Where is Walker??

That's been the question for him and Wagner: I like Walker and Wagner, but I worry if they are defensive liabilities. That being said I wouldn't be surprised to see either in place for Prohorkin, Luff, Amadio, Grundstrom, or JAD. This will all shake out after camp, but this is my best guess.

It's not like LAK has any cap problems but Grundstrom has only played 13 GP this year. I know he has the potential (top9/top6) but he isn't even a regular yet so you could get him for less than that ($), no?

Walker can easily get more than that.

Lizotte 4RW? Carter at C? And not a problem, but curious to see how the LD will do, all are rookies.

Aha! Another Kings colleague who thinks we should re-sign Ben Hutton!

My lines would be Kempe-Vilardi-Carter, Moore-Lizotte-Frk, Prokhorkin-JAD-Amadio to start.

What is the value on Macdermaid?

Re: Grunstrom, It's a fair point, I actually wanted to sign him for that rate for three years, the more money is to entice him to allow a two-way contract for the first year. Of the NHL prospects, I am biased in thinking he should be signed for multiple years cheap before he can potentially tear it up.

I see Lizotte essentially become Lewis, and moved around as needed, he can still take faceoffs, but I expect JAD to push play on both ends of the ice.

The defense has all rookies paired with experienced NHL players, pretty normal for the Kings development curve. Though as I noted above, I wouldn't be surprised if the Kings signed another player.

MacDermid signed an extension a couple weeks ago. 2 years @ $875k.

TL;DR - i'm much more worried about the top six wings than defense.

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I don't think I agree that the Kings glaring weakness is defense. Sure, they could use a veteran LHD to eat up 20+ minutes per night so we don't have a 19/20 year old kid playing top pairing minutes, but aside from that, the defense is pretty solid all-around. I think Walker is better than you give him credit for. Pair him with someone who is defensively stable like Bjornfot or Anderson and I think he'll do much better. I expect will see him get a 3-4 year extension this summer.

The Kings glaring weakness IMO is at top-six wing. They have Kaliyev who appears to have been a steal at 33rd overall, but he still needs to work on his defensive game. Assuming all goes well, he could turn into the 1st line wing of the future. He just as easily turn into Nikita Scherbak, so lets temper our expectations. Outside of that, the Kings don't really have any top-six wingers. Iafallo and Frk are fine for the short-term, but I don't expect either of them to be around in 2023. Kempe is fine on the 2nd line for now, but I think he's destined for the 3LW slot. Madden and Fagemo or Kupari will end up rounding out that line.

However, with Brown, Iafallo, Frk, and Carter gone or relegated to the bottom six, who fills in the other gaps in the top six? One of Vilardi or Turcotte could move to right wing since there will be a logjam with Kopitar, but once Kopitar's play begins to decline at age 36-37 they'll both be needed at center. That leaves us with Kopitar, Kaliyev, Vilardi, and Turcotte as the top six from 2021-2024. Aside from that, anyone else you could pencil in would have to develop beyond their expectations to be quality top-six wingers.

I think your top six won't be too shabby, not even including their pick from this year, this group would be ready to compete. Though I agree there is a lot of boom-bust on the roster I present below, I'm not going to be upset if the Kings pick up a winger if they pick top 5 in the draft.

Kaliyev - Turcotte - Kupari
Fagemo - Vilardi - Madden
Iafallo -Kopitar - Brown
Grunstron - JAD - Frk/Thomas

I don't think either of Fagemo or Madden are top-six forwards.