They also have used up $56.76M of the allowed $64.3M salary cap on 15 players. That leaves an average of about $950K each for the remaining eight roster spots that need to be filled.

Even though some may try to argue the points, there are two assumptions that are fairly safe to make:

(a) Any decision to put Mitchell on Long Term Injured Reserve isn’t likely to come before the free agent window opens in a few weeks. So, for the immediate future, his $3.5M is on the books. Remember, he can’t be bought out as long as he’s injured. Thus, the only options for Mitchell next season are play him, trade him or put him on LTIR.

(b) Scuderi isn’t likely to sign in LA for $2M – despite any sentimental feelings about his teammates and winning a Cup here – given that his value on the open market might be near double that per year. And even if Dean Lombardi could convinced him to do it, things would still be a challenge for LA because they’d only have about $806K each to sign their other seven guys – including Kyle Clifford and Jake Muzzin.

So, the only conceivable way the Kings can sign Scuderi at this point is to trade a currently signed roster player. To be perfectly clear, you’d realistically have to trade one of these 11 names:

Dustin Brown ($3.175M), Jeff Carter ($5.273), Drew Doughty ($7.0M), Matt Greene ($2.95M), Anze Kopitar ($6.8M), Jonathan Quick ($5.8M), Robyn Regehr ($3.0M), Mike Richards ($5.75M), Jarret Stoll ($3.25M), Slava Voynov ($4.167M) or Justin Williams ($3.60M).

…because Colin Fraser ($825K), Dwight King ($750K) or Tyler Toffoli ($870K) on their own wouldn’t be enough cap space…and Mitchell probably isn’t very tradable at the moment.

Which leads to the ultimate question:

RELATED CONTENT:

Voynov signs six-year deal, now comes the hard part

Why the Kings can’t bring everybody back – simplistic overview

AUDIO: TFP Live guest spot – talking LA Kings contracts, summer plans

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Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

First though, a few notes on Voynov.

Originally selected by LA in the second round of the 2008 NHL Draft, Voynov has been playing pro hockey in North America now for four seasons. However, much like his coach, Darryl Sutter, he’s yet to spend a full 82-game season with the Kings.

After two years in Manchester (AHL), he came to camp in September 2011 looking to earn an NHL job. Then-coach Terry Murray constantly praised him and he was one of the last roster cuts that fall, as there just wasn’t a place for him yet on a deep LA blueline. When he was initially sent back to the AHL, Voynov was told by Murray and Lombardi he ‘was an NHL player’ and his time was coming soon.

Sure enough, the Kings did find room for him though a series of call-ups and – as has been well documented – he was finally  given a full-time gig following the trade of Jack Johnson to Columbus.

Over his rookie season of 2011-12 Voynov collected 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in 54 regular season games. He backed that up by playing in all 20 games of the post-season, en route to the team’s first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

According to Lombardi, Voynov’s agent had requested the team allow him to return to Russia during the NHL lockout (to play in the KHL) – something that was not approved. Instead, the 23-year old once again suited up for the Kings’ AHL affiliate in Manchester, where he posted 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in 35 games.

When the NHL resumed play in January, Voynov was arguably the Kings top offensive weapon among the defensive core.

Now, for the next six years he looks to be penciled in on the team’s second D-pairing, behind Drew Doughty and his partner. He’ll also see plenty of time on the power play.

The big question is, who will Voynov be partnered with?

Lombardi has a number of other contracts to be worked out, including decisions on Restricted Free Agents like Keaton Ellerby, Jake Muzzin and Alec Martinez.

Applying Voynov’s $4.16M cap hit to the Kings’ payroll, they have already committed $56.76M of the allowed $64.3M salary cap for next season. Meaning, Lombardi only has $7.54M left to spend at the moment… and needs to sign/slot eight more players to field a 23-man roster.

Here’s a rough line-up card using only guys under contract (ignore any debate about line combinations for the moment):

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Mike Richards – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli
Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – [open, LW3]
[open, LW4] – Colin Fraser – [open, RW4]

Robyn Regehr – Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell – Slava Voynov
[open, D5] – Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
[open G2]

Three healthy scratches (none signed at the moment)

Will there be enough money left over to re-sign Scuderi?  Is Mitchell coming back?

If the answer to either question is no, where does Lombardi turn?

A full analysis and explanation of the Kings salary cap situation and options can be found here.  It’s a must read for any Kings fan.

RELATED CONTENT:

Voynov on his biggest influence and if he wants to play forward

Voynov interview during Cup run – with cameos from his teammates

The Russian Report with Slava Voynov

Lombardi’s latest update on Willie Mitchell - June 2013

Lombardi on who goes first – Voynov or Scuderi

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Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

During the lockout we also had a Cribs episode with Anze and Gasper Kopitar. Check out the link below for that video and other related articles.

RELATED CONTENT:

VIDEO: Sweden ‘Cribs’ episode featuring the Kopitar Bros

Kings preparing for return of Bud Holloway?

Why the Kings won’t be able to bring back the whole 2013 team – a simple look at their cap issues

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Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

For those unfamiliar, here’s the crib note version of the story:

- June 2006, just a few months after Dean Lombardi was hired as Kings GM, the team drafts Holloway in the third round (86th overall, a pick that LA originally acquired from Philadelphia in the trade for Jeremy Roenick. There’s always a Flyers connection, isn’t there?).

- Holloway played two more years with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, improving his point totals each season and culminating with 43 goals and 83 points in 2007-08.

- The following season he split time between the AHL and ECHL. With the Ontario Reign he posted 22 points in 23 regular season games, plus added another nine points in seven playoff games.

- Each of the next two seasons Holloway was the leading points producer in Manchester, accumulating 47 points (19 goals and 28 assists) in 2009-10 and 61 points the following year (his 28 goals also led the team in 2010-11).

- By this point, the 6-foot left wing had also develop his skills off the ice as well, and was named the 2011 Manchester Man of the Year (something he discussed in his last MayorsManor interview here).

- Feeling he wasn’t going to make the Kings’ NHL team the following season, Holloway signed a contract to play in Sweden’s top pro league in the summer of 2011. Lombardi wasn’t too happy with the decision, something he spoke about in a MayorsManor interview here – where he used words such as mind-boggling and frustrating.

- Former teammate Rich Clune also had some fairly candid thoughts about Holloway’s decision in a MayorsManor interview here – where the word ‘frustration’ came up again.

- Overall, Holloway found much success in Sweden, including winning the SEL championship this year with Skelleftea. He also lead the league with 71 points and his 51 assists were 15 more than any other player.

Per a few tweets we posted Saturday, it appears Holloway and the Kings are in the final stages of working out a contract for the 25-year old forward’s return to North America.

We expect to have more details up in the not-so-distant future.

In the meantime, check out those articles referenced above to fill in the gaps on the Holloway-Kings narrative. We’ve also linked them down below for your convenience – along with a Holloway ‘Cribs’ episode.

Follow @mayorNHL

RELATED CONTENT:

Dean Lombardi on Holloway’s European Vacation

Rich Clune tries to explain why Holloway went to Europe

Bud Holloway talks being named Monarchs ‘Man of the Year’

VIDEO: Sweden ‘Cribs’ episode featuring Bud Holloway

Why the Kings won’t be able to bring back the whole 2013 team – a simple look at their cap issues

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

Putting it as simple as possible, the LA Kings are screwed.

Essentially, compiling a 23-man roster and staying within next season’s $64.3 million cap is, as GM Dean Lombardi referred to the other day, a little bit like a nuclear science equation.

But, let’s break things down and make it digestible.

Lombardi has eight Restricted Free Agents (RFA) to deal with:

Forwards – Kyle Clifford, Trevor Lewis, Jordan Nolan
Defenseman – Keaton Ellerby, Alec Martinez, Jake Muzzin, Slava Voynov
Goaltender – Jonathan Bernier

Completing a line-up card using only guys under contract would give you something like this (ignore any debate about line combinations for the moment):

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Mike Richards – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli
Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – [open, LW3]
[open, LW4] – Colin Fraser – [open, RW4]

Robyn Regehr – Drew Doughty
[open, D3] – [open, D4]
[open, D5] – Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
[open G2]

Three healthy scratches

That’s a total of 13 players under contract, totaling $49,093,000.

Now, add in Willie Mitchell’s $3,500,000 contract to put the team at $52,593,000 and 14 players.

So, Lombardi and crew would need to sign nine guys to get to a 23-man roster and have $11,707,000 to work with.

Again, staying at a high-level, let’s assume Clifford, Lewis and Muzzin are absolutely coming back. How much will that cost? Perhaps they could get more than what it takes to ‘qualify’ them. But, let’s assume Lewis and Muzzin are given their qualified amount (which is a slight bump from what they were paid during the 2013 season) and Clifford re-signs for his same salary – which was already above the amount needed to qualify him.

Adding those three players to our totals, we’re now at 17 players and just under $9.5M left to spend.

Next, let’s assume Bernier is traded and his replacement will cost you $1.5M for next season.

Knowing that LA will need money to take a run at Unrestricted Free Agents Rob Scuderi and/or Dustin Penner, we might as well pencil Jordan Nolan into the roster.  He’s the least expensive option among all the Kings RFAs, as it would only take $577K to qualify him.

The 19 signed players would look as follows:

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Mike Richards – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli
Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Colin Fraser – Jordan Nolan

Robyn Regehr – Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell – [open, D4]
Jake Muzzin – Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
Signed Back-up Goalie

Three healthy scratches

Next…

Everybody knows that ‘open D4′ spot is reserved for Voynov. But, hold that thought for just a minute.

Assume that Brad Richardson (UFA) isn’t re-signed.

The only other players left to deal with at this point would be Ellerby, Martinez, Penner and Scuderi.

It would take $735K to qualify Ellerby and $774K to do the same with Martinez.

So, if you set aside an average of $800k each to pay those two and one forward (for line-up card purposes only, these are the three players identified as ‘healthy scratches’), the Kings would have a 22-man roster, plus $4.965M left to pay Voynov.

Assuming they pay him around $4M per year, that leaves Lombardi just below $1M under the cap.

The 2013-14 LA Kings line-up would look as follows:

Dustin Brown – Anze Kopitar – Justin Williams
Mike Richards – Jeff Carter – Tyler Toffoli
Dwight King – Jarret Stoll – Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford – Colin Fraser – Jordan Nolan

Robyn Regehr – Drew Doughty
Willie Mitchell – Slava Voynov
Jake Muzzin – Matt Greene

Jonathan Quick
Signed Back-up Goalie

Three healthy scratches would come from a group that includes Ellerby, Martinez and a forward TBD.

What happened to Penner? There’s no money left to pay him.

What happened to Scuderi? There’s no money left to pay him.

If you don’t like either of those points, there’s very little wiggle room using the above line-up. For example, if you want to assume Ellerby or Martinez don’t come back, you’re really only going to save a few hundred thousand per player – because even an inexpensive replacement is going to cost around $575K.

Want to bring Scuderi back? Well, if Mitchell goes on Long Term Injured Reserve, he could possibly be a replacement for that slot.

But, Mitchell’s status isn’t expected to be known by July 1st.  Meanwhile, Scuderi’s likely to be offered a long-term, big-money deal from another team once the free agency window opens (i.e. four years, $16M from the Islanders).   Thus, that’s a very slippery road to travel.

Want to bring back Penner? Same thing.  The money is going to have to come from somewhere.  And in his case, keeping him may be a necessity because the organization is woefully thin at left wing.

Now, there is another option.

If you trade a player currently signed to a contract, that would free up some cap space to sign Scuderi and/or Penner.

That’s just reality.

But, the Kings may be at that fork-in-the-road sooner rather than later.

If Voyonov wants more money next season, the Kings just don’t have it right now.

So, where do they go next?  I discussed a few ideas here.

Also, for a little more insight on the subject from Lombardi and Scuderi check out the links below.

Follow @mayorNHL

RELATED CONTENT:

Sunday media call – Lombardi on future contracts for Voynov and/or Scuderi

Darryl Sutter’s end of season comments on the Kings, and a look to next year

End of season comments from Rob Scuderi – now what?

End of season thoughts from Kings captain Dustin Brown

Sunday media call – Lombardi’s latest update on the status of Willie Mitchell’s future

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

It’s been a somewhat similar script here in Los Angeles too. The Kings have gone from 68 points over the course of his first year at the helm (2006), to qualifying for the playoffs four straight seasons – something the franchise hadn’t done since a seven-year run that ended in 1993. Of course, they also won the Stanley Cup last season.

Yet, despite all their recent success, Lombardi’s Kings have yet to secure a top-four seed in the playoffs, earning home-ice in the opening round.

Back in February though, coach Darryl Sutter remarked that Division titles are nothing more than ‘dirty laundry’ hanging in the arena – noting it’s really more about playoff success. Further, he’s often reminded those listening that winning in the post-season starts by just being one of the eight teams to qualify.

So, earlier this week, Lombardi was asked if it’s important for the Kings to become a perennial Division winner or even a top four seed?

“Yes,” he emphatically stated at first.

Then, he explained things a little further.

“That’s fair to say that that’s another…,” Lombardi began, before pausing briefly. “On one hand, I understand what Darryl is saying, and I do believe that if you’re going to be… Regardless, as I was talking earlier about the Dallas, Colorado, Detroit trio that was clearly the class of the league [making reference to a period from roughly 1995 through 2005] and they would take away the first three spots every year, you just didn’t know the order. Certainly that was a different era and we are in more of the parity area. I still think that even in the parity era, those teams that are going to be there every year are generally positioned in that area. Now, it might not be… that is another challenge for this group, no doubt about it. So yeah, I think that’s something too that they can use for another goal that they haven’t accomplished yet. With that said, then they come back and say, ‘Well, they were three points out of the third-seed the year we won the Cup.’ We were an eighth-seed, but we were three points out of the third seed. So then, if you look at it that way, then Darryl’s right. But let’s go for it and say yeah.”

More end-of-season comments from Lombardi and several Kings players can be found at the links below.

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RELATED CONTENT:

Sunday media call – Lombardi on future contracts for Voynov and/or Scuderi

Darryl Sutter’s end of season comments on the Kings, and a look to next year

End of season comments from Rob Scuderi – now what?

End of season thoughts from Kings captain Dustin Brown

Sunday media call – comments from Jonathan Quick

Sunday media call – Anze Kopitar says he’s not injured, doesn’t need surgery

Sunday media call – Mike Richards was hopeful, now just heartbroken

Sunday media call – Lombardi’s latest update on the status of Willie Mitchell’s future

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

In the segment we discussed the Kings taking on the Blackhawks in the Western Conference Final (obviously an answer to the question about Game 5 is irrelevant now).  However, the bulk of the segment was dedicated to two key issues facing LA this summer – salary cap problems and what to do with captain Dustin Brown.  We’ll get into trade scenarios that could free up money, who needs to be re-signed and for how much, plus much more.  It’s a prime set up for some of the coverage we’ll be digging into much deeper throughout the coming weeks.

Although the season is over for the Kings, our coverage never ends here on MayorsManor. The last few days have been filled with notes and quotes from this week’s chats with GM Dean Lombardi, coach Darryl Sutter and seven different players. Those conversations can be found at the links below. So, read up!

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RELATED CONTENT:

Darryl Sutter’s end of season comments on the Kings, and a look to next year

End of season thoughts from Kings rookie Tyler Toffoli

End of season comments from Rob Scuderi – now what?

End of season thoughts from Kings captain Dustin Brown

End of season thoughts from Kings rookie Jake Muzzin

Sunday media call – comments from Jonathan Quick

Sunday media call – Anze Kopitar says he’s not injured, doesn’t need surgery

Sunday media call – comments from Mike Richards

Sunday media call – Lombardi on future contracts for Voynov and/or Scuderi

Sunday media call – Lombardi’s latest update on the status of Willie Mitchell’s future

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

On if he has had a chance to decompress, and his thoughts on the season:

“I don’t think.. I’m not really decompressed, but we thought we had a really good season.”

On if it was harder losing this year after winning the Stanley Cup last year:

“It would have been harder not making the playoffs, right? I told the players yesterday we played 18 games in the playoffs this year. There’s (27) other teams that wished they played 18 games. Once you set that bar in terms of…as I’ve said all along, this really has no bearing on anything other than you’re a really good hockey club and you know how close the league is. All you have to do is look at the team we just played and the team that they’re playing. How close the league is.”

On if the Kings need to do anything to get to where the Blackhawks and Bruins are:

“I think we all went through similar…where the are now? I think we’re a similar team to Boston, I think they won the Stanley Cup but everyone knows their the same team… well not the same team, they have a different goalie. The most important thing is Tim Thomas. They won with one goalie, won with the other, it’s nice for everybody to generalize and say that. I think Chicago is obviously a different type of team than ours, for the most mart, we’re one of the youngest team, we’ we’re the two youngest teams that made the playoffs if you do it from personnel actual guys that play. That would be the similarity. The difference would probably be they scored a few more goals this year then we did. But actually, it didn’t effect us at all, it’s one of the reasons we did have a really good year, quite honest, our goals for we went from last to third in the conference. That’s why you can’t ask that question because two coaches, right? You can’t ask that question to players because quite honest when we say Boston, every team changes. If it didn’t change, why didn’t Chicago win? Everyone knows why they didn’t win.”

On what was missing this year:

“What’s missing? I don’t think anythings missing. We did win this year. We did. You don’t think we won? You don’t think Anaheim won this year? We win. You go from 30 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to 1. You can’t win the Stanley Cup each year, I know that as.. I don’t like going on this,, but there’s some awfully spoiled people in the media and awfully spoiled people in this organization…that think that…they played more playoff games in the last year than any other team in hockey. I have no problem with anything other than we’re a really young team and we can get better from an individual standpoint. You learn that… with the way it sets up in terms of schedule and playoffs you have to be able to keep your roster or your lineup that’s consistent. If you look at the difference between Chicago and Los Angeles, you’d say that Chicago was a healthier team going into the last round.”

On if this year was a tougher coaching job because of the shortened season:

“I think if we go around the league, every coaching staff is going to say that because of the 48 game schedule. It was something that I’d done before so, you know, so you have some familiarity with it whether that helped or not, I don’t know, but at least you’re familiar with it. But was it tougher? Sure it’s tougher. Our players were awesome with it, there was no hangover, there was only positives taken from it. The only negative from the short summer last year was guys that didn’t start the year. Greene, Mitchell, Kopitar and quite honestly Jonathan until probably January and February.”

On Drew Doughty’s season:

“I think he had a good year. I think he was really typical with our team. I think that we had a young defense that had a really good season. You can’t minimize the fact that our goals for went up and our goals against went up also. What we want to do as a group is cut our goals against a little bit. So is that a reflection of Drew Doughty? Not really. It’s a reflection of our team.”

On what’s next in terms of organizational meetings:

“We’re doing that now, we met as a team, as a group yesterday and did as much medical work as we could as a group. We’ll do more from an individual coach-player thing. It’s basically reviewing their seasons and what we can do in the off season as individuals. Then we’ll put that together as a staff and once we know where, you can get a better read on what your team is..not until that doesn’t happen for… hey, you have to remember last year we played until tomorrow, so we don’t have the advantage of what most teams have. We’re trying to lock it all in as quick as we can from a coaching and player side. W did a really good job of that last summer and that’s what we’ll try and do again. We have to wait to see, obviously, what our roster will be before we do that.”

On what young players like Tyler Toffoli and Jake Muzzin should take from this experience:

“They’re going to have to take 100 days of being stronger athletes, the next 100 days.  For them to help us next year, they’re going to have to be better athletes, very simple…What do they take from it?  Hopefully as we meet with them over the next two or three days we’re going to find out.  It’s not something I’m going to generalize.  I know for certain though that you have to be physically and mentally as close to 100% as you can to play in the NHL…There’s not much line to draw there.”

On if the plan is to still test Toffoli at left wing:

“Plan is to get him stronger first.  Then we’ll see if he’s a good winger in the American Hockey League or a winger in the National Hockey League.  That will be the first step.”

The other ‘major’ news item discussed was the fact Robyn Regehr had surgery on his elbow today.  Although it wasn’t revealed exactly when the injury took place, it was noted the problem plagued him throughout the playoffs.

Additional end of season notes and quotes from GM Dean Lombardi and several other Kings players can be found at the links below.

Follow @mayorNHL

RELATED CONTENT:

End of season thoughts from Kings rookie Tyler Toffoli

End of season comments from Rob Scuderi – now what?

End of season thoughts from Kings captain Dustin Brown

Sunday media call – comments from Jonathan Quick

Sunday media call – Anze Kopitar says he’s not injured, doesn’t need surgery

Sunday media call – comments from Mike Richards

Sunday media call – Lombardi on future contracts for Voynov and/or Scuderi

Sunday media call – Lombardi’s latest update on the status of Willie Mitchell’s future

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

Now we check in with the defenseman himself, for some thoughts on the just completed season and an eye on his future. Here’s what he shared today…

On if he has had time to come to conclusions on why things ended the way they did:

“It’s still pretty fresh, but even in a couple of games, I guess you start to gain a little perspective on the situation and the season. For us, regarding the season, I thought it was another good season for the Kings. It certainly would have been nice to get home ice, and we would have loved to have had that if we grabbed that fourth place spot. We won two rounds and something with the third round we just couldn’t get it done. Although I thought we outplayed them in our last game here, a couple days ago. At the end of the day, we just didn’t get it done.”

On the home and road record this year:

“It’s a question that we’ll all be asking ourselves during the summertime. If there was something that we could put our finger on, then we would have tried to eliminate it during the regular season. We didn’t have a great road record during the regular season, at least compared to years passed, and it carried over to the playoffs. When you think about it, it was our Achilles heel, in the last round. Even if we just get one game there, it’s a different outlook on the series, and we just weren’t able to do that. I guess if I short answer the question, I just don’t know. If there was something we could have done or fixed during the season, I think we would have done it.”

On if the home team effects play:

“Maybe for some guys. Me personally, I’ve played in places where there’s a great atmosphere. Certainly you feel more comfortable at home, but when there’s a great attitude in any road arena, it’s always fun to play in. That’s my personal opinion. I don’t think guys were any more revved up at home…you’re more comfortable but I don’t think it’s a feeling that you just get more energy from. As far as energy, we pretty much sat around for four months waiting for the NHL to open it’s door so we can play, so I don’t think that can be used as an excuse.”

On if he wants to stay on the Kings:

“It’s still a little fresh the first couple of days, and you’re trying to figure some things out. Close up shop on your place for the season and guys are taking off and you want to say good bye to certain people. So, I haven’t even talked to my agent yet. I haven’t had any times to think about that. I imagine in the next few days they’ll be some conversations and short discussion. As a player, this is a place that certainly is a desirable location, it’s got everything you need for myself and most importantly for my family. The team’s good, I’ve been here, I’m comfortable here. It will just take a little more time, like I said, to gain perspective and just relax for right now.”

On if he is concerned that there has been no deal up until this point:

“It hasn’t concerned me because I understand that there are other things that happen. I understand the team has other priorities bigger than just myself, and that’s the way it goes. I’m not offended, I don’t get disrespected by anything. It’s unfortunate that maybe it couldn’t be taken care of but it’s not like I harbor any ill will against the Kings with the way they’ve done things.”

On Darryl Sutter’s coaching job considering the players were injured:

“I think Darryl did a tremendous job. I love playing for him as a player. He has a great feel for what the team has going on and almost in a sense, what the team’s thinking. He know maybe how to counteract with that or work with it and I’ve really enjoyed playing with him. As far as coming into the season, when you think about a Stanley Cup hangover and season struggle. I’m not saying as a team we didn’t have our struggles during the season, but you can’t overlook the job that Darryl and the entire coaching staff has done in getting our strong footing especially when I think of late March into April, how we were able to play down the stretch and become a dominant team again.  Like I said before, unfortunate that we lost our home ice, but you can’t say enough about those guys have done in the staff to get ourselves not only back into the post season but also to win a couple of rounds.”

On Slava Voynov’s improvement this year:

“I think the biggest thing with Slava is his ability to just choose the situations when he’s going to be active offensively and when he’s not going to be. A tremendous part of any young, offensive-minded defense men development. His decision making I think was extraordinary this year. He has that ability to know when to jump into the play and what spot to jump into the play and he also knows when he has to stay back and when he has to be careful. That’s a big, I think maybe even the biggest part, of an offensive-minded defense men’s skill set. They have the skills to do a lot of things but you have to mentally realize when you can do them and when you shouldn’t.”

Feel free to compare some of that to what Lombardi said yesterday, see the link down below for more information.

Follow @mayorNHL

RELATED CONTENT:

Sunday media call – comments from Jonathan Quick

Sunday media call – Anze Kopitar says he’s not injured, doesn’t need surgery

Sunday media call – comments from Mike Richards

Sunday media call – Lombardi on future contracts for Voynov and/or Scuderi

Sunday media call – Lombardi’s latest update on the status of Willie Mitchell’s future

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

Lets’s start with LA captain Dustin Brown. Here’s what he had to share…

On how he tore his PCL:

“My first shift 5-on-5 in San Jose Game 6. I hit Boyle. It’s a nothing play, I saw it on video. I continued to play the shift, I knew something was wrong, but I kept on playing. He was coming around the net in the corner and Lewie (Trevor Lewis) kind of had him angled and I came down on an angle. I think my knee just kind of hit his thigh, he’s a little smaller than me, so just the way it hit. It did what it needed to do, I guess.”

On where he was limited due to his injury:

“The inhibition, firing. Power, push off, because there’s a lot of inflammation. The pain level wasn’t too bad unless I did certain things. But, like I said, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t play with. If it was the regular season I don’t think I would have played with it, but I still thought I could be effective in most areas of the game and find a way to play through it. But there were some limitations.”

On where the Kings fell short:

“It’s so fresh that it’s hard to really pin point one thing or another. Just looking back at more so the playoffs, I mean I wasn’t happy with my production on the offensive side of things, I think I could definitely contribute more than I did. Kopi (Anze Kopitar) and I have had this talk, both me and him, probably struggles from a statistical standpoint. That’s frustrating for players who want to be difference makers. Kopi and myself are definitely those types of players.

“From a team wide standpoint, I thought we did a lot of good things. It was a battle, very difficult to grind it out when we put ourselves in holes. I think that’s probably the key for us to focus on going forward, and learn from it. We have the ability to dig out of holes, but probably much easier if we don’t put ourselves down 2-0 against St. Louis and down 2-0 in Game 4 against St. Louis. Same story over and over again, you saw it the last game in Chicago when we had to come back down 3-1, down 2-0 five minutes in the game. Definitely capable with the resilience there is in the group. You also see us get off to good starts with the game never in question. So that’s probably the one thing in particular with the playoffs is not digging ourselves in a hole.”

On how the team got as far as they did with adversity, and how Darryl Sutter helped:

“Darryl is a very emotional, personal coach. Sometimes, he get’s you and says stuff that pisses you off, but at the same time it’s a motivating factor. He’s very good at pushing the right buttons at the right time. I think our team has responded incredibly well to how he coaches since he came in. If you look at when he came in, we were in a tough spot then too. I think, also, if you look at the type of players we have in the room, that goes a long way. Being able to grind through injuries here and there, with Stoll and Richards, and guys playing hurt and being injured. I don’t think that’s anything special this time of year, every team is dealing with it.

“It’s the teams that find a way to get the job done regardless of the situation that probably makes me more proud to be apart of this team in the fashion  with which we deal with it. I don’t think we complain very much, we just go about business as normal regardless of the situation, which is probably one of the more important things with the team identity.”

On tying the game in the last seconds of Game 5:

“It’s more, I don’t want to say mentality, but when we have a group of guys that’s been together, we’ve been in a lot of tough situations. You build and draw on those experience. I always say experience is one thing, but experiencing everything together, like the stuff we experience together, is much more valuable then having 10 or 11 guys that have been through the playoffs and gone to the finals on different teams. I think it’s different when you’ve gone through, not only what we went through last year but the three, four previous years. You add pieces of the puzzle, you add Rich (Mike Richards) and Carts (Jeff Carter) over the last couple of years, that’s what you want to build on is that group of guys that stick together because at the end of the day that’s all you have to lean on when times get tough.”

On Drew Doughty’s improvement from the beginning of the season to the playoffs:

“To maybe further that point, I think that question could be for all three, Kopi (Anze Kopitar), Quickie (Jonathan Quick) and Dewey (Drew Doughty). They are our three best players – forward defenseman, goalie. Everyone questions Dewey or questions Quickie, Kopi, if he’s not scoring. The thing with, especially with Dewey, he didn’t score a goal for I don’t know how many games, but he was still our best defenseman. In the sense that he’s shutting down Jonathan Toews and Pavel Datsyuk every single night. It’s one of those things that maybe the stats sheet doesn’t show it, the fans are all over him and the medias all over him, and everyone in the room realizes just how important he is.

“It’s a growing process for Dewey, dealing with the pressures of being that good and trying to handle everything at once. He’s still young, everyone forgets how young he still is. I think he’s made great steps from when him and me were rooming his first year to now is pretty remarkable, both on and off the ice. I think there’s still a lot of room for him to grow, but for him to handle the way he did, I’m proud of him as a teammate. Again, when I look at Dewey the first thing I’m not looking at is how many goals he’s scored, because there’s a lot more to his game than scoring goals.”

On if he will watch the Cup Final:

“Probably not. Before, I didn’t watch them. I might have the game on in the background, but I’m not going to sit down and make an event of it. It’s one of those things when I’m home with the kids and we’re messing around, I’ll throw it on in the background but it’s hard to watch, for sure.”

On the NBA finals:

“I think the Heat is going to win. I’ll watch that, because no emotional attachment.”

On what he takes away from this year versus last year:

“What it takes to win. I mean, every years different and I think we learned, one ,to deal with adversity and tough times. That’s stuff we can use going forward as a group, and it kind of goes back to that whole experiencing things together. The other thing you take away is how you feel yesterday, how you feel today, and that stays with you.”

More Kings’ player quotes are up on the home page right now.

Next hour we’ll have Rob Scuderi, Jake Muzzin and Tyler Toffoli. Then Darryl Sutter later today.

Additional notes and quotes from Lombardi and several Kings players can be found at the links below.

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Sunday media call – Lombardi’s latest update on the status of Willie Mitchell’s future

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