National Hockey League Draft : Kings Hope to Come Away Bigger and Better

The Kings, in need of all the help they can get after a season in which they finished 12 games below .500 and compiled the worst defensive statistics in the National Hockey League, will go looking for some today.

It’s draft day.

This hasn’t always been a good day for the Kings, although they snapped up Jimmy Carson with the No. 2 pick in 1986 and, miracle of miracles, landed Luc Robitaille with the No. 171 pick in 1984.

Their general lack of success in the draft, in fact, has prompted the Kings to overhaul their scouting system. General Manager Rogie Vachon promised this week that “major changes” would be announced after the draft.

For the time being, though, the Kings will make do with their present team of evaluators.

They have the seventh pick today and hope to find, in order of preference: a big right wing, a big left wing, a big defenseman.

“We need to get bigger if we want to compete against Edmonton and Calgary,” Vachon said. “We have some young, talented players who are going to be superstars in the future, but we need to bring in some people to protect these guys. What we need are better foot soldiers.”

The player coveted most by the Kings is Trevor Linden, a 6-foot 3-inch, 185-pound right wing. But Linden, who played last season at Medicine Hat, Canada, with two players drafted last year by the Kings, defenseman Wayne McBean and goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick, is expected to be taken either first by the Minnesota North Stars or second by the Vancouver Canucks.

Linden and center Mike Modano, who played last season at Prince Albert, Canada, are considered a cut above what is generally regarded as a weak draft pool.

The Kings’ first-round pick probably will be one of the five players they interviewed: right wing Daniel Dore, 6-2 and 202, who is rated No. 5 by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau; defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn, 6-0 and 205, who is rated No. 3, or left wings Scott Pearson, 6-1 and 203; Martin Gelinas, 5-10 and 196, and Chris Govedaris, 5-11 and 198, who are rated Nos. 6, 8 and 10.

Vachon said the Kings also are interested in Corey Foster, a 6-3, 200-pound defenseman who is rated No. 7.

Vachon, though, also said that except for Linden, Modano and a couple of others, there isn’t much to choose between the top 15 or 20 players, as evaluated by the Central Scouting Bureau.

The Kings, he said, have entertained several trade offers and, should they be offered a veteran player to their liking, they might make a deal that would leave them with a lower first-round draft choice.

“If we were (picking) first or second, I wouldn’t think of trading,” Vachon said. “But we could probably get the same (caliber of) player with the 15th or 20th pick as we could with the 7th.

“Even at 7, I could go all the way down to No. 15 or No. 20 on the Central Scouting list and not look stupid.”

Not right away, anyway.

It was Vachon who cast the deciding vote two years ago when his scouts were undecided between Carson and defenseman Shawn Anderson, who wound up with the Buffalo Sabres.

“You need a little luck in this game,” Vachon said.

Hockey Notes

Of the 43 players drafted by the Kings since Rogie Vachon took over as general manager in 1984, only Jimmy Carson and Luc Robitaille spent all of last season with the Kings. . . . If Mike Modano of Livonia, Mich., is the first player picked, he will be only the second American so honored. Brian Lawton was chosen first by the Minnesota North Stars in 1983.

After being conducted in Detroit last year, the only time it has ever been held outside Canada, the draft returns this year to Montreal. . . . The Kings will provide large-screen television coverage of the first two hours of the draft, with viewing at the Forum free to the public. The draft will start at 9 a.m., PDT. . . . Vachon expects the Quebec Nordiques, who have the Nos. 3 and 5 picks, to select French-Canadians Martin Gelinas and Daniel Dore, both of whom are Quebec natives.

Vachon predicted that Wayne McBean and Mark Fitzpatrick, the Kings’ top two picks in last year’s draft, would have a “big impact” on the Kings next season. McBean, his confidence shaken by his own mistakes and the generally poor play of the team, played only 27 games for the Kings last season before being sent back to his junior team at Medicine Hat, Canada. Fitzpatrick, who also played for Medicine Hat, was cut by the Kings in training camp. . . . Vachon said that left wing Sylvain Couturier, a fourth-round pick in 1986, would have an “excellent chance” of making the team next season.

With the No. 12 pick in Friday’s supplemental draft, the Kings took Sean Fitzgerald, a 6-foot 1-inch, 208-pound left wing from Oswego State University in Oswego, N.Y. . . . Craig Laughlin, obtained by the Kings in a trade with the Washington Capitals last February but offered only a termination contract by the Kings after the season, signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs.