Hanging onto the wild card, the Kings have to decide if they're closer to standing pat or Cup contender by March 1st's Trade Deadline.
On one hand, Dean Lombardi hasn't made a first-round pick in two years, as he previously pushed these chips in for Andrej Sekera and Milan Lucic. In those trades, he also parted with prospects Roland McKeown and Colin Miller. Consequently, the farm system isn't particularly deep right now, while the big club certainly has high-end talent but lacks depth too. Just for example, I don't think trading one of Alec Martinez or Jake Muzzin for a forward is likely to help the overall team.
There's a definite argument for keeping status quo and re-loading next year.
On the other hand, Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, and Jonathan Quick aren't getting any younger. On the surface, Los Angeles resembles past Cup winners which needed a Deadline scoring boost to put a defense-first machine over the top. Record be damned, the Kings don't look that far away from a deep playoff run either.
So where is LA looking to improve?
First-line winger: Kopitar has struggled offensively this season, in part because of a rotating series of wingers. Some consistency and scoring talent for the pass-first playmaker to exploit would surely be useful. This need explains why
Gabriel Landeskog to Los Angeles rumors have been so persistent.
Ideally, Kopitar, Marian Gaborik, and some mystery winger would anchor the first line for years to come, while Tanner Pearson, Jeff Carter, and Tyler Toffoli could continue to combine as arguably the deadliest second line in the league.
A scorer who's capable of manning the net front role on a top power play unit would be nice. Pearson has handled the job reasonably well this year, but I'm not sure if it's his best fit on the man advantage.
Third-line two-way forward: With an emphasis on "two-way," as LA is already teeming with grinding bottom-six'ers like Trevor Lewis, Dwight King, Nick Shore, Andy Andreoff, Jordan Nolan, and Kyle Clifford.
Rookie center Nic Dowd has formed the basis of a productive-enough third line, so some offensive help for him is one way to go. And while the Kings seem mostly pleased with Dowd's play, an expensive upgrade up the middle,
like Martin Hanzal, is another option.
Backup goalie: At first glance, this doesn't appear to be a pressing need anymore, especially with the recent news that Jonathan Quick is
finally practicing in full gear. But look at LA's upcoming back-to-backs:
2/4 @ PHI - 2/5 @ WSH
2/18 VS FLA - 2/19 @ ANA
2/27 @ MIN - 2/28 @ CGY
3/13 VS STL - 3/14 VS ARI
3/19 @ CGY - 3/20 @ EDM
3/28 @ EDM - 3/29 @ CGY
4/8 VS CHI - 4/9 @ ANA
That's seven back-to-backs in the next couple months, after just eight in the previous months.
With Quick's return date still uncertain -- March remains the projection -- those are a lot of key games for Peter Budaj to go back to back -- or to trust Jeff Zatkoff's 2-7-1 record and .881 save % with. And of course, every game matters for a wild card team.
It's a bit of a pickle. Trade for a more reliable backup to play just a handful of games? What do you do with him when Quick returns? And of course, you never know how a goalie will perform in such a small sample size.
Or do you roll the dice with back-to-back Budaj or a struggling Zatkoff or even an unproven Jack Campbell?
Bottom-pairing defender: It's been a revolving door here for the Kings. Darryl Sutter seems to have settled on Derek Forbort in the top-four, so Brayden McNabb, Kevin Gravel, Matt Greene, and Tom Gilbert have been in and out of the line-up. With Gilbert just waived, Paul LaDue should now get a shot.
Between McNabb, Gravel, and LaDue, that's a lot of inexperience, so it's conceivable LA might seek a cheap, more reliable depth defender. I don't know if it's a priority, however, especially if Greene gets back quickly from his latest injury.
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