Sheng Peng: Making Sense of Bishop to LA Examining as many angles as possible of Bishop to LA

Low cost, high reward

not confident in Quick`s health written all over that one homer

What I don't understand... I get that we can't play quick as often as we used to. But why couldn't we keep Budaj? He was playing fine. I would have been comfortable with him as a backup. Goaltending shouldn't have been an area of concern. We need scoring. Although I will say in just a few days we went from budaj/zatkoff to Quick/Bishop. And that's a win no matter how you look at it. I just would have preferred to get some offense.

not confident in Quick`s health written all over that one homer
- rubberduckies

It's more like "Lombardi wants to make sure he has a job next year". You think DL or DS keep their jobs if they don't make it into the playoffs or lose in the first round again?

not confident in Quick`s health written all over that one homer
- rubberduckies

It was a trade that also blocks other teams

Not a bad move. I'm definitely ok with it and it upgraded a draft pick

On another note. Quick did very well against your quacks his first game back lol

It's more like "Lombardi wants to make sure he has a job next year". You think DL or DS keep their jobs if they don't make it into the playoffs or lose in the first round again?
- kingsfan626

DL gone regardless. DS not so safe

Assuming the 20% retention number is accurate, Bishop's pro-rated cap hit is $1.19M for you slackers that don't want to do the math.

$5.95M total cap hit
*
20%
=
$1.19M retained salary
=
$4.76M annual cap hit acquired by LA

----------------

46 contract days remaining this season
/
184 contract days in a season
=
0.25% pro-rated cap hit
*
$4.76M acquired annual cap hit
=
$1.19M pro-rated cap hit

quick will need to play a lot of games to get up to speed. Bishop will be traded to dallas ,Calgary,islanders or phily for offence help and a back up

unused cap space is pointless for a GM who is on the scorching hot seat. if anything, its a low risk move to gain a bit more certainty in net.

patrick sharp, come on down. just not sure what it will end up costing them...

Exactly! So why trade Budaj? The dude bailed your season out and Dean dumps him for a guy making more money, who's record is worse than Budaj's, and who is way more injury prone. This is a bizarre move.

Exactly! So why trade Budaj? The dude bailed your season out and Dean dumps him for a guy making more money, who's record is worse than Budaj's, and who is way more injury prone. This is a bizarre move.
- duxcup07

You do realize Bishop will not be in LA next year. Cap space isn't an issue. I think you need to worry about your team winning the division

Edit: I personally, wouldn't mind a top 10 draft pick this year. If team gets past 1st round great (if they make playoffs). This team isn't going anywhere this year.

unused cap space is pointless for a GM who is on the scorching hot seat. if anything, its a low risk move to gain a bit more certainty in net.

patrick sharp, come on down. just not sure what it will end up costing them...
- hiway39

Exactly! So why trade Budaj? The dude bailed your season out and Dean dumps him for a guy making more money, who's record is worse than Budaj's, and who is way more injury prone. This is a bizarre move.
- duxcup07

Budaj's numbers were better than Bishop's, but the former was playing for one of the premiere defenses in the league, while the latter plays for a team that wouldn't know defense if it slapped them in the face.

Don't get me wrong, Budaj was a welcome surprise to Kings fans that expected the season to be over when Quick went down with injury, and he did well enough to keep the team in the playoff hunt. Bernier, Jones, and Scrivens all did the same while backing up Quick, which goes to show that the Kings can play quality defense-first hockey as long as they have average goaltending.

However, all that being said, the Kings have only been playing 500 hockey, and while most of those were of no fault of Budaj's, there were a half-dozen or so games that could have been won had a Vezina-quality goaltender been in net for the Kings, of which they now have two.

The Kings have 5 sets of back-to-back games remaining this season, and the Kings will need their backup goaltender to play in all of them. Assuming Budaj would have gotten them 5 out of 10 points in those games, that's 5 points that could cost them the playoffs. If Bishop can steal 3 or 4 of those points, that might just be enough to squeak them into the playoffs, while allowing Quick enough rest to be 100% for a first round series which would likely be against San Jose or Minnesota.

Budaj's numbers were better than Bishop's, but the former was playing for one of the premiere defenses in the league, while the latter plays for a team that wouldn't know defense if it slapped them in the face.

Don't get me wrong, Budaj was a welcome surprise to Kings fans that expected the season to be over when Quick went down with injury, and he did well enough to keep the team in the playoff hunt. Bernier, Jones, and Scrivens all did the same while backing up Quick, which goes to show that the Kings can play quality defense-first hockey as long as they have average goaltending.

However, all that being said, the Kings have only been playing 500 hockey, and while most of those were of no fault of Budaj's, there were a half-dozen or so games that could have been won had a Vezina-quality goaltender been in net for the Kings, of which they now have two.

The Kings have 5 sets of back-to-back games remaining this season, and the Kings will need their backup goaltender to play in all of them. Assuming Budaj would have gotten them 5 out of 10 points in those games, that's 5 points that could cost them the playoffs. If Bishop can steal 3 or 4 of those points, that might just be enough to squeak them into the playoffs, while allowing Quick enough rest to be 100% for a first round series which would likely be against San Jose or Minnesota.
- tkecanuck341

Exactly... some people really can't grasp this logic or situation the kings have been in.

Kings still need to find scoring. Whether that's now or the off-season. Until then, this team won't go far into the playoffs.

Interesting point about the Kings having so many back to back games remaining. I'm sure that is a huge driver of this curious deal. Unless, of course, they did it also to prevent Calgary (or Anaheim?) from dealing for Bishop. I don't believe St. Louis was seriously inclined to deal for Bish at this time. It's been clear as a bell Blues want Allen to be the guy and he'll have to seriously play himself out of that title. They kept Allen over Bishop years ago, a point no pundit ever makes, BTW.

It made me wonder for a moment about acquiring Bishop to turn around to deal again, but considering a groin injury to Quick, acquiring Bishop makes a lot more sense with all the back-to-backs. Could be a brilliant move if Quick has some issues getting back to form, doesn't seem like they gave up very much in the grand scheme of things.

It comes down to two things for me:

1. It's very easy to re-injure a groin shortly after coming back. It's especially easy when you play like the water spider that Quick is, with lots of pushing off of your skates and sliding across the crease, nearly doing the splits. I'm pretty sure that I remember it happening to him at least once before, where he's injured his groin, been out for a while, come back, injured it again and been out for a while again. You're going to increase your chance of re-injury even more by playing a lot. Because of the standings, there would've been a huge amount of pressure to ride Quick hard, but doing so would've been very dangerous for his groin.

2. Those 5 remaining back-to-back sets. In past seasons, Quick played both games of back-to-backs now and then, especially when the stakes were as high as they are now, but there's absolutely no way that you would ever consider doing that now with this groin in as delicate shape as it is. Those are at least 5 games that Budaj absolutely would've played... and though he'd done well for most of the season, he'd been losing steam lately, and who knows how much more he might've slipped playing only once per week, instead of nearly every game. Perhaps part of why he played as well as he did is that he's the kind of guy who plays better when he plays more often. I can't imagine that Lombardi wanted to find out after it was too late.

There may be an assumption that Bishop will get those 5 games in the back-to-back sets and Quick the rest, but, if I were Sutter, I'd lean more heavily on Bishop. I'd actually give Bishop the bulk of the starts, especially in these next few weeks, when Quick's groin is the most tender. Since you have another #1, use him and don't rush Quick, since doing so risks re-injury. We all know that Quick will be the man if they make the playoffs, so make sure that he's actually healthy and not back on IR when the time comes.

Exactly! So why trade Budaj? The dude bailed your season out and Dean dumps him for a guy making more money, who's record is worse than Budaj's, and who is way more injury prone. This is a bizarre move.
- duxcup07

Hey! Do you ever see me going to your blog talking poop!

Oh yeah, I do all the time. Teehee.

We can't score for poop. So what does Lombardi do? He makes it so the other team can't score either. (frank)ing brilliant. He can pick up somebody to replace Muzz and keep Amart on the third pairing.That way no team will ever score on us ever.

A little dissapointed in losing Cernak. A lot of us guys thought he would join the Reing and were real exited to see what he will bring. Oh well...

I think the Kings should be sellers, not giving away young defensemen

The assertion that Budaj is even remotely in the same ballpark in terms of ability as Bishop is absurd. This is a monster upgrade over Budaj.

Tampa doesn't know Defense? HHHwhat?

I think the Kings should be sellers, not giving away young defensemen
- jimbro83

We tried to tell you the same thing about your team in 2014, but you wouldn't listen....

I think the Kings should be sellers, not giving away young defensemen
- jimbro83

Burn...In...Hell

If Cernak is not even a top 10 prospect for LA then its a pretty low return for Tampa, which makes it hard to think that there was much demand for BB. So while the other points make sense, the idea they were keeping him away from their rivals doesn't seem too likely.