2024-25 Season Thread

[PuckinUgly57]

So Byfield?

I think like half his points this season have been gimmes or meaningless, but he's got 44 now so we will continue to hear how important he's been.

Like I said defensively he's been fine, it's the offense and he isn't a consistent performer. The points in bunches, bunches of secondaries, 10+ game goalless streaks, etc.

Players need to be lucky and good, he sure teeters on the luck part way more than the good part.

 

[Kings4OT]

I think like half his points this season have been gimmes or meaningless, but he's got 44 now so we will continue to hear how important he's been.

Like I said defensively he's been fine, it's the offense and he isn't a consistent performer. The points in bunches, bunches of secondaries, 10+ game goalless streaks, etc.

Players need to be lucky and good, he sure teeters on the luck part way more than the good part.

100% at least half his points have been Modry assists (may as well be from Kuemper types) and quite a few of his G's where from the pass into a basically open net (see last night). Im glad hes getting the points but if hes not with Fiala I doubt he has more than 20pts.

 

[Fox4Kings]

You guys and your Byfield hate.. lol. He is coming along nicely now and if you can't see he is one of, if not the best, Kings forwards, I dunno what the guy needs to do to impress you. Outside of Kempe, who is better than Byfield? That's about the only argument I would accept. Love Kopi, my all time favorite King, but he has lost a step and isn't as dominant on either end of the ice as he used to be. Fiala may be more offensively talented, but is not a complete player. Byfield has all of the tools and is still working to put it all together. He is the future of the franchise. Kid is still 22. I know you want to throw in the Stutzle comparisons but they are just different players. Everyone matures at a different rate. When Byfield is 25, he may end up being one of the elite players in the game. Book it!

 

[Kings4OT]

You guys and your Byfield hate.. lol. He is coming along nicely now and if you can't see he is one of, if not the best, Kings forwards, I dunno what the guy needs to do to impress you. Outside of Kempe, who is better than Byfield? That's about the only argument I would accept. Love Kopi, my all time favorite King, but he has lost a step and isn't as dominant on either end of the ice as he used to be. Fiala may be more offensively talented, but is not a complete player. Byfield has all of the tools and is still working to put it all together. He is the future of the franchise. Kid is still 22. I know you want to throw in the Stutzle comparisons but they are just different players. Everyone matures at a different rate. When Byfield is 25, he may end up being one of the elite players in the game. Book it!

As a Kings fan I hope you and 90% of the Buster pumpers are correct. As a realist and fan of hockey I obviously disagree. The majority of his production comes from the skill of others and he could be replaced with just about anyone with those same results.

Lets just say you are 100% correct and Buster becomes the best player in the world or even ever in the history of the NHL when he is 25, LA gets 1 year of a great player? If he goes elsewhere at 26 what good does developing him for 8 years do?

Hope all of you are correct, I have zero problem admitting when im wrong....nobody likes to say im right ever.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

You guys and your Byfield hate.. lol.

It's not hate man, it's more disappointment. At least to me. The last 2OA completely changed the franchise the moment he never went to the minors and made the NHL roster 3 months after he was drafted. Those are impact players, they should be anyway, when you're drafting that high. You don't suffer through an abysmal season to take a project on who doesn't align with your contention window.

He is coming along nicely now and if you can't see he is one of, if not the best, Kings forwards, I dunno what the guy needs to do to impress you. Outside of Kempe, who is better than Byfield? That's about the only argument I would accept.

That's more reflective of the franchise and who they've drafted and failed to develop. Buster may be the only "successful" one to date, but that isn't saying much considering they once had the #1 ranked pipeline for three straight years yet 95% of those draftees didn't pan out. It's bad when a 22OA get waived and is a depth defender somewhere else. It's bad when your 5OA is just now seeing his first full NHL season 6 years later and appears to be nothing more than Trevor Lewis Lite. It's bad when you take a guy at 32OA - damn near a first round pick - and he is waived, is scratched for 7 games straight and can't break a roster for a struggling team who is most likely going to miss the POs. I'm sure you see my point here - the franchise makes bad picks and/or can't develop them.

As for who else is better than Buster, I think Kempe hands down and even though you referenced it below, Fiala. They actually make shit happen. Buster doesn't dictate anything in a game, he finishes when other players have done a ton of the work. Solid back checker but that's what the Kings expect correct? There's nothing special about that - he is doing what every other Kings player is expected to do.

No cookie, sorry. You don't get props for coming back to help out in your own zone, instead Buster gets 5 minute rhetorical segments frequently showing his angles, how he came back down the middle (duh - you're a center. You did your job :::clap clap clap::, etc. It's totally annoying because he isn't doing anything anyone else on the team isn't already doing. But I don't see 5 minute breakdowns on Jeannot or Lewis or even Dunno for example.

I mentioned a few weeks ago in a GDT, just watch - somehow Buster will get featured for a back check where the Kings got the puck, went down the other end and scored. Buster did not figure into that play at all and his back check occurred a solid 10 seconds before the Kings scored. He literally had nothing to do with that offensive play yet Fox dragged him into it. He even stated "I know it didn't DIRECTLY lead to this goal but watch Buster on this back check..." I rolled my eyes man.

I'm just sick of this guy being featured all the time when really he doesn't need to be. He has not dominated, he does just enough to tease and then disappears. It has been brought up multiple times over multiple seasons by Teh Blog, Kings broadcast team and other market writers. His points don't mean much unfortunately; he had 23 points in 49 games and then 21 in the next 20 games but again, take a close look at them and how he got them.

Love Kopi, my all time favorite King, but he has lost a step and isn't as dominant on either end of the ice as he used to be. Fiala may be more offensively talented, but is not a complete player.

He's been a heck of a lot better this season than in seasons past. He will never be a 200' player, that's not who he is. If Blake traded for him - and an over payment too as we all know - to be a 200' player he's more in outer space than we all believe. But if the draftees actually panned out, Blake doesn't need to make that type of trade.

Byfield has all of the tools and is still working to put it all together. He is the future of the franchise. Kid is still 22.

So are a lot of players who have performed better than he has. Lucas Raymond. Wyatt Johnston. Jake Sanderson, taken 5OA in that same draft, is a superstar. He is a defender you build a franchise around and to boot he has 14 less career points than Buster does. I've always heard the excuse "defensemen take longer to develop", clearly not true. Doughty was another one, when the talent is there, it's there.

TA actually had a great article about him this week outlining how he has become a star and will be a Norris guy soon. Meanwhile we're waiting for this guy to crack 60 points for the first time ever aabout to enter his sixth profesional season and third as a mainstay in the T6 or T3.

I know you want to throw in the Stutzle comparisons but they are just different players.

They sure are and I would take Stuetzle over him any day of the week. Again, my choices were Raymond or Sanderson so Stuetzle wasn't even my pick but it's clear as day 5 years later he is the better player. Not his fault he played on crappy teams the last 5 years with no goaltending and defense to have an atrocious +/- career rating but he is a game driver. He literally changes games in Ottawa's favor and is producing in the thick of a playoff race where thy're probably going to make it in this season. Let's see how he perfroms in his first ever PO series, I will absolutely compare it to Buster's first debut.

Just mentioned it in the Season Thread, TA put an article out of the Top 25 Players Under 25 and Steutzle is the 1C on that team, Buster didn't even make the list. Buster didn't even make their second team which surprised me a little bit. Both Raymond and Sanderson made the first team. The Kings were looking for a 1C to transition away from Kopitar, right? Guess would be that right now.

I know Buster was the concensus 2OA in that draft, but all redrafts have him going 7-10. It's one thing when you're 17 and 6'5" pushing around 5'10" kids during scouting, it's another when you're in the NHL and now dudes your size or heavier aren't letting you do what you're used to doing.

Everyone matures at a different rate. When Byfield is 25, he may end up being one of the elite players in the game. Book it!

Hope you're right my friend, but as stated by K4OT it won't be pretty if he does and the Kings get one year out of him and then he leaves. All that developmental time, money, resources, additonal moves to deplete assets to make up for shortcomings elsewhere, all for nothing. At a 2OA you want a 3 year trajectory term max. You can wait with a 29OA like Kempe, you can't with a 2OA.

 

[PuckinUgly57]

Chychrun extended, 8 years/$72 million to stay with the Caps.Makes Nurse and his $9.25 million or whatever look really worse than it already is.

Nutty seeing these large contracts dished out since it was announced how much the cap will go up in the next three years. But it's all relative so $9 million won't look too bad on paper in the not too distant future.