Pass, the Kings haven't yet thrown in the towel on Petersen who would already be up if not for the play of Pheonix Copley and the weak play of Quick.

The Yotes have kept their price high on Chychrun, but only a ream with a true win-now window is going to pay such a high amount.

The Kings won't trade their 1st round pick 3 years in a row. Blake is not Rutherford.

I think the goalie part of the equation is unnecessary, but I'd argue back that LA already has more good-looking young forwards than roster spots available for them - if you can get Arizona interested on a package centered around Helenius/Grans/1st rounder, I think you gotta pull the trigger. Chych fits age-wise with the core on this team and fills the biggest current hole on the roster, and the West feels wide-open this year. Adding an impact player like him would make the Kings close to the favorites in the conference, I'd think.

Better yet: Chychrun = 2024 first, 2023 fourth, Jaret Anderson-Dolan or Carl Grundstrom, Martin Chromiak or Sam Fa-gem-o, and Sean Walker, and Vejmelka and Petersen stay where they are.

Edit: @dannibalcorpse's formulation (he was typing while I was typing) is also acceptable but I would add one of the young roster forwards mentioned above.

The current ask from the yotes is 2 -1sts and a blue chip prospect. That's too much to bolster offense (Kings already have offense at the blue line between Doughty, Durzi, Spence, and Clarke next season) the Kings need to be looking for Clarke's future d-pair and I don't think it should be Chychrun.

Lebrun says there's flexibility in Arizona based on the quality of prospects, so take that as you may - I think there's enough good, NHL-caliber prospects hiding in the Kings' system that you could offer a pair of higher-end players and a '24 1st, for example, and not kill your depth.

As far as Clarke, I would think you pair him with Mikey Anderson, no? I'll admit to not watching a ton of Kings games (i'm on the east coast! it's late! i'm sorry!!) but his defensive numbers look very, very good - he feels like a good, steady hand to pair with Clarke. If i'm Rob Blake, and I've just traded for Chych, I feel like I set up my lines like this next year:

Chych-Doughty
Anderson-Clarke
Durzi-Roy
Walker (trade bait)

I think that's a pretty solid depth chart, with a pair of stars on my top pair, a great veteran DFD-young OFD second pair, and a very solid dependable third pair - I'd argue Durzi/Roy could be second pair on a good handful of teams in the league, easily.

It looks great on paper, but Doughty is very particular with who he plays with, when forced into a defensive role (likely if paired with Chychrun) his metrics plummet. Anderson paired with Doughty has rejuvenated his career. Roy and Durzi are effective as a second pair, but the Kings will become world breakers if they can become the third pair and the Kings can acquire a shutdown player used to heavy minutes with a dynamic partner. Looking at how many goals the Kings have allowed and how many they scored, the focus needs to be in bolstering the blue line in their own zone. Rather than the alluring pick of Chychrun at a high cost, the Kings might be ready for a playoff run with a Gustav Forsling or Vladisov Gavrikov. It's not as fun, but it better addresses the Kings weaknesses and long-term needs (if they can secure an extension in Gavikov's case.)