Jason Lewis: Breaking Down Derek Forbort and His Potential

You know you are a hockey geek when you are interestingly reading a long article on Derek Forbort on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon without even being a Kings fan of any kind

You know you are a hockey geek when you are interestingly reading a long article on Derek Forbort on a sunny summer Sunday afternoon with even being a Kings fan of any kind
- Allforhim12

I'm one of the few that aren't buying into Forbort. Our best defensive potential was already traded away.

Any news on Dowd?

Any news on Dowd?
- wrister

Hoven and Rosen both reported he is negotiating with the Kings right now. Pretty sure the plan was via seniority in a sense. Forbort first, then Dowd, next will come Crescenzi.

Look, I understand that GM's and scouts take chances during the draft on a hunch pick......but.......they need to be liable for stupid mistakes.

Derek Forbort was a roll of the dice pick by the LA Kings organization. It was a completely off the board pick and chance taken in 2010. Has it really panned out? Its 2016-17 season now, that's 6 to 7 years this player should be developed and ready by now right? They just re-signed him to a friendly cap hit as an RFA. The Kings still think he can be what they projected. But I beg to differ on what I have seen at the NHL level so far.

Remember D Colton Teubert in 2008? He went 1st round, 13th overall, that was another wasted off the board pick right after Drew Doughty in the same year. He wasn't good and we traded him to EDM, he never made it past that.
Erik Karlsson went 15th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF! Imagine him with Doughty. Stupid.
The Kings also took Andrew Cambell 74th in 2008, he played a huge 3 games in the NHL. Look at the 2008 draft, its sick, and the Kings missed many better players.

Lets say in the 2010 draft Forbort was the 200th pick.... so in our right mind would we still have re-signed him now knowing he was pick 200??? Hell no.
In the 2010 draft, the top 30 picks, only 6 have played less than 63 games, and Forbort is 1 of the 6. The other 24 players are solid, go look at hockeydb.com
So DL wants to save face after picking him 1st round, 15th overall all... and say he is still developing....... come on.

I think this is his last chance to make the Kings because they are so hurtn on D right now, so I may eat my words, but if he doesn't, chalk up another bad off the board D pick by the Kings DL and scouts again.

Excellnt article Jason. This is the best evaluation I've seen on Forbort. I'm a LA King and UND fan, so I've been following his career since his UND days and had to ask some of My cousins in North Dakota for word on how he was progressing at UND, since not much was available online. He wont be a star, but I think he'll be a valuable Dman for a long time.

Also, @Kings fan since72 I just recently looked back at my hockey news 2008 draft guide and Erik Karlsson was rate like 50th overall. Ottawa grabbing him at 15th was a total reach and it paid off.

Hoven and Rosen both reported he is negotiating with the Kings right now. Pretty sure the plan was via seniority in a sense. Forbort first, then Dowd, next will come Crescenzi.
- Jason_Lewis

Ask and you shall receive. Dowd and Campbell signed.

Anyone remember a defenseman named Larry Brown ? This was way back in the Pulford era. Brown was a tall, unspectacular player who was not especially physical put was positionally sound and had a long reach with a very effective poke check. For a few years was one of the Kings best defensemen.....I think Forbort can be the same kind of player, but don't know if that style of game will stick with the Kings....

Look, I understand that GM's and scouts take chances during the draft on a hunch pick......but.......they need to be liable for stupid mistakes.

Derek Forbort was a roll of the dice pick by the LA Kings organization. It was a completely off the board pick and chance taken in 2010. Has it really panned out? Its 2016-17 season now, that's 6 to 7 years this player should be developed and ready by now right? They just re-signed him to a friendly cap hit as an RFA. The Kings still think he can be what they projected. But I beg to differ on what I have seen at the NHL level so far.

Remember D Colton Teubert in 2008? He went 1st round, 13th overall, that was another wasted off the board pick right after Drew Doughty in the same year. He wasn't good and we traded him to EDM, he never made it past that.
Erik Karlsson went 15th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF! Imagine him with Doughty. Stupid.
The Kings also took Andrew Cambell 74th in 2008, he played a huge 3 games in the NHL. Look at the 2008 draft, its sick, and the Kings missed many better players.

Lets say in the 2010 draft Forbort was the 200th pick.... so in our right mind would we still have re-signed him now knowing he was pick 200??? Hell no.
In the 2010 draft, the top 30 picks, only 6 have played less than 63 games, and Forbort is 1 of the 6. The other 24 players are solid, go look at hockeydb.com
So DL wants to save face after picking him 1st round, 15th overall all... and say he is still developing....... come on.

I think this is his last chance to make the Kings because they are so hurtn on D right now, so I may eat my words, but if he doesn't, chalk up another bad off the board D pick by the Kings DL and scouts again.
- Kings fan since72

I think the Kings need to stay away from giving huge and long term contracts to ageing vets. ( Brown, Carter, Gaborik, and even possibly Quick)

Look, I understand that GM's and scouts take chances during the draft on a hunch pick......but.......they need to be liable for stupid mistakes.

...

Lets say in the 2010 draft Forbort was the 200th pick.... so in our right mind would we still have re-signed him now knowing he was pick 200??? Hell no.
In the 2010 draft, the top 30 picks, only 6 have played less than 63 games, and Forbort is 1 of the 6. The other 24 players are solid, go look at hockeydb.com
So DL wants to save face after picking him 1st round, 15th overall all... and say he is still developing....... come on.

I think this is his last chance to make the Kings because they are so hurtn on D right now, so I may eat my words, but if he doesn't, chalk up another bad off the board D pick by the Kings DL and scouts again.
- Kings fan since72

He might've also been let go by now if the team had a decent pipeline. Because they haven't drafted that well for a while now, though, and have emptied the cupboard of the good picks in trades, all of these 'C' prospects like Forbort, Shore and Dowd are pretty much all that the organization has in the way of ready depth and we get super-long articles trying to make the case that there's reason for hope. It's not that I blame Jason so much, since it's is Summer and this is what there is to work with, after all, but it's just sad that we're so heavily analyzing and looking for bright spots in a project defenseman 6 years after he was drafted.

Great article, Jason (but your caveat is the elephant in the room, so little actual playing time).
I was happy that Forbort was getting a chance when Ehrhoff was looking so out of sorts in the system. Sutter is so tough for younger players to break in with, I was hopeful Forbort or Gravel would be able to show enough to follow the AMart path to more time on the Kings blueline. The Schenn acquistion started to make that development unlikely and then the Scuderi one was soul crushing for fans wanting to see the kids get a chance and instead had to suffer through a vet trying to keep it going well past his prime (cough -Regehr!- cough).
Given how little time either Gravel or Forbort got with the Kings, I'd be curious what you know about either in their time with the Reign, Jason, especially the playoff run.

Jason Lewis: Breaking Down Derek Forbort and His Potential
- Jason_Lewis

Nice write-up J.L.