to battle just to get into the playoffs more so than any other team because of what is at stake. A chance to defend a title.
[Reply]
Duncanz Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:38 am
@Bonvivant1, As you subliminally make out, our Stanley Cup winners lost a key komponent to the Hawks in the summer, but the Kings will overcome the short term payne and prosper once more!
[Reply]
Real 7 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:43 am
@Dollars2Duncanz, let’s not Kompound our woes…means we’ll have to score on the pp…or else
[Reply]
Duncanz Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:24 am
@Brazilian Real, Touche ~
Bonvivant1 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 11:29 am
@Duncanz, I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification; clearly giving Kompon the benefit of the doughty.
[Reply]
Duncanz Reply:
February 16th, 2013 at 12:26 am
@Bonvivant1, Threeche ~
jet Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 3:49 pm
@Bonvivant1, are you really comparing Montador to big willie? 5 of our 7 defencemen have less than 150 games played. There is no way you can play consistentently with this amount of experience on the back end. Our potential is to finish between 15th – 20th in the league unless big willie comes back this month.
[Reply]
The number of defensemen involved in trades this season makes DL’s trade for Ellerby look even better!
And I liked it from the get go!
[Reply]
Duncanz Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:24 am
@Munchrat, And when you consider that Fistric (due to his lumbering skating) has already missed a hip check, put himself through the boards and wound up on IR, and Redden has already cemented a place in the St Louis Blue’s press box, after that there’s Lovejoy the Ducks picked up, who’s much smaller, not any more mobile and 4 years older than Ellerby.
Keaton’s got a ways to go but he’s a more than worthwhile pickup, for our situation right now and for the future.
All in all, DL still looks as peerless as ever to me!
[Reply]
KC23 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 11:03 am
@Duncanz, Well said. Getting defensemen is not like going to the store and picking out fruit. DL did amazingly well all things considered. I think Keaton looks pretty good.
[Reply]
Something must be up with Deano..I was expecting this article to be twice as long. ; )
GO KINGS!
[Reply]
xeropoint Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:15 am
@KOHO, This. Shortest DL interview ever? Me thinks so.
[Reply]
Shakes Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:17 am
@KOHO, the new CBA limits Deano to a 7,000 word per interview Word Cap.
[Reply]
jet Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 3:51 pm
@KOHO, Rosen’s taperecorder lost 17 minutes ala the Nixon tapes
[Reply]
Even with guys out our D has been good. Not like we are dead last in goals against. We are dead last in goals for so why is this not discussed? I’d rather go get another scoring winger than bring in another vet D man. I know they are hard to come by but still all this talk about D and no talk about the lack of scoring.
[Reply]
Michael J. Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:37 am
@Pesus,
Actually if we look it by goals per game the Kings are currently ahead of:
Columbus
Colorado
Edmonton
Minnesota
Nashville
And a four goal night tonight will just about equal them with Dallas and Phoenix. Not terrible for a “defense first” team that has played well below their capabilities thus far.
[Reply]
Bonvivant1 Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 11:30 am
@Michael J., Only one of those teams is in playoff contention. There is hope.
[Reply]
BrokeKingsFan Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:40 am
@Pesus,
“We are dead last in goals for so why is this not discussed?”
We are always dead last in goals for…nothing new there so why discuss it? Ther isnt a thing anyone can say about that that hasnt already been said or addressed. That horse has taken many a beating already
[Reply]
Gotta love DL. He tells it like it is. Some will bitch and moan about his “inability” to pick up a quality defenseman. he reminds us that other teams want to win too, so they won’t give him their most precious comodities.
[Reply]
Duncanz Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 10:32 am
@Michael J.,
[Reply]
jet Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 3:54 pm
@Michael J., The real problem is that the trade deadline is only 3 weeks before teh end of the season. Which Gm is going to tell thier fans to give up before then?
[Reply]
I just wish he had picked the higher ranked ‘safer’, but lower upside potential d-man every once in a while instead of reaching for the riskier homerun pick every time.
Teubert over Myers in 2008 comes to mind, but the biggest reach to me was Hickey over Alzner and (ironically) Ellerby in 2007.
I hope Forbort turns into a top 4 d-man. Pysyk was a little higher rated, but both were in the top 10 North American skaters unlike Teubert & Hickey who weren’t (Hickey was something like 35th among N. American skaters and 5th among N. American D-men alone)
I love DLs ability to turn a good trade though.
[Reply]
Mike in Oregon Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:05 pm
@Weasel, Yeah, Alzner would fit our exact needs now, and would have been seasoned in our system. I don’t fault DL though. He is a God in my book.
[Reply]
NOW IMPRESSED Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 12:15 pm
@Weasel, Totally agree.
About Doughty…I kind of would rather have the fat Drew Doughty who scored 16 goals with 43 assists and was a plus 20 than the in shape Drew Doughty we have now. Even the number of hits has gone down each year. If you were to separate his power play stats from his 5 on 5 stats you can see where the problem is, power play. In his last 3 years he has had 7,6,and 7 goals and 21,19, and 16 assists while 5 on 5. Pretty consistant. His power play stats are 9, 5, and 3 goals with 22, 10, and 10 assists.
[Reply]
Gustavo Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 2:59 pm
@NOW IMPRESSED,
Yeah, right…old fat doughty playing 30 minutes per game would have died of a heart attack on the ice after letting in a dozen or more goals squeak by.
[Reply]
NOW IMPRESSED Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 3:26 pm
@Gustavo, Maybe that’s the problem, he should be playing 22-25 minutes per game and all his stats would get better.
mash-ola Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 2:54 pm
@Weasel, I agree with you. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but really, Karl Alzner was regarded as a safe, conservative pick, he’s nothing spectacular as far an NHL defensemen are concerned. Ellerby may actually have more untapped potential. I am disappointed that the Kings didn’t draft Myers as well instead of Teubert, but again, unless you are psychic, no one ever really knows what draft picks will pan out other than the top 1-3 picks in any draft.
Forbert has come along slowly, and even in his draft year, he was projected as a project with a lot of raw talent and potential. If anything, he’s huge and he’s mobile. Supposedly he is coming along nicely. But another pick that year who went later, Justin Faulk in Carolina, is one I wish the Kings would have tapped into. He’s a very dynamic skater, kind of in the Justin Schultz mode.
Still, I’m still a Kings fan and I think they’ll be okay…
GO KINGS GO!
[Reply]
jet Reply:
February 15th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
@Weasel, While you are correct, we should also note that the year DL picked hickey, that no other team has more NHL players from that draft than the Kings. It was obvious that DL was putting a high value on attitude in his early drafts.
Also, the draft with Tuebert, DL picked Voynov with the 32nd pick when most teams would not select him until the 5th round. In this, the best defeneceman draft in history we got Drew, Voynov, and Campbell. Not to bad overall. Also, Meyers is a -9 this season. Karlsson would have been the best choice in that slot. Oh wait, he’ll never walk right again.
[Reply]