Youthful Exuberance Remains the Game Plan

Their players question it.

Impatient fans reject it.

And unrestricted free agents seeking a Kings’ ransom to show off their talents in Staples Center surely must hate it.

But, contrary opinions aside, the Kings are determined to build a Stanley Cup contender on their terms, by drafting and developing young talent, thumbing their noses at high-priced free agents, making prudent trades and always keeping an eye on the bottom line.

Slow and steady wins the race? It could be the Kings’ motto.

As implemented by club President Tim Leiweke and General Manager Dave Taylor, owner Philip Anschutz’s “fiscally responsible” philosophy has produced three consecutive 90-point seasons, a franchise first, and three consecutive trips to the playoffs under Coach Andy Murray, despite an ever-evolving roster.

What it has failed to deliver, so far, is playoff success beyond a first-round upset of the Detroit Red Wings two seasons ago.

After last spring’s opening-round elimination by the Colorado Avalanche, the general feeling seemed to be that Murray, a master motivator, had wrung just about all he could out of the overachieving Kings. Murray’s constant carping and the NHL’s best record over the season’s last 4 1/2 months got them into the playoffs despite a poor start.

Basically a one-line team throughout the season’s second half, the Kings won with defense and special teams, posting a club-record 2.29 goals-against average while ranking first in the league on the power play and third in penalty killing.

But even after their lack of offensive depth was exposed by series-ending injuries to Adam Deadmarsh and defenseman Philippe Boucher and a 4-0 Game 7 loss to the Avalanche in which scoring leader Jason Allison gamely played despite a painful charley horse, the Kings mostly stood idle during the summer.

While each of their division rivals added or retained key veterans, the Kings were outbid for their most prominent unrestricted free agents, Boucher and long-in-the-tooth winger Kelly Buchberger, and ignored all others with high price tags.

Still searching for a top-six forward nearly a year after the trade that brought Allison and sent Jozef Stumpel and Glen Murray to the Boston Bruins, the Kings made no attempt to lure Bill Guerin (41 goals with the Bruins last season), Teemu Selanne (29 with the San Jose Sharks), Tony Amonte (27 with the Chicago Blackhawks) or Bobby Holik (25 with the New Jersey Devils).

Instead, they trumpeted the signings of four greenhorns--20-year-old prospects Michael Cammalleri, Alexander Frolov, Jared Aulin and Yanick Lehoux--and made a few minor trades. One jettisoned late-season acquisition Cliff Ronning, a scoring leader with the Nashville Predators but a bust with the Kings.

“I don’t think there was anyone out there that at the end of the day we felt would have made a huge impact on this team,” Leiweke said, ignoring that only two Kings, Deadmarsh and Ziggy Palffy, scored more than 19 goals last season. “I think we’re pretty happy with what we’ve got.”

And besides, Leiweke reiterated for the umpteenth time, “I just don’t believe in spending tons of money on free agents. They lose their incentive.”

His opinion, of course, is not shared by all, least of all the Dallas Stars, Phoenix Coyotes and New York Rangers, who signed Guerin, Amonte and Holik. Nor by the Pacific Division champion Sharks, who re-signed Selanne.

King defenseman Mathieu Schneider, echoing his teammates’ concerns, wondered why management wasn’t willing to take the extra step to put the Kings over the top, suggesting that the team as constructed was only a key player or two away from joining the NHL’s elite.

Allison suggested that by not improving, the Kings got worse.

“Our conference is even stronger this season than it was last season, and look at how close the race was at the end of last season,” he said. “You can’t count on any young guy to come in and make your team better. You hope they do, but you can’t count on it.

“It’s not fair to them, either, to sit there and say, ‘You’re going to make the difference on our team this year,’ because none of these guys has played an 82-game schedule ... and none has played at anywhere near this level....

“You’ve got to be realistic.”

In that regard, at least, management seems to agree. Of the four much-hyped rookies signed over the summer, only Frolov remains on the roster.

Another reality for the Kings is that their summer slumber cost them fans. Kurt Schwartzkopf, vice president of sales and marketing for the team, said that of the 300 season-ticket holders who canceled their orders after last season, about 50 cited team performance (or, in this case, inactivity) as the primary reason.

In July, the Kings invited them to their prospects camp in El Segundo. Not all showed up, but the 30 or so who did were treated to free food and beer and invited to grill Leiweke, Taylor and Murray about the team’s plans.

According to Schwartzkopf, about half renewed their season seats, contributing to about an 85% renewal rate, which Schwartzkopf said is a little below average and about 10% less than last year, when the Kings rode the momentum of the first-round upset of the Red Wings the previous spring.

“Our fans are really loyal,” he said. “They’re super die-hards, especially the core season-ticket-holder base. They love watching kids grow in the system.”

The Kings are banking on it because they’re determined to erase the sins of the past, when prospects were mostly regarded as trade fodder, if they panned out at all, and the club usually chased short-term solutions.

None of their elite players were drafted by the Kings, but the club would like that to change in the future while it continues pursuing trades such as the deals that brought Allison, Deadmarsh, Palffy, Schneider, Bryan Smolinski, Mattias Norstrom, Aaron Miller and Felix Potvin.

“Obviously, everybody wants to win, and that’s what we want too,” Taylor said. “And we think that this process and this approach will make us a competitive team over the long haul, and that’s ultimately what we want....

“We’re closing the gap on the top teams, in my opinion, but we don’t want to trade away a lot of our youth or all of our draft choices just to take one quick stab at it. The general approach is a long-term approach, continuing to show patience.”

They only hope that their fans will come along for the ride.