There is no way Matt Roy will not be protected and as a Kings blogger you should know this. In the words of Kings assistant coach Trent Yawney, he was the best Kings defender this season (including Drew Doughty), and every statistical comparison defensively verifies that.
- Regulate
Roy was not the Kings' best defender and, as a Kings fan, you should know that. Don't be so quick to accept the organization's platitudes. Roy's deployment was skewed toward the offensive zone and against less dangerous opponents. The following graph illustrates both:
- http://www.hockeyabstract.com/playerusagecharts
Looking at that, it's not such a wonder that he ended up with a +16. Big props to him for achieving that, regardless, especially because he was a rookie and Ryan and MacDermid were negative players with even cushier assignments, but treat him like one of the team's best defenders (let alone
the best) next season by giving him a big boost in responsibility and his numbers might look a lot more mundane.
I think that I would agree with Ben that Walker has the slight leg up right now (because he's trusted more in defensive situations, plays the powerplay and has more offensive upside). As Ben also said, though, a lot can happen next season and things could change. If he doesn't take a step forward and Roy has another very good season, especially if given more defensive responsibility, the latter might be protected, instead. There's not really any reason to argue right now about which
will be protected, though, because this next season will do the determining of that.
