EK's note:
We are proud to welcome Jason Lewis to our team here at HockeyBuzz to cover the LA Kings! He is a Southern California native and lifelong L.A. Kings fan. He’s been writing professionally on the Kings for various sites for a few years now. He has recently been writing with Hockey Prospect site Hockey’s Future on both the Kings and the Ducks youth systems. He is "happy to call HockeyBuzz his new home and looks forward to writing for the great fans on the site."
In my most recent posting on Dan Carcillo
found here, I mentioned towards the end that if Carcillo really is the replacement of a Clifford departure, then he is simply a stop gap for Andy Andreoff.
But who is Andy Andreoff? How many people actually know of the player or follow the Kings system closely enough to jump up and be excited about that statement? No need to be embarrassed if that’s the case, many systems are filled with players that fit the same mold and exterior description of Andreoff. He’s a bottom-line forward, a grinder who has offensive potential, a pest, and a good locker room guy. Sounds pretty common right?
So why get excited about his development?
Being drafted as a third-round selection in the 2011 NHL entry draft, Andreoff read like a typical grinder but showed tremendous offensive skill in the CHL, including a 74 point, 109 PIM, plus-34 rated season with the OHL Oshawa Generals in 2010-11. Few players had a stat sheet that read so diverse, with a ton of fights, 33 goals, and a high plus- minus rating, indicating at least some defensive responsibility.
It’s all fine and well to be good at the CHL level, but when Andy stepped into the realm of the AHL he struggled to find his feet the first half of last year. Through the first three months of the season the 22-year old failed to live up to the offensive upside, and had just six points. While the fights and nastiness were still there, and he was getting used to the speed and physicality of the game, it looked more like Andreoff was going to fall into the regular role of bottom line grinder/agitator. After a two week break around New Year’s Andreoff took off, scoring 20 points in the final three months of the season, including 13 points in the final 22 games of the year when the Monarchs were fighting to get in the playoffs. By the end of the year coach Mark Morris was using him in all situations; power play, penalty-kill, and late-game shifts. His improvement was tremendous from the beginning to the end of the season.
He’s definitely an exciting player, and with the Kings bottom line seemingly open for a shakeup, Andreoff could be a guy who sneaks in for more than a few games this year. Personally, I always look at where a player starts the season and where he finishes when guessing who makes a push and who gets rewarded with NHL time. Coaches love to see progression and a serious work ethic to get better every day. A recent example of this is Andrew Campbell, who in his first years of the AHL really struggled, but in a matter of a year to two years’ time has become one of the Monarchs most trusted defenseman and got an NHL call-up last season. Dwight King also went from a 15-15 guy one year in the AHL to a 25-25 guy the next and landed himself an NHL job. Alec Martinez is another example, as is Jordan Nolan, the list could go on and on. The Pickering, Ontario boy, Andreoff, is on the upswing right now and if he doesn’t get a shot at the team out of camp I’m betting we see him at least once during the 2013-14 season. If he continues to do things like this:
and
(Note the McSorely-esque smile and laugh at the end of this one.)
If he can keep that up, pepper in the points and be a valuable special teams player at the NHL level...he might quickly become a fan and team favorite.
Other Notes Today:
Rob Blake has officially been named as the teams new Assistant General Manager.
Kings have officially inked Dustin Brown to an 8-year extension worth around $46M.
Shoutout to Colin Dambrauskas for getting the structure of the Brown extension. 8yrs - $47M with 5.875 cap hit...7.25M, 7.25M, 7M, 6.5M, 5.5M, 5.5M, 4M, 4M