Follow me on Twitter: @BenShelley_20 Follow HockeyBuzz Kings on Twitter: @HB_LAKings
This article will be another in my series of player profiles, where I review the season of every player on the Los Angeles Kings. This piece will focus on Matt Roy.
Roy had a great first full NHL season with the Kings and became a very reliable member of the blue line. He had four goals and 18 points in 70 games along with a plus-16 rating that led all skaters on the team by a huge margin.
He was in a very reduced role to start the year but ended up getting significantly more ice time by year’s end, when he was often playing more than 20 minutes per game. His advanced stats are excellent as well and this season, he managed both the highest goals for percentage and expected goals for percentage of any player on the Kings (according to NaturalStatTrick.com). His corsi for percentage was also the highest of any Kings defenseman and the second-highest of any skater on the team.
As I've said before, I think the next step is to play Roy in a larger role and see how he performs. Given that he’s only played a single full season in the league, the Kings still don’t really know what they have in him, plus Doughty isn’t getting any younger and it would be be good to start taking a bit of the pressure off of him. Los Angeles will still be in the process of rebuilding next season, so it makes sense to test Roy a bit more while the stakes aren’t overly high.
Regardless, this was a very strong first season for Roy. Going forward, it now becomes a matter of figuring out just how high his ceiling is and where he can fit long-term with the Kings.
***NOTE: We've launched a HockeyBuzz Kings Twitter account! For anyone interested, you can follow @HB_LAKings for updates on articles, Kings news, etc. We're starting right from scratch, so any followers would be appreciated!***
Here’s today’s poll questions (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Reviewing the season: Jonathan Quick Reviewing the season: Nikolai Prokhorkin Reviewing the season: Trevor Moore Reviewing the season: Kurtis MacDermid Reviewing this week's polls (July 11): Kings Edition Reviewing the season: Matt Luff Reviewing the season: Blake Lizotte Reviewing the season: Trevor Lewis