All-Time Los Angeles Kings Team

[ScottM]

 

Next up are the (non)-defending Stanley Cup champs. Obviously, the Kings' most successful period has been the last few years, and you'll see a few names from the recent squads. Despite their lack of championships until three years ago, they've really had some great players in L.A. So, let's look at the ninth team in the series.

 

First Line: Luc Robitaille, Wayne Gretzky, Dave Taylor

Second Line: Charlie Simmer, Marcel Dionne, Ziggy Palffy

Third Line: Alexander Frolov, Bernie Nicholls, Jari Kurri

Fourth Line: Bob Berry, Anze Kopitar, Tony Granato

 

First Defensive Pair: Rob Blake, Drew Doughty

Second Defensive Pair: Larry Murphy, Steve Duchesne

Third Defensive Pair: Lubomir Visnovsky, Mathieu Schneider

 

Goaltenders: Jonathan Quick, Rogie Vachon, Kelly Hrudey

 

Coach: Darryl Sutter

 

The goalies were easy to choose, as were the centers. The lower wingers were a bit harder. Picking the guys that made the defense was fairly easy, but the fact that there were several really good guys that had very brief tenures with the team made the ranking fairly hard. The coach was a no-brainer to me.

[yave1964]

With no disrespect towards the great one, I go Dionne at center. Roughly 75-80 percent of his HOFer career was with the Kings, about 40 percent of Gretzkys.

 

Glad you put Bob Berry on the list. He was a heck of a player, largely forgotten.

 

Mattias Norstrom had a long run on defense, I would rank him 4th on the all time list.

 

And I would boot Frolov and put Dustin Brown in his place

 

Overall, I like the list. I looked through the Kings all time list and was surprised to see that only eight players in the nearly fifty years the Kings have been around have played more than 10 years in a Kings uniform. Your right Scott, a part of a career here or there.

[jammer2]

@ScottM  I'm with Yave, I go Dionne over Gretzky also...Marcel was an all time great and played mostly with the Kings. 3rd all time scorer.....that is quite the feat. Gretz had to many Oiler years to have him #1 here. A shame you had to break up the Triple Crown Line....but yeah...Lucky Luc over Simmer all day long.

[FD19372]

Wait, no Jeff Carter???! I like your list, but I think I would put Dustin Brown on the the 3rd line instead of Frolov. He's clutch, a good defensive forward, and penalty killer, who also scores big goals, like a poor man's Jonathan Toews. I think either Berry or Frolov, would go on my 4th line, but I would probably go with Frolov there because he was so good at puck possession and a very good skater. Berry was a very good in front of the net presence, but I give Frolov the nod.

[FD19372]

I would give the edge to Dionne as well. Five straight 50 goal seasons, 100 point seasons on a mediocre team is a tremendous accomplishment and I always think of Gretzky as an Oiler first. Plus, to be honest, the talent surrounding Wayne was superior.

[ScottM]

In the case of Dustin Brown, you guys hit on the struggle I mentioned with the lower wingers. Unfortunately, someone had to be left off, and as close as it was, he was the odd man out. I felt strongly enough about the centers that Carter fell short. The top three seemed pretty obvious, and I couldn't drop Kopitar's two-way play.

 

@yave1964 Good catch on Norstrom. I don't know how I missed him, but I did. He should be on there.

 

I went with Gretzky over Dionne because even though he was in his mid thirties when he left the Kings, Gretzky still averaged a ridiculous 1.7 ppg in Los Angeles, and had the three scoring titles during his time there. Dionne was far from shabby with his 1.4 ppg, but Gretzky was just so impressive that I gave him the nod.

[JagerMeister]

I think I would put Ziggy Palffy over Dave Taylor. Palffy never got to play with anyone near as talented as Marcel Dionne, and again, Palffy had his prime in the dead puck era. So he has that going for him.

 

and maybe I would put Anze Kopitar over Bernie nichols. after that one season he was playing with Gretzky, he never even came close to 70 goals, 150 points or 80 points again. Besides,

 Anze Kopitar is one of the best two way players in the game

 

But im still not too sure.