No one saw it coming, but the Los Angeles Kings are the 2012 Stanley Cup champions — the first ever No. 8 seed to wipe out the competition and skate to victory, losing only four times along the way. Impressive.
But how did they do it?
Easily it seems, but in a more literal sense, how was this team assembled and why did it seem so simple? The National Hockey League in many ways is a copy cat league, so what steps did the Kings take that rival general managers will attempt to duplicate?
In looking at this Kings roster, one thing stands out: this is not a team that was built through free agency. Many teams subscribe to the theory that adding assets on July 1 for nothing more than the cost of a contract, and keeping their other assets like picks and players is the way to go. Yet only defencemen Rob Scuderi and Willie Mitchell were summer time UFA additions by Kings GM Dean Lombardi. Both Scuderi and Mitchell made significant contributions along the way, but no one can accuse Los Angeles of buying a title. The Kings did go all in a couple of seasons ago to try and land Ilya Kovalchuk and were ultimately unsuccessful, but this roster has been constructed by trades and solid drafting.
The Kings couldn’t have asked for more out of captain Dustin Brown, and he was the team’s first-round pick, 13th overall, in 2003. Anze Kopitar was picked 11th overall in the 2005 draft. This would also seem to snuff out the notion that a team cannot grab impact players outside of the top five or 10. It doesn’t hurt to have one of those lottery picks though, and the Kings hit a home run with their second-overall pick in 2008, Drew Doughty.
At some point you need some depth picks to pan out. Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Quick was a third-round selection in 2005; Alec Martinez, a fourth-rounder in 2007, played in every game of the playoffs.
However, it’s not exactly earth shattering news that to be a competitive team you need to draft well — that goes without saying. One of Lombardi’s true talents it seems, in conjunction with shrewd drafting, is the art of trading. Eight players that dressed in the Cup final were brought in by way of trade. Matt Greene and Jarret Stoll came to the Kings via Edmonton in a trade for Lubomir Visnovsky. Justin Williams was acquired from Carolina for Patrick O’Sullivan and a second-round pick. Dustin Penner was a deadline-day acquisition a year ago for Colten Teubert, a first- and second-round pick. Mike Richards was traded for Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and a second-rounder. Jeff Carter was swapped for Jack Johnson; Colin Fraser for Ryan Smyth. Some minor, some of the blockbuster variety, but Lombardi’s penchant for dealing was quite likely the biggest contributor to the Kings success. Trades of this magnitude are not without significant risk, and the popular belief is that had the Kings not gone on an impressive run this post-season Lombardi would have paid for it with his job.
Another tremendous gamble was the firing of head coach Terry Murray mid-season, replacing him with old friend Darryl Sutter. Many scoffed at both Sutter and Lombardi, feeling the game had passed them by. Yet there they were on Staples Center ice Monday night celebrating their first Stanley Cup championship.