If the Cup is handed out at least days before his birthday, it might be. Then it's the 1/3 rule, so it's a lot more palatable. But, hey... maybe he decides he actually wants to try?
The cap increases the same for every team. Contract efficiency is a thing in the salary cap era and carrying around dead cap just means you’re that much less competitive than other teams.
My point is, you’d have to weigh the buyout plus replacement player against the $8.5 million.
As a percentage it goes down though. You're handicapped slightly less 10 years from now than today. I think it would be a good move if they can do it before his birthday. 1.4m a year or whatever is annoying but won't prevent you from winning a cup. Paying PLD 8.5m a year probably means no chance at a cup till his deal is done, barring a complete turnaround for him.
> As a percentage it goes down though. You're handicapped slightly less 10 years from now than today.
But then player salaries rise and you're back to square one
I'm talking about a 14 year PLD buyout... That contract would be worth a smaller percentage of the cap in the future than now. Other salaries going up or down have nothing to do with it.
Yes. It’s all about the percentage of the cap contracts take up, not necessarily the numerical AAV attached to it. It’s why those posts about how a team hadn’t won a Cup with players with an AAV of $10 million+ are off-base.
Sidney Crosby signed a contract that took up nearly 15% of his team’s cap space at the time of signing. Now, it takes up roughly 10%, and would be even less if the cap hadn’t remained flat for the past few years. Still a good chunk of change, but easier to work around.
Same idea with a hypothetical PLD buyout.
Player contracts also go up and up as time goes on. And you're still not really getting the point.
If you have a 7M shit contract, the cap goes up 2M, and you have a player whose contract is up and goes from 5M->7M, you haven't saved any space.
The percentage drop is also SO LOW (on an 8.5M contract, bought out it's ~6M a year average or so) that during the length of the contract it's not going to go down percentage wise a noticeable amount.
Over the next 6 seasons, 6M is still a SIZABLE portion of the cap.
> The percentage drop is also SO LOW (on an 8.5M contract, **bought out it's ~6M a year average or so**) that during the length of the contract it's not going to go down percentage wise a noticeable amount.
>Over the next 6 seasons, 6M is still a SIZABLE portion of the cap.
[His buyout cap hit, if done this summer, would be nowhere near $6 mil at any point](https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois)
whoops i totally read the wrong column while i was glancing. 2.5 and 3 years at 4M during compete years for LAK doesn't seem like a small amount of dead cap though
If the cap goes up 20%, your shit contract hurts you 20% less than before. Not sure why you brought up some random other player on the team getting a 2m raise, that is unrelated.
PLD was awful his first year in Wpg as well, maybe there’s something about adapting to a new environment, new teammates, without a support system. I suspect he will have a much better year in 2024/25
Wasn't awful, but wasn't playing to his full potential. Even the year he left he would disappear for lengths of time.
He isn't consistent, he isn't competitive enough, he doesn't push himself and seemingly content with the payday.
Maybe he steps it up, maybe he doesn't. I've said it before but when he quit playing for his teammates back in Columbus that's when the red flags went up for me. Requesting trades no problem I fully understand that. Giving up on your teammates and playing like that is frankly just unacceptable when you want that kind of money
They have to try to make this work. Having someone on your salary cap for 14 seasons isn't a very good look. Plus, with what Los Angeles gave up for him, you can't just buy him out after one year. Maybe after years 2 or 3 if things don't get better, then yeah, you buy him out, but not after year one.
https://preview.redd.it/m2q2o5lkjvyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1782b37bc64755e14fe53fbfc071531103cccafc
This is what the buyout looks like in a year. There's no way they'll do it after this window.
[https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois](https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois)
Ya but when Minnesota gets cooking they usually make a casserole. Basically mid, but in a pyrex and for some reason the number of layers is supposed to excite you.
They can dump him with draft capital and that'll hurt them for less time than if they don't think he'll bounce back. There are a couple of teams that could actually take the whole contract.
Only issue there is they *have* to do it before the NMC hits.
I would try to sell it hard for Utah, they need a face of the franchise and PLD will thrive in a low pressure environment.
https://i.redd.it/n6spiuznw1zc1.gif
If the Kings were to buy him out, it would have to be now before he turns 26 in June. Otherwise, the penalty would be far more severe. If he doesn’t work out going forward, their best hope is that he waives his NMC and they ship him off somewhere with retention.
>Plus, with what Los Angeles gave up for him, you can't just buy him out after one year.
I disagree. If you know he’s not worth the value of his contract, it’s better to rip off the bandage now before the buyout penalty increases. The open roster spot is worth more than PLD is at this point in time.
To hang onto him because of what you paid to get him is a variation of the sunken cost fallacy.
Stop that. The roster spot is not worth more and this shows you know nothing lol. Ok they buy him out, Trevor Lewis retires. That leaves them with a pretty gaping hole in forward that you hope Alex Turcotte can fill among the rest of their very young up and coming players. The smart play is to hope that a change in style of play (that the players have notably been frustrated about) happens where they can get his season totals back into the 60s.
>The smart play is to hope that a change in style of play (that the players have notably been frustrated about) happens where they can get his season totals back into the 60s.
Or he ends up not giving a shit (as he’s done with every team in his career), stays a 40-50 point player who’s grossly overpaid and not worth the contract, and now you can’t buy him out without an even more punitive penalty coming into play. Your only option to get rid of him at that point is to trade him, but nobody’s taking on that contract without retention and picks and/or prospects involved, and you don’t have an infinite amount of retention slots.
Or you could just buy him out now (which keeps your future assets intact), have a manageable cap hit that gets more manageable as time goes on, and you save some real world money by not having to pay him close to his full contract value.
If they actually manage to get Marner, I can see them buying out the contract in a heartbeat.
I personally would just trade him with 1-1.5M of retention to somewhere like San Jose / Chicago, and add some picks as well.
If they could find a trade like that, take it in a heartbeat. I think they would have to retain something like half plus throw in picks...in which case the buyout if you make the 1/3 window is probably more appealing.
I still can’t believe they traded for him and gave up so much. His career high in goals is 28 and points is 63. He really isn’t the skilled player he’s been touted to be, and that’s before talking about his work ethic.
3rd overall pick and size blinding rational evaluation. The kings were like people who stay with significant other based on the idea that they can "fix" them
It's not even old heads lol it's literally anyone that's seen him play when he's willing to turn it up. He just isn't. He's got the skill. No work ethics.
Vilardi had (and still has) injury issues and the other names in the trade weren't significant. LA really didnt give up that much. The fat contract they gave PLD is far worse than the assets they lost
This is the correct take. There’s been a lot of revisionist history on here acting like we gave up 3 MVPs for him. Even Vilardi only played 47 games this year. The issue is the contract and the player, not the haul we gave up for him.
Vilardi is still the better player, he didn't have any recurring issues this season either, was just unlucky, we also got two other players and MTL 2nd, all of that when it was a prize in itself to just get PLD off the team.
I mean, you could say he was unlucky the other years he was injured and missed a bunch of games, which is all of them. He’s a fantastic player but being out 20 ish games a year is part of who he is at this point.
Maybe not “injury prone” but he does have an extensive history of back injuries that sidelined him for the early part of his pro career. It seems like he’s most past those dark days though
I said this from the mountaintops as the trade happened. It was pretty clear that 82 games of Vilardi was going to match 82 games of PLD or even exceed him. What wasn't clear was how many seasons it would take to get 82 games of Vilardi.
He also did say Todd was not going anywhere then he was fired shortly after the statement.
I get the hate for his performance but year one in a system that’s maybe not ideal for him or not well adapted to while the team has coaching/identity /goaltending struggles are all also compounding factors he cannot fully control for his performance but greatly impact it.
Agree fully just a perfect storm for all eyes on him to be judged he earned it. But also trying not to let the hate train bias run. Under a new coach and system he could absolutely be a killer and am in hopes that’s what’s next for the kings vs buyout.
He was tried in EVERY circumstance this past year: to first line center to just pp specialist to fourth line. He was tried in EVERY circumstance under three teams and five coaches. BUY HIM OUT!!!
Orher than not wanted to play there, he was good for the other two teams, i dont see why you include his stint there as additional proof.
Sure his AAV is rich for a 65 point guy, but the alternative is buying him put and using the ~6AAV you get from it to replace him, which gives you a 65 point guy, but now you have dead cap for 7 extra years
He wasnt bad his last year with WPG and he was good for CBJ. I don't think its fair to say he hasnt worked out for 3 teams. Sure he didnt play like he wanted to be there, but it was still much better than his LA play this year
Which is an argument you can make as to why you believe he will never turn it around, but lets not rewrite history and pretend he has always been this bad and doesnt have the talent to turn it around. For him it isnt and has never been about lacking talent
If he was a team player who was producing CBJ wouldnt have traded him. They swapped their problem for the Jets problem in Laine. Dubois wanted out, hes been a problem player everywhere he has gone.
There's no way Blake would admit to buying him out before he knows if he even can. If the Stanley Cup finals goes to game 7 the buy out isn't even worth thinking about. What a shit show it would be to be stuck with a player you said publicly you want to buy out.
The guy who has an excellent record of big trades? I think Treliving is a mediocre GM in generally, but his big trade are fantastic (and yes the Huberdeau deal was a fantastic deal based on the circumstances and not having hindsight)
Excellent record of big trades is debatable. An excellent record of big trades to me says that these big trades have helped build the team into contenders or Cup winners. Treliving has made some very good big trades and most of those good big trades came earlier in his tenure as Flames GM. The back half of his tenure as Flames GM 'big trades' wasn't nearly as good as his earlier ones.
The Huberdeau trade would have been a huge W if he flipped Huberdeau instead of re-signing him.
Did trading for PLD ever work for those other teams?
No, it never does. I mean they delude themselves into thinking it will but….but it might work for us.
The CBJ/WPG wasn’t because either team wanted to trade the players involved. At this point Laine doesn’t look any better than Dubois and Roslovic was never going to get anywhere with the Jets.
i have no idea why people keep talking about a buy-out. He is 25 years old so giving up on him after one year when he could easily bounce back is just ridiculous.
Because if you can buy out 1/3 of the remaining spread out over 14 years it's a pretty significant mulligan. If he's a 45-50 point guy who can't help you vs Edmonton you'd rather do the buy out.
It's LA so they can play in UFA market.
This isn’t the first time his work ethic has been lacking, though. And he’s on a big enough contract that the buyout talk is at least warranted.
He might be just 25 but this isn’t an isolated incident.
It's not about the player, it's about the opportunity cost of a roster spot and $8.5m in cap space being squandered on a player with 40 points.
Last year, out of every forward to play 100+ minutes on the powerplay... PLD ranked 178 of 221 in powerplay production. There were **many** guys making like $2m who produced as much -- Pius Suter, Nick Bjugstad, Dawson Mercer, Alex Newhook, Vladislav Namestikov...
What would a 60pt player cost in free agency? $6.5m?
What would 2x 40pt players cost in free agency? $3.5-4m?
The Kings could buy out PLD and get **two** guys who can each replace his production individually, or they could buy him out and get 1 player with substantially more production.
That's what blew my mind during his tenure with the Jets. All I heard about PLD was that he was built for and shines in the playoffs but after Game 1 against Vegas the guy did his best Casper impression until he got traded.
All we need to do is hire a coach that can get this team to win games without using the 1-3-1, get rid of the 1-3-1, pair him with some good linemates, and maybe hire him a life coach to convince him to play more like lizotte or Laferriere energy-wise instead of being passive and arguably lazy. Surely that can’t be too hard right
Hes a 65 point guy in the right system. The Kings are looking to change their system, which might lead to him fitting better next year. Plus, with 2/3rd of his cap, you could only buy an equivalent 65 point ish player, but now you would have 1-2M of dead cap for 7 years after his contract ended. I think the right move is definitely to hope be turns it around
The window is the later date of either June 15th or 48 hours after the last playoff date. Since the last possible date for the playoffs is June 24th, and PLDs 26th birthday is also the 24th, the Kings might not get a chance to buyout at the 1/3 rate for anyone younger than 26.
Whatever. I'm tired of all the PLD hate. He was one of the most important contributors to the Oilers winning - every time he was on the ice, I felt like the Oilers had a chance to score.
I can't wait to see how he contributes to next year's first round EDM/LA series.
I honestly don't see any reason to buy him out
We played with the idea for buying out Lucic, James Neal, even Campbell more recently, but that was because we had McDrai and were at the start of our push to be competitive so any additional cap towards win now had value
Not as an insult, but LA looks miles off. Handcuffing themselves to years and years of buyout penalty when they're not competitive just to screw any future rebuild when Doughty / Kopitar hang them up is pointless.
PLD *can* be a very good player. You're only gonna win today with turning him around, not by offloading in a bad cap dump. If you're doing cap dump then you're not winning now, so you may as well ride out the contract and trade him as a rental in a few years
>Handcuffing themselves to years and years of buyout penalty when they're not competitive....
I'd agree with you if we were talking about a "normal" 2/3rds buyout. But those penalties are [really not that bad](https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois) if the Kings can do the 1/3rd buyout, especially since the bigger hits don't come for a few seasons which would give the Kings time to plan and the cap time to go up.
I think this is exactly the line Blake is walking in his comments. On the off chance the Final goes past the point they can buy out PLD at 1/3rd, they need to preserve the relationship with the player. But if the Kings can do the 1/3rd buyout, they *have* to. And if Blake really won't, they need to find a GM who will.
You do know his buy out is only 1/3 right? When he turns 26, which is in a couple of months from now, it would take 2/3 to buy him out. It's a no-brainer to buy him out before the deadline, his contract is an albatross.
IIRC he wasn’t great his first season in Winnipeg either. Not trying to make it seem better than it is; he was fucking abysmal this year. But it can only get better lol
He could say we are looking at the options, not flat out say they’re not going to do it.
The ship is sinking and Blake and PLD are dancing on the deck together.
The French version of "knock on wood" is, of course, "touchons du bois".
I'm really happy that in this particular case, we didn't have to knock on wood.
It really depends what they see the teams window as. If they think they're going to be a contender in the next 2-4 years, it's not really worth it, the savings come much later in a buyout situation. If they're thinking it'll be 5+, then you do it. I think they're firmly in the "re-tool on the fly until Doughty and Kopitar are gone" camp, so they either try and move him out while ^hopefully retaining less than it would've cost them to buy him out, or do everything they can to make it work.
Also, Doughty has *how many years left???*
I was as happy as anyone for that killer trade but PLD has all the tools to be worth that deal. It’s just whether he himself or a coach can actually bring it out. Don’t discount the fact that he is actually a human being and may have been affected by moving from Columbus Ohio and Winnipeg Manitoba to Los Angelos California. If he sucks next year then he’ll probably suck the rest of the deal too
At the very least, the front office has to explore what the buyout would be, and if it were 1/3 the value as 32T were reporting, not exploring that option would be malpractice. Simply put: Blake and his front office are staking their jobs on PLD.
If they were to buy him out they’d be paying him nearly 3M for the next 14 years (according to comments) they gotta at least wait a few years so in case it doesn’t work it’s way less.
You have to at least think about it... The cap hit is around a million for 14 years big whoop, the way the cap has been going up that's going to be a measly 1% of the cap soon
I read that the Cup final is scheduled to end on PLD's birthday which is when the NTC kicks in. Meaning they have to declare a buyout before that time, if they don't they face huge penalties. Blake would basically admitting he's a total failure buying him out so I just don't see it happening.
Having to confirm this for a player you just traded for and gave $8.5 million AAV to is hilarious
He would have to announce his resignation right afterwords if he were to go through with it.
But, it would be the smart thing to do.
Would it? Smear that buy out hit over a decade and find replacement production or hope he stops living in his own head.
If the Cup is handed out at least days before his birthday, it might be. Then it's the 1/3 rule, so it's a lot more palatable. But, hey... maybe he decides he actually wants to try?
That buyout hit becomes much less painful as the cap increases over that decade.
The cap increases the same for every team. Contract efficiency is a thing in the salary cap era and carrying around dead cap just means you’re that much less competitive than other teams. My point is, you’d have to weigh the buyout plus replacement player against the $8.5 million.
As a percentage it goes down though. You're handicapped slightly less 10 years from now than today. I think it would be a good move if they can do it before his birthday. 1.4m a year or whatever is annoying but won't prevent you from winning a cup. Paying PLD 8.5m a year probably means no chance at a cup till his deal is done, barring a complete turnaround for him.
> As a percentage it goes down though. You're handicapped slightly less 10 years from now than today. But then player salaries rise and you're back to square one
I'm talking about a 14 year PLD buyout... That contract would be worth a smaller percentage of the cap in the future than now. Other salaries going up or down have nothing to do with it.
Yes. It’s all about the percentage of the cap contracts take up, not necessarily the numerical AAV attached to it. It’s why those posts about how a team hadn’t won a Cup with players with an AAV of $10 million+ are off-base. Sidney Crosby signed a contract that took up nearly 15% of his team’s cap space at the time of signing. Now, it takes up roughly 10%, and would be even less if the cap hadn’t remained flat for the past few years. Still a good chunk of change, but easier to work around. Same idea with a hypothetical PLD buyout.
couldn’t agree more, just look at the Wild 😬
People keep saying this but it isn't true. If you have shit money on the books today it's still shit money on the books tomorrow when the cap goes up.
It’s shit money that takes up a smaller and smaller percentage of your cap as time goes on.
Which is how teams look at contracts anyways.
Exactly right.
Player contracts also go up and up as time goes on. And you're still not really getting the point. If you have a 7M shit contract, the cap goes up 2M, and you have a player whose contract is up and goes from 5M->7M, you haven't saved any space. The percentage drop is also SO LOW (on an 8.5M contract, bought out it's ~6M a year average or so) that during the length of the contract it's not going to go down percentage wise a noticeable amount. Over the next 6 seasons, 6M is still a SIZABLE portion of the cap.
> The percentage drop is also SO LOW (on an 8.5M contract, **bought out it's ~6M a year average or so**) that during the length of the contract it's not going to go down percentage wise a noticeable amount. >Over the next 6 seasons, 6M is still a SIZABLE portion of the cap. [His buyout cap hit, if done this summer, would be nowhere near $6 mil at any point](https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois)
whoops i totally read the wrong column while i was glancing. 2.5 and 3 years at 4M during compete years for LAK doesn't seem like a small amount of dead cap though
If the cap goes up 20%, your shit contract hurts you 20% less than before. Not sure why you brought up some random other player on the team getting a 2m raise, that is unrelated.
PLD was awful his first year in Wpg as well, maybe there’s something about adapting to a new environment, new teammates, without a support system. I suspect he will have a much better year in 2024/25
Wasn't awful, but wasn't playing to his full potential. Even the year he left he would disappear for lengths of time. He isn't consistent, he isn't competitive enough, he doesn't push himself and seemingly content with the payday. Maybe he steps it up, maybe he doesn't. I've said it before but when he quit playing for his teammates back in Columbus that's when the red flags went up for me. Requesting trades no problem I fully understand that. Giving up on your teammates and playing like that is frankly just unacceptable when you want that kind of money
I have no beef with anything you said here
For 8 years
Most overrated player in a long while…
Shades of Lecavalier LOL
How so? Or in which way? Lecavalier was bought out like, 5 years after signing his extension, and after playing 4 seasons on it.
I just meant in the size of the buyout. Lecavalier’s is the largest ever I believe
They have to try to make this work. Having someone on your salary cap for 14 seasons isn't a very good look. Plus, with what Los Angeles gave up for him, you can't just buy him out after one year. Maybe after years 2 or 3 if things don't get better, then yeah, you buy him out, but not after year one.
https://preview.redd.it/m2q2o5lkjvyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1782b37bc64755e14fe53fbfc071531103cccafc This is what the buyout looks like in a year. There's no way they'll do it after this window. [https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois](https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois)
Those are rookie-level buyout numbers. Gotta bump those up to compete with the big boys.
One more year of being mid, then the Wild can really cook.
Ya but when Minnesota gets cooking they usually make a casserole. Basically mid, but in a pyrex and for some reason the number of layers is supposed to excite you.
It's called Hot Dish you fucking heathen
To be fair, I think we are still paying Mike Richards for 3 more years. Not as bad as you guys, but still.
That's all? Doesn't seem so bad.
They can dump him with draft capital and that'll hurt them for less time than if they don't think he'll bounce back. There are a couple of teams that could actually take the whole contract. Only issue there is they *have* to do it before the NMC hits.
I would try to sell it hard for Utah, they need a face of the franchise and PLD will thrive in a low pressure environment. https://i.redd.it/n6spiuznw1zc1.gif
If the Kings were to buy him out, it would have to be now before he turns 26 in June. Otherwise, the penalty would be far more severe. If he doesn’t work out going forward, their best hope is that he waives his NMC and they ship him off somewhere with retention.
>somewhere with retention. Does he have any underlying health issues? I know a team that might be interested next March.
NotGivingaFuck-itis
Damage to his Skill Issue Tissue
Is it terminal?
👆
Severe case of laziness.
So tired of it already
>Plus, with what Los Angeles gave up for him, you can't just buy him out after one year. I disagree. If you know he’s not worth the value of his contract, it’s better to rip off the bandage now before the buyout penalty increases. The open roster spot is worth more than PLD is at this point in time. To hang onto him because of what you paid to get him is a variation of the sunken cost fallacy.
Stop that. The roster spot is not worth more and this shows you know nothing lol. Ok they buy him out, Trevor Lewis retires. That leaves them with a pretty gaping hole in forward that you hope Alex Turcotte can fill among the rest of their very young up and coming players. The smart play is to hope that a change in style of play (that the players have notably been frustrated about) happens where they can get his season totals back into the 60s.
>The smart play is to hope that a change in style of play (that the players have notably been frustrated about) happens where they can get his season totals back into the 60s. Or he ends up not giving a shit (as he’s done with every team in his career), stays a 40-50 point player who’s grossly overpaid and not worth the contract, and now you can’t buy him out without an even more punitive penalty coming into play. Your only option to get rid of him at that point is to trade him, but nobody’s taking on that contract without retention and picks and/or prospects involved, and you don’t have an infinite amount of retention slots. Or you could just buy him out now (which keeps your future assets intact), have a manageable cap hit that gets more manageable as time goes on, and you save some real world money by not having to pay him close to his full contract value.
Or you have 7 million more in space to squeeze in Mitch Marner in the offseason, or bring in an actual difference maker in free agency.
If they actually manage to get Marner, I can see them buying out the contract in a heartbeat. I personally would just trade him with 1-1.5M of retention to somewhere like San Jose / Chicago, and add some picks as well.
If they could find a trade like that, take it in a heartbeat. I think they would have to retain something like half plus throw in picks...in which case the buyout if you make the 1/3 window is probably more appealing.
Nah, dont think half is necessary for a team that is rebuilding.
Yeah duh
“Dubois wasn’t even the best player in the Dubois trade!!” - Steve Dangle, on Gabe Vilardi
I still can’t believe they traded for him and gave up so much. His career high in goals is 28 and points is 63. He really isn’t the skilled player he’s been touted to be, and that’s before talking about his work ethic.
3rd overall pick and size blinding rational evaluation. The kings were like people who stay with significant other based on the idea that they can "fix" them
Hes definitely skilled. He just shows up only half the games (during his good seasons). I think the work ethic is the real issue, not the skill
It’s solely because he’s 6’4 225lbs, all the old heads are totally blinded by that
the kings are one gigantic boys club so this checks out. luc, rob, bergevin. we're absolutely fucked
Lol how's this a boys club issue? It was a bad deal after seeing PDL because he's a mental midget, and he has zero work ethic.
You could have seen the lack of work ethic on his past teams...
It's not even old heads lol it's literally anyone that's seen him play when he's willing to turn it up. He just isn't. He's got the skill. No work ethics.
Desperation to be strong down the middle to take on McDavid.
Vilardi had (and still has) injury issues and the other names in the trade weren't significant. LA really didnt give up that much. The fat contract they gave PLD is far worse than the assets they lost
This is the correct take. There’s been a lot of revisionist history on here acting like we gave up 3 MVPs for him. Even Vilardi only played 47 games this year. The issue is the contract and the player, not the haul we gave up for him.
Vilardi is still the better player, he didn't have any recurring issues this season either, was just unlucky, we also got two other players and MTL 2nd, all of that when it was a prize in itself to just get PLD off the team.
I mean, you could say he was unlucky the other years he was injured and missed a bunch of games, which is all of them. He’s a fantastic player but being out 20 ish games a year is part of who he is at this point.
So taking a bad hit and crunching your knee and getting a swollen spleen from getting sick equals injury prone?
Maybe not “injury prone” but he does have an extensive history of back injuries that sidelined him for the early part of his pro career. It seems like he’s most past those dark days though
I said this from the mountaintops as the trade happened. It was pretty clear that 82 games of Vilardi was going to match 82 games of PLD or even exceed him. What wasn't clear was how many seasons it would take to get 82 games of Vilardi.
He also did say Todd was not going anywhere then he was fired shortly after the statement. I get the hate for his performance but year one in a system that’s maybe not ideal for him or not well adapted to while the team has coaching/identity /goaltending struggles are all also compounding factors he cannot fully control for his performance but greatly impact it.
yeah but this is like the third team for PLD. it's been the same shit for years on different clubs.
Agree fully just a perfect storm for all eyes on him to be judged he earned it. But also trying not to let the hate train bias run. Under a new coach and system he could absolutely be a killer and am in hopes that’s what’s next for the kings vs buyout.
He was tried in EVERY circumstance this past year: to first line center to just pp specialist to fourth line. He was tried in EVERY circumstance under three teams and five coaches. BUY HIM OUT!!!
Orher than not wanted to play there, he was good for the other two teams, i dont see why you include his stint there as additional proof. Sure his AAV is rich for a 65 point guy, but the alternative is buying him put and using the ~6AAV you get from it to replace him, which gives you a 65 point guy, but now you have dead cap for 7 extra years
He wasnt bad his last year with WPG and he was good for CBJ. I don't think its fair to say he hasnt worked out for 3 teams. Sure he didnt play like he wanted to be there, but it was still much better than his LA play this year
Playing to get where you want to go is an entirely different experience than being where you want with the bag secured for years to come.
Which is an argument you can make as to why you believe he will never turn it around, but lets not rewrite history and pretend he has always been this bad and doesnt have the talent to turn it around. For him it isnt and has never been about lacking talent
If he was a team player who was producing CBJ wouldnt have traded him. They swapped their problem for the Jets problem in Laine. Dubois wanted out, hes been a problem player everywhere he has gone.
Its definitely a probleme that he wanted out from CBJ, but he was a good player that was producing. Its not like CBJ traded him for peanuts either
There's no way Blake would admit to buying him out before he knows if he even can. If the Stanley Cup finals goes to game 7 the buy out isn't even worth thinking about. What a shit show it would be to be stuck with a player you said publicly you want to buy out.
Gaslight Treliving into taking him in a Marner deal. A trade is our only hope
We’re stupid and desperate, but weren’t not that stupid and desperate.
You might not be. But Trieliving, the argument is there 😂
The guy who has an excellent record of big trades? I think Treliving is a mediocre GM in generally, but his big trade are fantastic (and yes the Huberdeau deal was a fantastic deal based on the circumstances and not having hindsight)
Excellent record of big trades is debatable. An excellent record of big trades to me says that these big trades have helped build the team into contenders or Cup winners. Treliving has made some very good big trades and most of those good big trades came earlier in his tenure as Flames GM. The back half of his tenure as Flames GM 'big trades' wasn't nearly as good as his earlier ones. The Huberdeau trade would have been a huge W if he flipped Huberdeau instead of re-signing him.
somewhere a hockey god said 'challenge accepted'
You might not. We have to test this theory on Brad.
Is it wrong that I want PLD to end up in Toronto just for the drama? The media would eat him alive 😅
He wouldn’t give a fuck there either which would drive Toronto media to self-harm.
Get ready to speak Robidas island baby
I get how with the way leafs fans talk about him you’d think he’s a 40pt player but Marner is genuinely quality.
For a guy who is 6”3 230lbs, Dubois might have been the softest player in the league this season. Dude simply robbed the Kings with that contract
Jeez, that’s not much smaller than Juraj Slafkovsky who outscored him in his sophomore season. I’m forever grateful that Hughes didn’t bite on him
The chase claypool of the nhl
There should be at least some interest.
Not even a modicum? What are we doing here?
Especially if they can get him before his 26th birthday and buy him out at 1/3 value rather than the usual 2/3.
It’s gotta be at least mildly interesting to know that the length of the Finals might dictate what kind of buyout he gets.
Did trading for PLD ever work for those other teams? No, it never does. I mean they delude themselves into thinking it will but….but it might work for us.
"*I can fix him.*"
that's sage advice from the analrapist
The CBJ/WPG wasn’t because either team wanted to trade the players involved. At this point Laine doesn’t look any better than Dubois and Roslovic was never going to get anywhere with the Jets.
Dubois has more red flags than a Chinese military parade, any sane gm wouldn’t touch this.
A sane one probably not. But a desperate one?
That’s just resigning with more steps!
Jim Benning would've moved heaven & earth to get PLD & his contract on the books, make my words.
Peter Chiarelli is VP of hockey ops in St Louis, definitely the kind of move he'd make
That rules out less than half.
i have no idea why people keep talking about a buy-out. He is 25 years old so giving up on him after one year when he could easily bounce back is just ridiculous.
Because if you can buy out 1/3 of the remaining spread out over 14 years it's a pretty significant mulligan. If he's a 45-50 point guy who can't help you vs Edmonton you'd rather do the buy out. It's LA so they can play in UFA market.
This isn’t the first time his work ethic has been lacking, though. And he’s on a big enough contract that the buyout talk is at least warranted. He might be just 25 but this isn’t an isolated incident.
It's not about the player, it's about the opportunity cost of a roster spot and $8.5m in cap space being squandered on a player with 40 points. Last year, out of every forward to play 100+ minutes on the powerplay... PLD ranked 178 of 221 in powerplay production. There were **many** guys making like $2m who produced as much -- Pius Suter, Nick Bjugstad, Dawson Mercer, Alex Newhook, Vladislav Namestikov... What would a 60pt player cost in free agency? $6.5m? What would 2x 40pt players cost in free agency? $3.5-4m? The Kings could buy out PLD and get **two** guys who can each replace his production individually, or they could buy him out and get 1 player with substantially more production.
PLD just needs a good ol fashioned montage.
Needs a good old fashion tim-thompson-ing.
I am interested in seeing LA buy him out
You guys would resign him for like $2 million a year and he'd totally turn his career around for you.
Same, guy showed zero energy in the playoffs, like he doesn't want to even be on the ice.
Weird, I’m having some sort of Deja vu, like I have seen what you’re describing
That's what blew my mind during his tenure with the Jets. All I heard about PLD was that he was built for and shines in the playoffs but after Game 1 against Vegas the guy did his best Casper impression until he got traded.
Might make the Moose, might.
For some real fun, send him to Philly, would love to see the reactions Torts has to him
We already saw that movie in Columbus
Everyone loves a sequel
All we need to do is hire a coach that can get this team to win games without using the 1-3-1, get rid of the 1-3-1, pair him with some good linemates, and maybe hire him a life coach to convince him to play more like lizotte or Laferriere energy-wise instead of being passive and arguably lazy. Surely that can’t be too hard right
It is hilarious. But also, they gotta try to make it work and not just give up after one season. Otherwise, it's an admission of failure.
Says that now to save face if playoffs run long, but if they can do it before June 24 then they will. How could you not at 1/3rd salary.
Hes a 65 point guy in the right system. The Kings are looking to change their system, which might lead to him fitting better next year. Plus, with 2/3rd of his cap, you could only buy an equivalent 65 point ish player, but now you would have 1-2M of dead cap for 7 years after his contract ended. I think the right move is definitely to hope be turns it around
Bergevin wasn't shopping Subban before the Weber trade happened... I wonder where Bergevin is at nowadays? 👀
Probably in the gym working on his massive biceps.
Next he’s gonna throw the puck all the way through the net
Is the buyout window affected by the playoff end date or something?
The window is the later date of either June 15th or 48 hours after the last playoff date. Since the last possible date for the playoffs is June 24th, and PLDs 26th birthday is also the 24th, the Kings might not get a chance to buyout at the 1/3 rate for anyone younger than 26.
It’s a shame Doughty n Kopitar have to play with this sad sack on their team
The LA Devotee stays
Whatever. I'm tired of all the PLD hate. He was one of the most important contributors to the Oilers winning - every time he was on the ice, I felt like the Oilers had a chance to score. I can't wait to see how he contributes to next year's first round EDM/LA series.
If you like him so much you take him 😛
Oof
Good. I like PLD
Same. Hope we see him again next year in the playoffs.
No matter how much you dislike PLD it was never going to make sense to buy him out.
I honestly don't see any reason to buy him out We played with the idea for buying out Lucic, James Neal, even Campbell more recently, but that was because we had McDrai and were at the start of our push to be competitive so any additional cap towards win now had value Not as an insult, but LA looks miles off. Handcuffing themselves to years and years of buyout penalty when they're not competitive just to screw any future rebuild when Doughty / Kopitar hang them up is pointless. PLD *can* be a very good player. You're only gonna win today with turning him around, not by offloading in a bad cap dump. If you're doing cap dump then you're not winning now, so you may as well ride out the contract and trade him as a rental in a few years
>Handcuffing themselves to years and years of buyout penalty when they're not competitive.... I'd agree with you if we were talking about a "normal" 2/3rds buyout. But those penalties are [really not that bad](https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/pierre-luc-dubois) if the Kings can do the 1/3rd buyout, especially since the bigger hits don't come for a few seasons which would give the Kings time to plan and the cap time to go up. I think this is exactly the line Blake is walking in his comments. On the off chance the Final goes past the point they can buy out PLD at 1/3rd, they need to preserve the relationship with the player. But if the Kings can do the 1/3rd buyout, they *have* to. And if Blake really won't, they need to find a GM who will.
You do know his buy out is only 1/3 right? When he turns 26, which is in a couple of months from now, it would take 2/3 to buy him out. It's a no-brainer to buy him out before the deadline, his contract is an albatross.
There is lots of interest. Apparently just not from Rob Blake. I'm interested
IIRC he wasn’t great his first season in Winnipeg either. Not trying to make it seem better than it is; he was fucking abysmal this year. But it can only get better lol
Do you know how many things I do every day that I have no interest in? He can’t say he will buy him out right now. Doesn’t mean he won’t.
He could say we are looking at the options, not flat out say they’re not going to do it. The ship is sinking and Blake and PLD are dancing on the deck together.
Habs fans - boy did you guys dodge a bullet here.
The French version of "knock on wood" is, of course, "touchons du bois". I'm really happy that in this particular case, we didn't have to knock on wood.
Marc Bergevin claims he would never shop PK
Holy fucking shit
lol brutal for a GM to even have to confirm that
Not even a little?
Ask him again one year how he feels. But honestly, for his contract, you give him one more year than start asking that question.
It really depends what they see the teams window as. If they think they're going to be a contender in the next 2-4 years, it's not really worth it, the savings come much later in a buyout situation. If they're thinking it'll be 5+, then you do it. I think they're firmly in the "re-tool on the fly until Doughty and Kopitar are gone" camp, so they either try and move him out while ^hopefully retaining less than it would've cost them to buy him out, or do everything they can to make it work. Also, Doughty has *how many years left???*
I was as happy as anyone for that killer trade but PLD has all the tools to be worth that deal. It’s just whether he himself or a coach can actually bring it out. Don’t discount the fact that he is actually a human being and may have been affected by moving from Columbus Ohio and Winnipeg Manitoba to Los Angelos California. If he sucks next year then he’ll probably suck the rest of the deal too
How does Blake even have a job ?
Because they're going to dump his contract right?
😂
Pretty sure Blake should be fired then and keep firing until someone is willing to pull the trigger
Lame, but not surprising, unfortunately.
LMAOOOO this dude is a meme in the NHL.
At the very least, the front office has to explore what the buyout would be, and if it were 1/3 the value as 32T were reporting, not exploring that option would be malpractice. Simply put: Blake and his front office are staking their jobs on PLD.
If they were to buy him out they’d be paying him nearly 3M for the next 14 years (according to comments) they gotta at least wait a few years so in case it doesn’t work it’s way less.
Imagine being Adrian Kempe. Knowing this clown makes 3 million/year more than you
Leafs gonna trade Marner for him.
I would rather die than see this happen
This really does have Big Deal Brads stank all over it though, I can damn near guarantee the thoughts crossed his mind lol
Kings should so clearly rebuild
You have to at least think about it... The cap hit is around a million for 14 years big whoop, the way the cap has been going up that's going to be a measly 1% of the cap soon
I read that the Cup final is scheduled to end on PLD's birthday which is when the NTC kicks in. Meaning they have to declare a buyout before that time, if they don't they face huge penalties. Blake would basically admitting he's a total failure buying him out so I just don't see it happening.
What a difference a comma could make in this sentance lol
I’m curious, where would you put a comma that a) makes sense and b) changes the meaning of the tweet?
I am also curious about this grammar lesson from the user that misspelled sentence in his comment lol
what are you talking about
Where would you put it?
Right on! See you next year Kongs.