Brodzinski is not just as good as Iafallo. Not even close. There's a reason why one of them played the entire season on the first line, and one only got into a handful of games on the fourth line. Brodzinski is 25 years old, if he hasn't developed into a quality player by now, it's not going to happen. His age also means that he'll be a UFA at the end of his next contract. Iafallo also plays LW, a position that the Kings have been shallow at for a very long time. If Blake has to choose between keeping Brodzinski or keeping Iafallo, there's no contest. If for whatever reason Iafallo does land in Blake's doghouse, there's no way they're simply going to not qualify him, as doing so means he becomes a UFA and walks for nothing. They'd qualify him and trade his rights to another team for something in return.

I'm convinced Forbort slept with your sister or something. It's the only explanation why every single one of your rosters has him getting shipped out. He's a quality stay-at-home defenseman that Doughty has praised for his exceptional positioning and stickwork. He's also signed at a very reasonable cap hit, so for a team that's in a cap crunch next season, he's a much more valuable option than Muzzin or Martinez. If Voynov does somehow rejoin this team (far from a sure thing), Blake will shop one of those two guys.

Finally, Lewis isn't going anywhere. Pearson, Toffoli, Muzzin, and Martinez would all get traded before Trevor Lewis. The value he brings to this team is worth much more than his $2M cap hit.

Did you watch every game last season? I did, and very closely. Forbort had at least 1 turn over or did some thing stupid every time he stepped on the ice. Can't tell you how many times Doughty had to bail him out... and I'm not sure if you know this, but Brodzinsky was supposed to be the 1st line LW before the season started. Iafallo impressed and came out of nowhere and got the spot. If you watched every game Brodzinsky played you'd know why i would choose him. He already has the nickname "The Panther Killer" that's more than Iafallo can say. And it's not about how many games he's played, what line, how many minutes, it's what he's done in that short time. Yes Iafallo had a good season he still didn't do much with the time he was given. I gaurentee Brodzy would have accomplished more. Brodzsinsy is more of a finisher than Iafallo and I can't wait to see what he'll do with more minutes. Hopefully we'll get a good look at him this season.

Brodzinsky goals vs Panthers
https://youtu.be/oV7VLFha7bc
https://youtu.be/NhyT7Evwl98

VS Capitals
https://youtu.be/1XnfP03ze_U

VS Tampa
https://youtu.be/FQAtCr-Hxjo

Btw you never heard of a late bloomer?

And another thing, you think Forbort is more valuable than Martinez or Muzzin??? You must not watch Kings games. If you were a kings fan and watched the games you'd see how VALUABLE Martinez is. Hes a great penalty killer and shot blocker, but he's also good offensively he's the exact image of a top 4 two way defenseman. And Muzzin, after the season he just had? He's the perfect pair for Doughty(but they give it to Forbort...) Muzzin brings a great defensive game especially physicality. He also know how to shoot the the puck. Forbort is like a generic Wal-Mart brand of Muzzin, Muzzin is 10x better offensively, 10x better defensively, 10x better physically. Forbort belongs in the AHL. Everybody seems to like Forbort, his numbers look fine. But the fact is, he's a shitty defenseman on a good team. Simple as that.

Forbort isn’t more important than Muzz or Marty, he plays a different role: putting Muzz and Doughty together is overkill, you need to spread them out. As far as Brodzinski vs Iafallo, I’m cheering for Brodzinski because I like his shot and motor, but you can’t discount the fact that Brown and Kopi had career years with Iafallo as a line mate. I’m sure the Kings are only expecting Iafallo to continue to improve so I agree that the Kings likely have Iafallo rated higher Brodzinski (for now). I did watch every game last year and to the eye test, Iafallo was constantly making things happen...

I won't argue that. My issue is I do not want Forbort on the team anymore. He's a liability on the ice. I never feel confident or comfortable when he's on the ice, especially on a PK. Things would be just fine if the D lineup was like this:
Muzzin Doughty
MacDermid Martinez
Phaneuf LaDue

I have season tickets. I've watched every Kings game since 1999 (and most of them before that since I can remember).

I don't think Forbort is "more valuable" than Martinez or Muzzin, but I do think that Forbort is "more value" than Martinez or Muzzin. In other words, I'd rather have Forbort at $2.5M than Muzzin or Martinez at $4M, especially if we're trying to bring on another $4M+ defenseman. Trading Forbort and adding Voynov in your lineup adds $1.5M to the defensive cost of this team, and with the Doughty extension, I don't think the Kings can afford to spend over $30M on defense when their clear problem is lack of scoring. Take away the salary cap, and I'd take Doughty, Muzzin, Martinez, and Voynov as my top 4. Keep the salary cap, and you can't keep all 4 of those guys.

As far as Forbort belonging in the AHL. I'll let Jon Rosen and Drew Doughty make the case of why he belongs in the NHL.

"Even though his usage was clearly aligned to the defensive zone – he had the lowest offensive zone start percentage out of Kings defensemen – his possession rates, relative to his teammates, rebounded into the black after last season. His shot suppression shots were good; his 28.6 SA/60 was the best out of any defenseman who spent the year with the team. He’ll never be known for his offense, but his 10 first assists, based partially on his ability to get pucks towards the front of the net for his teammates to deflect, impressively ranked fourth on the team and were, uh, twice as many as Jake Muzzin’s."

http://lakingsinsider.com/2018/05/23/player-evaluation-forbort-2/

“I think Forbs has turned into an amazing player,” Doughty said. “I don’t know if everyone realizes how good he is at defense. He’s like amazing at defense, he really is.”

http://lakingsinsider.com/2018/02/19/derek-forbort-found-defensive-groove/

Brodzinski was never touted as the 1LW. He might have been slotted for the top six, but he has never played a game at LW in his life. It's possible that they toyed with playing Brown at LW again and putting Brodzinski on their right, but that never happened. The fact that it never happened and that Brodzinski ended up getting sent back down to Ontario while Iafallo easily hurdled him on the depth chart his first year out of NCAA hockey only further shows how disappointing Brodzinski has been.

Look, I hope Brodzinski can turn his career around and amount to something in the NHL (despite all evidence and precedent suggesting that he won't). I'd absolutely love to have another solid C/RW prospect in the pipeline. I'll be the first one to cheer if he can turn it around. However, to say that he's just as good or even close to as good as Iafallo at this point in their careers has no basis in fact.

Buddy, Brodzinsky on 1stLW was a quote from Stevens straight from the LA insider. Look it up... it was between Cammalleri, Brodzinsky, and Iafallo.


"Player Evaluation: Derek Forbort
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LA KINGS
ONTARIO REIGN
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PLAYER EVALUATION: FORBORT
JON ROSENMAY 23, 2018920 COMMENTS
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Harry How/Getty Images

DEREK FORBORT
This season: 78 games, 1 goals, 17 assists, 18 points, 49 penalty minutes, +18 rating, 78 shots, +0.9% CF%Rel, 1.014 PDO, 20:47 time on ice
The good: Gradual and steady development has benefited Derek Forbort, who has admirably fine tuned his own offerings through 115 NCAA games, 187 AHL games and the first 174 games of his National Hockey League career. The kneejerk references to the fact that he was chosen one slot ahead of Vladimir Tarasenko or that he was the final first round pick from the 2010 draft to make his NHL debut will always exist, but Forbort has developed into a sturdy and reliable defender for Los Angeles and signed a relatively lucrative and hard-earned contract extension in October while a number of players called to the Staples Center stage before and after him on June 25, 2010 no longer play in the league. There has been a clear, if modestly sloped, upward trajectory in Forbort’s play, and in 2017-18, prior to the terribly timed knee injury that ultimately ended his season in Game #80, the slick-skating, left-shot, play-disrupting stay-at-home defender had demonstrated a number of advances in his game. His long wingspan leads to an active and very good stick that he uses expertly on the league’s top-ranked penalty kill, of which he averaged 2:42 per game, second only to Drew Doughty’s 2:45. That reach aligned well with the team’s reinforced use of stick checking. “I think he’s got the best stick on the D core,” Alec Martinez said in February. “He breaks up a lot of plays with his stick and part of that is it’s often times in the lane, and it’s in the lane because he’s in position. … He’s very sound defensively and he’s really smart back there, and saying that he has a really good stick, that’s not to take away from his ability to physically break things up. He’s a physical guy and he’s a huge asset to our D corps.” Doughty, meanwhile, always had the time to talk about Forbort’s defensive play. “Forbs is unbelievable at defense. Like, I can’t even explain how good that guy is at defense. He’s so good,” Doughty said in December. “The difference between him and Muzz is Muzz might be a little better at moving pucks, and that’s not a knock against Forbs, but Forbs’ defense, he might even be better than me at it. That’s how good Forbs’ defense is, and that’s how much confidence I have in his D.”

In 2016-17 he really began to heed a call to add snarl and competitiveness in the harder areas, and in the two weeks leading up to his injury this past year, his battle component appeared to be at an all-time high in his young career. “He’s really learned how to compete at a higher level than he probably did as a young player,” John Stevens said in March. This shouldn’t be understated, given the encouragement to add firmness to Forbort’s calm, cool and collected disposition. In back-to-back games just before Stevens’ observation, Forbort had returned to the ice after his ear was sliced open by a skate in an overtime win at Minnesota, and as part of a seven-block performance the next night, he blocked Dustin Byfuglien, Tyler Myers and Nikolaj Ehlers shots on the same two-plus-minute shift that was mostly comprised of shorthanded time. He is more of a player who uses his stick and positioning rather than pure, blunt heaviness, but he continued to add to his rugged play by coming to the defense of his teammates, as he did in the immediate aftermath of Patrick Maroon’s head shot on Drew Doughty. Even though his usage was clearly aligned to the defensive zone – he had the lowest offensive zone start percentage out of Kings defensemen – his possession rates, relative to his teammates, rebounded into the black after last season. His shot suppression shots were good; his 28.6 SA/60 was the best out of any defenseman who spent the year with the team. He’ll never be known for his offense, but his 10 first assists , based partially on his ability to get pucks towards the front of the net for his teammates to deflect, impressively ranked fourth on the team and were, uh, twice as many as Jake Muzzin’s.



The bad: Similar data to last year indicated that Forbort’s play was sustained by the substantial amount of time he played alongside Drew Doughty. And that’s all fine and good; the two have etched out a partnership, Forbort has essentially been effective there, and even if Doughty doesn’t play alongside a “two,” it helps balance out the rest of the Kings’ defensive corps, which over the past two seasons has become more mobile. But, for the second straight year, the underlying numbers illustrated that Doughty’s ability to push play towards the attacking end came more easier without Forbort (53.1 CF%) than with him (51.6%), and that Forbort was in the red, possession-wise, when moved away from Doughty. (Keep in mind, too, that Forbort’s skill set mean that he’s going to be assigned more defensive zone starts, muting some of his possession-based metrics.) And though he was the second most utilized shorthanded option, his numbers don’t exactly paint a picture of a shut-‘em-down, naturally born killer. In 4×5 penalty killing, he allowed the highest rate of scoring chances and high-danger scoring chances per 60 minutes among the defense, and the 20 power play goals scored while Forbort was on the ice in 4×5 situations was five more goals scored than any other King was on the ice for.

What you’ve seen with Forbort is likely what you’re going to get, but with added tenacity, grit, firmness, intangibles, etc, etc, etc. There are limitations in his play, especially in the offensive zone and in joining the rush, but as a smooth skater with a long reach and the ability to disrupt plays in the defensive end, he has carved out a useful niche as a middle-tier defenseman with the ability to hold his own while playing up a rung."

The bad outweighs the good. If you did watch the games then you are blind to eyeing out mistakes, especially the ones created by Forbort all season long. And I'm not talking about a couple mistakes here and there, ALL SEASON LONG. He is the most replaceable defenseman on the Kings blue line. And yes it would be hard to make Doughty, Muzzin, Martinez, and Voynov work. But if we did and there are ways. I can promise that group is just as capable as winning a cup as they were 5 years ago.

(First paragraph Yes, yes and yes; (second paragraph) yes, yes and yes; (third paragraph) yes; no, no, yes, yes; and yes.

I looked it up. Here's the only quote I can find from Stevens regarding Brodzinski:

"On Jonny Brodzinski’s opportunity on the top line:
I mean, I’ll say this: I really like Kopi and Brownie together. I really like where Brownie’s game’s at right now, and I think the two of them have played well together. They’ve really looked good in practice. Brodzinski has a skill set that can complement those players. He’s got quickness, he’s got a really quick release, he’s a competitive guy along the wall and he ends up in the right spots where the puck seems to find him in scoring areas. It’s something we just wanted to look at. Just the fact that he’s a young player, to me that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t at least get a look there, but he’s certainly got to show that he can be real responsible, because if he’s going to play with Kopi, even a little bit, he’s going to have to play against top guys. There’s a responsibility that goes along with that, but I don’t see any reason why he couldn’t have success there. Again, that’s not anything that’s locked in stone but it’s something we’d like to have a look at."

It says nothing about him playing on the left, only that he was being considered for the first line next to Kopitar and Brown. If they were going to run this configuration, Brown would have moved to the left and Brodzinski to the right, because, as I said previously, Brodzinski has never played a game at LW in his life, whereas Brown played several seasons there (including during the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs next to Kopitar and Williams).

Every player makes mistakes, including Forbort (and Doughty for that matter). Mistakes made by defensmen and goaltenders are often highlighted more than forwards because, more often than not, those mistakes end up in the net. Muzzin makes mistakes all the time (e.g. shooting into shinpads A LOT and leading to odd-man rushes in the other direction). Martinez's mistakes are generally on breakouts leading to turnovers coming out of his own zone. Despite being "offensively capable," he has a lot of problems with moving the puck to the forwards in the defensive and neutral zones.

The point is that every player in the league comes with the things they're good at, and the things that they're not so good at. Every player makes the highlight reel, both on the positive and negative side. Forbort is one of those players, like Scuderi, where if he's playing effectively, you won't hear his name at all. That's a good thing. The question is whether the overall package that you get in that player is worth the money you pay them. As I previously have said, I would much rather have Forbort at $2.5M than Muzzin or Martinez at $4M. If Forbort made $4M, then I'd have to re-evaluate my selection.

Concise and effective. I like it.

Are you serious right now? my bad... Kopitar is a center, Brown has always been a RW for the most part. Therefore they would put Brodzinsky on the Left. Lol. Brodzinsky has played on the Left before and a lot of wingers can play on both sides. Do you not understand how that works?

Muzzin and Martinez are both worth every bit of that 4M. Muzzin could probably make more....

Here, I found the lineup on LAKI from when they tried out Brodzinski on the top line:

"A few practice notes on this Wednesday afternoon.

The Kings skated at 10:00 a.m. and were color coded as such:

Gray: Brown-Kopitar-Brodzinski
White: Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
Purple: Andreoff-Kempe-Cammalleri
Yellow: Clifford-Shore-Lewis
Red: Iafallo-Laich-Dowd-Auger"

http://lakingsinsider.com/2017/09/27/september-27-practice-notes/

RW and LW are not the same. The responsibilities are different, not due to what side of the ice you're on, but rather due to the shift in your handedness and on-ice positioning. As right-handed forward, Brodzinski's stick would be in the middle of the ice rather than along the boards while skating vertically into the zone. Playing on the left, he'd be receiving passes from the middle of the ice on his backhand rather than on his forehand. It's not just as simple as "hey go stand on the other side of the ice." It takes a lot of time to learn a new position. For a player that's already a stretch to make the lineup, putting him at a disadvantage by playing him on his off-wing is both unfair to the player as well as a bad idea for the team.

I'm not saying that Muzzin and Martinez aren't worth $4M. I think either player could get more money playing on a team without cap issues. However, on THIS team, with the current salary cap implications and the fact that the Kings already have $28.5M locked up in defensemen for the 2019-20 season, Forbort is much more valuable to this team due to his age and contract value than either Muzzin or Martinez. The Kings are the best defensive team in the NHL already. They have terrible difficulty scoring goals. I would much rather use that $1.5M upgrading at offense than I would keeping a marginal upgrade at defense. Forbort is a quality defensive option for the salary he makes.