The Throne Room

Do Not Be Fooled

This offseason has been one of restlessness for Kings fans. With no activity on the free agent market thus far (they did make a play to bring back Brad Stuart and made a big play for Brooks Orpik that both failed), many are speculating as to what the Kings are up to next. If you have a sense of humor, some of it is pure comedy. If you don’t (or even if you do) it can be maddenning wading through the mess of rumors.

Last offseason it was Andrew Raycroft. Even after GM Dean Lombardi had given a statement that the team had no interest in the goaltender, it seemed like many bloggers and columnists based on the east coast or in Canada were certain the wilted Leaf would land in LA.

This offseason the rumors are too many to count, and many of them border on asinine. Kopitar traded in a 3 way deal that accquires Martin Gerber for LA. Kopitar and O’ Sullivan to the Rangers for Gomez. O’ Sullivan to Minnesota or to Montreal, or to Atlanta for Kari Lehtonen.

Most fans who follow the team even casually know that none of these have a chance of happenning, but it doesn’t stop the madness. Message boards and blogsites everywhere are getting in on the hype. It’s a little but funny and a little bit annoying at the same time.

Anze Kopitar is not going anywhere. Patrick O’ Sullivan will get a deal from the Kings that will keep him in LA for awhile. These are things that, barring a miracle, you can be pretty confident of.

Deals that could happen realistically: I’ve seen St. Louis Defenseman Jay McKee’s name posted by a pretty reliable source, and I’ve heard substantiated rumors about Lombardi trying to pry Francois Beauchemin and/or Mathieu Schneider from Anaheim. All three fit the veteran Defenseman mold that the team is in need of at the present time. If a deal for any of the above players is made, don’t expect Lombardi to give up too much. The organization is deep enough in prospects and draft picks that they have some room to play, but Lombardi has also stated that these assets are better held onto for times when the team needs to fill a hole or two. That doesn’t sound like this season, does it?

The Khabibulin rumor is catching fire again due to tsn.ca’s Insider speculation. Here’s why it doesn’t make much sense though: The Kings goaltending depth is already a logjam. We know at the very least that Jonathan Bernier, Erik Ersberg, Jason LaBarbera, Jeff Zatkoff, Jonathan Quick and Daniel Taylor will be pros for the upcoming season. Two of the affore mentioned will be Kings, two more will be with the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL, and the remaining two likely with the ECHL’s Ontario Reign. If the Kings were to make a play to acquire Khabibulin, all of the sudden you’ve got a prospect with no place to play. Easy solution is to send either LaBarbera or Ersberg to Chicago in return…until you factor in that aside from salary cap issues, Chicago would like to move the “Bulin Wall” to make room for promising youngster Corey Crawford. That plus the fact that Lombardi has gone on record as saying he doesn’t believe that Khabibulin is much of an upgrade (debatable I know) over the current crop and this deal is unlikely to happen.

When reading rumors on the net, don’t be fooled. If it seems ridiculous, it probably is!

Speaking of the goalies, I’ll have some in depth thoughts and analysis on that touchy subject in my next post. Stay tuned.

-JS