September 3rd, 2026

0:00The following is a special report from Los Angeles. Today is Thursday. The third is September. Welcome back, hockey fans. I don't know how to handle this, King. Welcome back, King's fans. My name is Jesse Cohen. It's Thursday. Yes, Thursday, September 3rd. This is Royal Half Radio. Welcome, King's fans. Welcome loyal royals. This is always the one I want to encourage people to sign up for the L.A. King's Booster Club.

1:01If for no other reason, then you will get access to the locker room tour every summer. That, I guess, the next time will be the summer of 2027. The tour covers the practice facility and corporate offices at Toyota Sports Performance Center. You get access to the gym, the locker room, the rain gym, the rain locker room, players lounge. It's good stuff. It's totally worth it. 40 bucks. There's all sorts of other things that happened during the year that may also make it worth it. Also, join the loyal royals to support my work if you enjoy what I do. Somebody reached out to me and said that they were having trouble signing up. So I put in a ticket to Patreon and hopefully that'll resolve itself soon. But yeah, there you go. There's the link at the bottom patreon.com slash cw slash the loyal royals. If you like the work that I do and want to make it easier for me to keep doing it because, frankly, I might not be able to. So sign up and help me continue to do this. I'm going to make that go away. I really don't like asking for money. I know I should get over it. But they were giving locker room tours of crypto yesterday at the open house. It's pretty cool.

2:02Yeah, the locker room in crypto.com arena is. It's way cooler than the locker room at the practice facility. They used to be pretty similar. But they upgraded the locker room at crypto.com arena coincidentally, I suppose, because the clippers moved out. And. And the clippers are in the news today because, woof, I know it's not kings related. And I don't want to spend too much time talking about it. But. The NBA came down and decided that the clippers did in fact attempt to circumvent the salary cap. I think as of today, I could have some of the details wrong. But as of today, I think it was $30 million fine five years worth of first round graphics. Year long suspensions for Steve Palmer and the I want to say the president of business operations, maybe president of basketball operations. I don't remember maybe the GM as much as the suspension sounded down to the clippers and. It's not hockey related. It's not kings related, but it is LA sports related and I.

3:04I am just curious. I'm just going to throw this out there. I don't have any reason to believe anything will impact or trickle, but I do find it fascinating that in the last. I think the last year or two, the Lakers have sold twice the clippers now have been. Completely, I mean, I've been watching reactions all day and a lot of people believe that the clippers will be sunk for a decade basically. Incredibly dumb moves by the people running the clippers to get caught doing this just really, really fascinating stuff. So if the clippers are sort of done, the Lakers have been sold the clippers just built that brand new fantastic building. The angels just sold to the guy that owns so by stadium and the Rams. The Dodgers owner is looking like he might be in trouble, which is why the Lakers shares were sold. I don't know. It's a fascinating time in Southern California sports. I guess is what I'm getting that. I don't know if any of it will have any impact on the Kings at all, but it's.

4:09It's something it's something I pay attention to just because. You know, it's just interesting. Joyce is, but that clippers team is going to have a nice new arena in which to play badly. Well, I got to tell you when they built into it, dome. My first thought was man, I can't wait to go check it out. I hope the clippers are going to be bad like they always are. I think it's won't be that expensive. Then like the first, I don't know three or four months it was open. I feel like the clippers were pretty good. So tickets were getting expensive. After this, I feel like tickets should be pretty easy to come by. I think I'll be able to go see a game at the end to it. Don't pretty easily. So tough, tough beat for the clippers. And. Yeah, I don't know enough about basketball. I think I've said this a million times. I don't know enough about basketball to have an opinion, but I love listening to other people have opinions. And then sort of forming my opinion based on the opinions, you know, sort of finding the gaps in those other opinions. And I got to say, I never understood the co-I-letter decision.

5:11It always seemed obvious that it was going to fail to me. I didn't know it was going to fail like this obviously, but it did wind up failing. Like, maybe one thing if you want a ton. And you could say, all right, well, it was worth it, but it didn't. It didn't work out. And then it blew up. I mean, it reminds me a little bit of I suppose of the Kings in the 90s where you go like, OK, if the Kings had won in 93, it wouldn't have justified anything. And it wouldn't have stopped anything. The team still would have gone into bankruptcy and been sold. But you could go like, all right, well, at least. The least you got a trophy out of it, but this, this is yikes, yikes a roof. Ken Holland, besides Ken Holland, higher, the King seemed to be the cleanest run organization in LA. Well, I mean, yeah, like, honestly, if nothing else by comparison, it does make the Kings look a lot better, right? I don't know what's going on with the Dodgers owner, but you know, he had to sell, or I don't suppose he had to, but he sold the Lakers. Building speculation that he had to building speculation that he might have to sell the Dodgers, the Angels just got sold.

6:12The Clippers are in trouble. Yeah, Kings are looking not too shabby today. All right. Has enough of that. This is a Kings show and not a Clippers show, not a Southern California sports show. So we're going to go to the birthdays because we got some interesting birthdays today. And one of them is going to lead to a conversation later on. So the birthdays today, we've got Martin Storaka, Christobal, Huey and Eric Portillo. And I say Huey, even though it's pronounced Huey on the by the Kings broadcasters, but he's, I mean, French. And when I say French, I don't mean Kette Qua. I mean, French. He was born in France. So we'll get to that in a second. We're going to start with Martin Storaka, traded to the Kings November 3rd, 2003. For Martin Sturbach and Sergei Anshakhov. He was the first player in Kings history to wear number 82. Caleb Jones was the second. There's just the two of them. Only played 32 games with the Kings scored six goals. And that was, I don't want to say it was a dumpster dive move because I liked Martin Storaka and I liked him as a king. But it was one of those trades where it was like, all right, it was the 2002, 2003 season, Alison and dead Martian.

7:16A bunch of guys were starting to get hurt. And the Kings were sort of scrambling. At any rate, I do have a video of Martin Storaka scoring a goal for the Kings. And here it is. A chance by Camilaire who has the Kings goal. On and against Storaka scores, Thai game. One dominant, Kasek wants back. Marty Storaka beats his fellow countryman, dominant, Kasek 222, 210 to play. This took a bad bounce off the board. Fisher, it's rolling. He just chopped it up onto the board. It came off in front of Steve Thomas and right to Storaka. And he's surprised, Dominik Kasek. I remember Storaka being better than six goals and 32 games, but I guess not. So there you go. Happy birthday, Martin Storaka. Next up on the list is Christopher Huehueh, however you want to pronounce it. And I, man, I don't know why I loved Christopher Huehueh. I just, even when he was on the Kings, he wasn't great on the Kings. And I just bought in 100%.

8:19I was like, this is my guy, Christopher Huehueh, French, Born of France. I don't know why that matters. It doesn't really. Then he got wound up in Montreal. And in the 2007, 2008 season, I think was that season at the deadline, he was traded to Washington. And at that point in the season, he had had a really stellar season and had gotten Montreal. I can't remember if they have clinched a playoff spot or had basically gotten a playoff spot. Then they traded him to Washington and he went and he had a great end of the season run in Washington. And the capitals wound up making the playoffs largely on the back of his strong play. So Vechkin had a tremendous year that year. And I think if I remember correctly, Ovechkin won the MVP that year. But it was my contention for years and years and years. And still is frankly that Christopher Huehueh should have won the MVP award for 2008. Purely forgetting two different teams into the playoffs as a starting goal tender. And, you know, the caps were struggling despite the good season that Ovechkin had. And it's long been my contention that people just choose players early in their career that they decide that they love and want to give awards to.

9:21Despite the fact that it's clear that those players maybe don't deserve them or shouldn't get them. But the narrative of certain demands that they do. I always thought that Ovechkin was one of those players. Regardless, here is a little package of highlights from Christopher Huehueh as Bob Miller calls him. Been goal for the Kings. Christopher Ball. You would get to start. You see his first start since way back January 7th at Anaheim, but you have does have some success against the avalanche. But driven into the King's zone and a dangerous rebound off the board came right into the slot. Here is Steve Moore. Moore's pass up the middle and Maria three directed it. But a save by Huehueh. Yeah, Huehueh doing a good job right there to follow the puck and keep it in front of him. Huehueh had made a big save earlier with second save positioning. That's important. Huehueh is quick. He's quicker than a guy like Chekmonik. Chekmonik uses more of a size approach. Now Huehueh has the butterfly, but he's much quicker. He's able to get back into position for those second attempts. Five. But he's held in by Derek Morris of the blue line. Now Brad Larson.

10:21He put it down in deep defeat with Salani. Salani with a one hand down the save by Huehueh. Line after line after line, the avalanche come with a speed and Christopher Ball Huehueh had done a good job in the period. Salani was out there along with Hainote and Larson and that would be considered maybe the third, the fourth unit. But the speed is still there. That's a common factor with the avalanche. Chris the ball, Huehueh made the save. He was involved. Also Hainote shot wide on that last play. That's a good sign. That means Chris the ball, Huehuehueh gave him nothing to look at it behind the gold tenor. He tried to be too fine, too perfect. So I'll find you to lie. Now this isn't about Chris the ball, Huehueh, but remember. I forgot until I was watching that game to pull that clip. I had forgotten the Paul Korea and team of Salani both signed with the avalanche one year in a total. Just attempt to be slick. The team wasn't nearly as good as everybody assumed they would be, but Korean Salani both signed with the avalanche three agents. And I think remember correctly both signed for less money than market value.

11:24I think Korea was doing it's because he was going to be he would he would have been in the league for 10 years. And his contract would have been less than league average or something like that, which meant that he would have been an unrestricted free agent. This was a time earlier in his career. I can't remember how it all worked out but I just remember it didn't work so but yeah just a loaded team sack at Korea and Salani and Taylor from King's Unihistory says I prefer the French pronunciation of his name. Yeah, and I mean, he like is that born in France. Christopher, I'm sure is how it's pronounced seven, three round, picking the King214th overall in the 2001 NHL entry draft only 13 players born in France. made it to the NHL. He's the only goal tender. So happy birthday to him. A different goal tender also celebrating a birthday is Eric Portillo. Eric Portillo only has one NHL game so far. He was traded to the King's for a third round pick. In his one game he stopped 28 of 29 shots and beat the ducks. He's in the final year of his contract. But here is a little bit of an

12:28interview with him as well as the end of the game where he picked up his first NHL win. Every hockey player streamed to get the call and now it's just all about taking a batch of the opportunity here. I rely a lot on my size and my game reading I think I compete hard. That's the number one asset for me I think. Growing up it was always a long quest. You know he played in Frelunda just like I did and yeah I've always followed him and his journey so he was definitely growing up the number one influence. Sticks are down. Buck in the corner. King's pushed it behind the net. And the game is over. Eric Portillo in his first NHL start gets a win. Two to one will be the final and ducks and kings want to continue this one after the buzzer

13:30with some mayhem in the corner to the right of the winning goalie. And a high has one extra player on the ice here because of the gold tender pulled at least one extra skater. Portillo was just kind of going across. He did everything today so maybe he's looking to get involved in the scrap. Can't say enough about that read Eric made on that last quality chance. And then his reads today in outnumbered situations he focused on the puck area he focused on the shooter and congratulations in a game where he faced a lot of quality 31 shots unofficially against which is lots for the kings to give up. But we can count one next six or seven right down the middle. Yep. And that's important for Portillo to get it done. Yeah he was a standout here today his NHL debut Eric Portillo the win the kings up to the one over

14:30an eye. So there you go happy birthday to those players and I suppose somewhat I don't know if ironically is the right word but Huey Huey how we pronounce it there's some uncertainty now because it's been so long without a pronounced his name but Eric Portillo who comes from Sweden but plays in Southern California and this is the number one question that I think people who have never heard of him or see his name for the first time who are Southern California natives or or have lived here for a long time ask is why isn't it pronounced Portillo because it probably should be Portillo and that was one of the first questions I asked in the first chance I had to interview him and the answer is simple his grandfather was from Spain and moved to Sweden so it probably at some point in his family's history it was Portillo but now because they live in Sweden they pronounce it Portillo so it's Portillo Eric Portillo and one comment from somebody that I will put a pin in because I do want to sort of revisit it Joseph Dumbar says I'm sorry I just don't see a Portillo

15:30playing in the NHL this year barring disaster for the kings that is going to be the biggest conversation I think over the next three weeks and I'm going to come back to that in a little bit later Seth Holbert 92 80 since we were so spoiled with our announcers Bob Miller Jim Fox and Nick Nixon hard to listen to any other broadcaster after that group agree the kings of Ed tremendous history and broadcasters but it's time to start you know Nick's gone Bob's gone Jim is winding down you know it's time to get on board with Josh Schaefer and whoever replaces Jim Fox because Darrell's still around Jim still around but Nick and Bob are gone and yeah time marches on let's see expression father time is undefeated anyway this date in King's history which is next up after the birthdays we have the acquisition of Pat Connacher from the devils for future considerations now Pat Connacher is a name that I think probably matters tremendously if you're the right age to remember the 93 cup run and other than that I don't

16:35think you probably know Pat Connacher as if you're a king so I had to play 241 games scored 36 goals was tied for fifth in goals during the 93 playoff run um he had six he was behind Gretzky Curry Robotine Sandsroom and he was tied with those six goals with Mike Donnelly Warren Reikle and Tony Grenado and Warren Reikle and Pat Connacher I think hold roughly the same sort of position in that 93 cup run lore in that like they weren't really important players per se but in that run they obviously held um huge rolls now I did find video of Pat Connacher scoring a goal and this is the goal that would have been the game winner in game two against Montreal in the 93 cup final if not for Marty McSorley sticking everything this is the goal that gave the Kings a two to one lead over Montreal please get it out Taylor comes up three of them are on this rush Connacher in with Grenado

17:37Connacher waits to Grenado behind and out he's out front trying to ram it in while I got enough of that Taylor trying to tuck it in Luke Pooh Starr Connacher got the back hander and the pins have taken up to one lead Connacher didn't even know he scored a jickey back cannon as he was turning away to get out vice and it went underneath the sprawling Patrick Law two L.A. King players tried the wrap around unsuccessfully before the goal scored Patrick's mad at himself there's the first one he doesn't know where the puck is Harry Patrick lost it right there and Dave Taylor tries to jam it in there and then Connacher just dumps it at the net two Montreal Canadians two L.A. Kings you're going to see the third King show up and nobody takes it because the two Montreal players are tied up with Dave Taylor and that allowed Connacher to get the shot all right so there you go that was uh that's not the right thing we want Pat Connacher there we go

18:39that was Pat Connacher in the 93 cup final and you can see the article there with the details Pat Connacher the veteran forward who no longer figured into the devil's plans yesterday was traded to the Los Angeles Kings for future considerations now I tried to find out what those future considerations were I didn't try very hard and I didn't see anything I didn't look like it it converted at any time but this article was kind of harsh it was from a New York area newspaper but yeah basically talked about Connacher not being in the devil's plans anymore and the devil's essentially dumped him on the Kings we talked in an earlier show about the fact that future considerations is a sort of work around to just like getting rid of a guy I always sort of exasperatedly tell people you can't just make people disappear but the reality is if you get future considerations into it and you make the considerations low enough and you make the conditions crazy enough you can pretty much just make somebody disappear um next up on this day in Kings history I did do I turned this into like a little personal homework assignment and

19:44I was pretty happy with it so today it started as a very as very sort of nothing like okay today in Kings history the Kings acquire Bob Pulford and they got him from Toronto from the Toronto Maple Leafs I'll just read from the article on the screen Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League announced today that they have traded veteran Bob Pulford to Los Angeles Kings for forwards Gary Monahan and Brian Murphy and a statement released by his Leafs Spoken General Manager Jim Gregory said the trade would not be conditional on Pulford's reporting to the Kings it was a straightforward trade he said with no cash considerations involved Pulford 34 squared 231 goals etc etc etc etc and then on and on it goes talking about Pulford's career now what was interesting to me is that I remembered that Bob Pulford was Dean Lamberties father-in-law and that sort of caused me to once I looked up a little bit more about Bob Pulford I was like well wasn't Bob Pulford the coach of the Kings turns out he was so I went on a little Bob Pulford deep dive he played for two seasons for the LA Kings

20:45the 1971 and 71 72 season he was the captain as you can see in the photo if I make my face go away there's Bob Pulford wearing the sea he was captain for one season for the LA Kings and as soon as he retired he as a player he was captain in the 1971 72 season and then immediately after retiring became the coach is the only coach to win the Jack Adams trophy in 1975 posting the best record in King's history what what was tied for the best record in King's it was the best record in King's history point wise until two years ago and Jim Hiller tied with 105 points prior to that is the best record in King's history not the most wins but the most points and the only time in franchise history that a King's coach has won the Jack Adams trophy and then this is the part I did not know until today so I was reading I think it was the Wikipedia entry for Bob Pulford and the Wikipedia entry said Pulford basically wanted to be the general manager but Jack Kent Cook was mean so he didn't so he

21:53so he left and I was like all right well where's the citation on this Wikipedia article because that's very easy to write in what Wikipedia but not definitive like I'm not trusting Wikipedia so I started to look around and I found I found one article let me pull it up for a year real quick this is from long the Long Beach I'm assuming the press telegram but from Long Beach newspaper in the 70s and it just says Pulford quits King's Bald Pulford who directed the Kings to the Stanley Kaplaias the last four seasons quit as coach of the NHL Club Friday night Pulford's resignation came one day after Jake Milford quit as King's general manager Pulford's multi-er contract estimated at $50,000 per season had run out but money was not his most important consideration pulley which I'm assuming is short for Pulford had argued in vain with owner Jack Kent Cook over the necessity of keeping draft choices instead of trading them away Pulford would like to become a coach general manager and it's believed he's interested in positions with Buffalo Chicago Toronto or Detroit no replacement was announced for Pulford who coached the Kings to a 178 150 and 68 record and I thought okay that's

23:00pretty good but not like defended like that's pretty good but that's just a snippet of an article doesn't have a ton of doesn't have a ton of detail and I wanted more detail before I got here and told you guys that a Kings general manager had quit because of the owner and so then I found this article which I will read or this portion of this article Milford this is the former LA Kings General manager who resigned a day before about Pulford talking to a reporter Milford said that while Pulford can't negotiate with anyone until June 29th there's a possibility that Kings owner Jack Kent Cook might free him before then we have a good chance to get Bobby he said he told me he wants to become a general manager and coach in the near future so that justifies the Wikipedia entry Milford is expected to retain the services of former associate Larry Popeine I don't know how to pronounce that last name the connox director of player personnel if you said Milford wants to talk with the scouts before making any decisions blah blah blah stuff about the connox this was the part that I

24:02found most interesting Milford and the 41 year old Pulford have operated as a team with the Kings since 1973 and 74 Milford said the final straw is decision to leave the Kings was Cook's action in trading defenseman Abdemarco to Atlanta for Randy Manery without informing the manager or coach of the deal so there we have one article saying that Pulford wanted to be a coach and a general manager and that the straw that broke the camel's back was in fact the owner trading players or excuse me trading players without announcing it to the coach and general manager and there are plenty of other articles that talk about the team's displeasure with Cook trading draft picks and that is 100% the story of the LA King's franchise until 2006 until Dean Lamberti took over really was like trade draft picks and youth for veteran names I've talked about this endlessly the very first front pick in franchise history the very first moved franchise history was taking

25:03Terry Sachok not Jacques Plant in the expansion draft and it was that way for six years veteran name value over potential future ceiling so yeah there you go Bob Pulford acquired today in history again jump father-in-law of Dean Lamberti captain of the team coach of the team and wound up resigning with the general manager shortly before his contract would have been up anyway but yeah walking away and saying I don't need this I'm out of here and then he wound up in Chicago I think Ken Holland should be keeping draft picks too well in Ken Holland's defense he has been keeping draft picks I mean he did trade Liam Greentree for Artemi Penaeran but I think when you see how good Artemi Penaeran is you go like all right well okay but after that I mean there's still two years left in Ken Holland's tenure so who knows maybe he can wind up trading more picks and prospects

26:06I hope not but at least for the last summer he didn't trade any picks he kept everything kept most of the prospects again Greentree traded for Penaeran but yeah anyway so there you go that is this date in King's history and the birthdays and before we talk about what I did today I do want to remind everybody to go to the Royal Half.com Taylor is going to have to let me know what kind of voting time is left I know there were only a few hours left earlier so I don't know how it's going to roll but basically you can go and vote on the best uniform in King's history at the Royal Half.com there's the bracket for you and there's more details in the article that should be right there on the front page of the Royal Half.com I urge you to go check it out vote if you haven't already even if you have just go and read go look at King's Jersey it's fun Taylor does a great job and honestly I have become so so fond of anybody who oh all right there

27:07you go two quarterfinals matchups still open good information thank you Taylor the diligence with which people keep information like for example when I'm going and finding these clips to play on the show or I'm finding these newspaper articles or I'm going and I'm digging into stuff like it's good it's valuable I really really appreciate people who put effort into tracking that stuff for posterity it's it's interesting it's helpful I think it's important to know history person anyway um today I went to sports the Toyota Sports Performance Center Zach Duly and I um logged two interviews today one with Nelson Emerson one with Andrew Lord Nelson Emerson should be available either tonight or tomorrow Andrew Lord will be next week in advance of the rookie tournament rookie face off rookie showcase whatever they're calling it this year in San Jose and one of the topics that came up was the goal tending because of course because that's going to be the thing so the roster going to San Jose this weekend has Slokinski George and Ribkin but it's just

28:12the rookie showcase roomkin doesn't have a contract so he's not really part of this conversation but everybody I've spoken to from the kings and that includes Nelson Emerson and Andrew Lord today it's so sort of casually discussed that Carter George and Hampton Slokinski will both play the season in Ontario that it makes me as a matter of fact now Nick yes Nelson Emerson did discuss his I don't want to step on the interview too much because I want to encourage people to watch it when it's on YouTube but yes Nelson Emerson will act as the rain GM the way most assistant general managers do and for the record this is something that has been known internally for a while I don't know why we didn't weren't able to talk about it until today but that's that's how it goes the kings make decisions and then they wait a long time to tell everybody so back to Portillo that's the question

29:17Rob Stelmer like I said everybody I've spoken to and everybody that talks about the goal tending situation sort of very casually very whole hum very assumingly is like oh yeah Carter George Hampton Slokinski they're going to both play in Ontario but there's another goal tender who in theory is also in Ontario and that's Eric Portillo because Kemper and Forsberg are under contract and as far as I know both healthy and available to play so if the season starts the reality is those two guys are going to be on the king's roster that's Kemper and Forsberg like they just are and anybody who wants to make up some story in their head about well you know Kemper had injuries last year and easy to trade one of them for reasons okay maybe that's true but where for what why like you can't just sort of say like oh yeah there should be a market for player x if there's a market for player x that's because player x has value and if the player has value the kings are not likely to look to move them the players that you're looking to move are players with reduced value

30:21or no value and you don't want that or or if you can somehow move them for a player that you perceive as having a higher value Joseph Dunbar says Portillo is fifth on my depth chart he's solidly third on mine the problem is third means that fourth and fifth being Slokinski and George and whatever order you want it's going to be you know and and and I tried to get Emerson and Lord to address it directly but it sounds very much based on our conversations today it sounds very much like it's going to be a kind of group decision including the goal tending department and you know I will try and get Bill Ranford to talk about it because until we get until we get into games being played you know at one point I sort of laughed after we'd finished recording and Andrew Lord was talking to me and Zach and I just said you know it's tough because all of the questions I have

31:21really the answer will be will come with time like there just isn't an answer today on what the goal tending situation is going to look like I don't know they have five goalies and four spots and even with those four spots it's simple on the kings Kempers the starter foursburgs the backup if Kempers struggles and is injured foursburg takes over the starter spot if you know if Kempers healthy and fine Kempers becomes the starter and people can say well I think it'll look more like a tandem situation or whatever and I don't remember how many games Kempers versus foursburg or I guess foursburg wasn't there the first season but Kempers and Riddick was Riddick to back up and Kempers for season I'm going to look it up but I mean Kempers is one year removed off of a Vezana finalist season Kempers played 50 games his first season with the LA kings yeah Riddick played 34 at Portillo and Coply both ones obviously there were goalies pulled in those situations but yeah if you think 50 and 34 is a is a tandem situation then that's fine but even with the injury last year

32:29Kempers still played 50 games with the kings like last season even with his injuries Kempers played 50 games foursburg played 36 Coply played one so if Kempers healthy and competing Kempers the starting goalie like he just is that's how it's going to be he's too good he has too much faith in him he's the higher paid goalie he's the Stanley Cup winner like if he's healthy he's the starter I don't want to hear anything else about it it's just silly that's what's going to happen if he's healthy if he's not healthy things get complicated and I don't know what happens after that once you get past the NHL level into the AHL level let's just take Portillo out of the equation for a second there's what 72 games in an AHL season 76 it's less than 82 or 84 now but it's it's in the 70s and you know the reality is sorry I'm trying to look up the goalie stats last year for the Ontario rain because obviously Portillo was dealing with injuries so he's

33:33not going to have played the bulk of the games but in the 2025 26 regular season Coply played 33 games Portillo played 30 so okay so there that that is a tandem now if you're going to tell me if it's Lukinsky and Georgia each going to play roughly 30 games in the AHL okay that'll be interesting and with back to back I don't know how many back to back there are in the rain schedule but like okay that's a thing that I wouldn't be too shocked about I still don't feel great about it because I feel like it's just a hunch it's just my gut feeling but like when we talk about guys like Chromiac or or Yampson or or Penali or whatever like I always sort of feel like if a guy has got it you kind of know right away like you know I talk about this all the time like Kyle Clifford made the NHL I believe is an 18 year old now he didn't play top six role he wound up as a fourth liner Trevor Lewis I don't remember when Trevor Lewis made it I'm sure he was a little bit older but like eventually especially with a goal tender I feel like a goalie

34:37kind of comes along and is clearly the guy I can't think of too many teams in the past I'm sure somebody could point out an example but I can't think of too many teams that had two goalies who were roughly the same age they came up together splitting time in net and then both split time indefinitely to become twin pinnacles of puck stopping like I just feel like goalies are the spot where you sort of give it give the net to a guy and and give them a backup but maybe not I don't know and people keep saying and you'll hear Nelson Emerson and Andrew Lord say this over the next two weeks on all the Kingsman and I don't correct them because it's not a fight I'm interested in having but people keep saying depth and goal is a great problem to have I also disagree Joseph Dunbar I I never like it what people say oh it's a great problem to have to have all this depth to me having all this depth means more opportunities to pick the wrong person I suppose it's better than the alternative which is having no talent at all but I just I am deeply

35:39uncomfortable at the gold-ending situation and then like I said there is the portillo of it all because even if Kemper or Forsberg are injured portillo is not loaded with experience right like he's 20 I think I guess he turns 26 today and you know he's got one NHL game under his belt he's not been tremendously healthy in the a h l so it's not like he's put together some sort of incredible resume in the a h l because he's been dealing with injuries so he's 26 years old the Kings want to make the playoffs and be competitive this year if one of their goalies goes down would they feel comfortable turning to a 26 year old goalie with no NHL experience to be one of the two guys I don't know that they would but the alternative is sending him down to Ontario and this is part of they like oh it's a good problem now like part of the thing is you have coply and in the past Garrett Sparks and and Grossnick and all these other veteran gold-enders that have sort of split time

36:44in Ontario with the young gold-enders and the end result is that you don't develop the young gold-enders because you're constantly leaning on the veteran gold-enders of the pair they're always the one called up you know to be the third goalie for the Kings and I get it you're trying to cover your bases on both franchises but generally speaking I don't know it's it's so anyway the gold-ending thing is going to be very very peculiar starting to just get it back up and read some comments here real quick depth is great as long as everyone gets the playing time but there's yeah there is only one net exactly available in each level and somebody mentioned yes Nick brought up unless you send the rookies on a rotation to the ECHL problem is the ECHL is is not a huge problem I'm just thinking out loud the ECHL is 3000 miles away whereas the AHL is in in the same building slash a bus ride to Ontario so if you're sending one of the kids to the ECHL for a month that's fine but how are you deciding to do that is the competition the same level is getting is getting six games

37:46in at the ECHL level as valuable as getting a dozen practices in at the AHL level because at the AHL level you have the development staff you have the gold-ending department right there you have the full you know of the gym you have the trainers you have the nutritionist you have access to the full complement of King's organizational stability whereas you go to to the swamp rabbits I don't know what the swamp rabbit schedule looks like but if you happen to go during a period of time where they're not playing that much now you're playing against guys we're getting paid a couple hundred bucks a week you're you don't have immediate access to the development staff to the gold-ending department you're out on a sort of island in the middle of South Carolina I don't know I it's it's like I said I don't know what the right answer is but it makes me very curious and uncomfortable George is the kinskier the future we can all agree on that I hope says Joseph Dunbar I think one of them is I don't know well I think I know which but it doesn't it doesn't matter one of them I hope is

38:48I don't think both of them are I think one of them will be and the other one will eventually have to move within the next three or four years maybe the season might be as rough as the 0708 season where the kings use seven gold tunders over the season it might be nomi it might be absolutely or is it no me I think it's no me it may absolutely be I think they split in the NHL's best for the future that's my concern about Portillo yeah well a split in the NHL like yeah that's a problem is the obvious things that everybody talks about seem to all sort of collectively forget the Portillo exists so did you talk about the new GM of the rain yeah kind of it's it's Nelson Emerson he's the assistant general manager of the kings he is the rain the general manager for the rain and it's interesting because this year there's going to be fewer players on NHL contracts then in the past that might change as the season goes on they might wind up signing more and more guys they haven't certainly haven't the past but at least to start right now this could change I suppose over

39:50the next little while I don't know why my computer's doing this oh here we go no it won't let me get to the oh man sorry I'm I have this pay we go sorry my computer was preventing me from looking at my rosters page as of right now the following players are signed to a hl slash ecahl contracts Kent ecahl jack use Jacob dody jack mullar I would expect those four players to be on the Ontario rain Michael master of dmennaco he can be available but I wouldn't be shocked if he winds up in Greenville Ryan ohera Brendan Gorman that's one defenseman and two forwards ohera and gorman other forwards master dmennaco as a defenseman I would expect those three guys to be Greenville bound because Ontario's got a ton of players and then in net Matthias shoul and Owen flores are signed and those guys barring injury I mean that's that's where it even gets even more complicated gold tenderwise not terribly complicated because obviously Matthias shoul and Owen flores aren't going to stop

40:51they're not going to block anybody from playing but realistically the kings have seven defensemen across three levels of gold tending now shoul and flores can't play for the kings but they can play for the rain and they can play for the Greenville swamp rabbits so you have camper and forzburg in LA so the lukinsky George and portillo may be in Ontario and then shoul and flores for the swamp rabbits like I said if lukinsky George or portillo gets sent down to Greenville for a conditioning stint the presence and existence of shoul and flores are not going to prevent them from getting playing time in Greenville but Greenville by way of Ontario has already filled their gold tending spots like those are the gold tenders for Greenville and I don't know about the rest of Greenville's roster and frankly I'm not familiar enough with how the ECHL roster is full is filled I know there are guys who are on ECHL deals but those guys are on AHL contracts they can come up to the AHL so portillo should be the backup and trade kempert or forzburg or trade portillo says rob stelmer and

41:55again rob that's a very simple thing to say but it is simple to say I'm assuming from the perspective of let's solve this problem and only this problem and I don't think that well I know that's not how teams operate having spent 20 years in the industry and I don't think that's how teams should operate which is one of the reasons I keep coming up with my arguments for how the roster should be made you don't hyper fixate on one problem like portillo should be the backup and trade kempert or forzburg portillo's not the backup forzburg's the backup kempert is the starter I don't think Peter LaVillette and Ken Hawn and the LA Kings are comfortable with the idea of trading kempert or forzburg and making portillo the backup now trading portillo might be the solution that has to happen if they fully invest in slikinski and George like if they're just committed to okay slikinski and George you're gonna battle it out all year long you're each gonna play about 30 games in Ontario this year

42:56kempert and forzburg we're gonna trust you to get us to the playoffs then trading portillo might be the easiest solution but again that would be a I think a lot of people have investment in the story of portillo and by people I mean people in the organization fans obviously do but anyway we'll see no way they go portillo and fighting for a class spot yes agree next totally agree that's why we just pay portillo to practice and show up that'll never happen looking forward to seeing how the goal-tending situation plays out to me and I've talked to john hoven about this and I think we agree it's the biggest story and like it's the most interesting story to me in training camp and then early season like I'm sure stuff will happen in the regular season that will become interesting but outside of who the number one center is who's gonna be the captain what happens with doubty the goal-tending situation is to me the biggest mystery of the season because I I mean if there has to be a solution they just they might wave

43:58portillo I don't think portillo needs waivers to be assigned to if I remember correctly I don't think he does so I don't think waivers is an issue too young to know how George and Hampton slipkinsky develop I don't know what that means but yes I agree with the trade one assessment but that still leaves portillo out I mean if so here's the real issue is if somebody gets injured or if camper is not healthy if he is not fully recovered from his issues last season portillo then becomes the backup for us bird becomes a starter portillo becomes the backup if or or if for us bird gets hurt if anybody gets hurt I mean that is the sort of lingering you know one of the things we talked about today after we finished recording with Nelson and Andrew is all of the conversations that take place early September all the conversations that take place in July and June etc all of the conversations presuppose in the conversation that the team is fully healthy and we know from experience that's not gonna be the case someone's gonna get hurt someone's gonna tweak

44:58something someone's gonna need a night off stuff's gonna happen so that's why you hold on that's why you have depth that's why you hold on to guys how the question is how much complication can you handle holding on to all that depth because you know I'll just very briefly dabble away from the gold tending situation just looking at the forwards you know I did this experiment with Zach the other day um panaren campay zucarello the fairie or bifield fiala more howla armia and lotten and parry i would argue assuming health are all locks to play more often than not then you throw in jared right aliextercazami helenius and taylor ward that's too many guys so then who goes down who stays up what spots are you holding on to what does it do to development if those guys you know bum it's it gets complicated and the defense is a whole other thing they went out and got scott ruinavik they got joe hicketts they have kursana of odosilene jake of devorak angus booth jared woolly

46:04possibly hundred per sevich and then they bring jac mlar in on an a hl deal again the a hl the a hl situation it just starts to become complicated it becomes a question of what is the priority of the rain and the organization it's and and we talk about this in our conversation with Nelson Emerson and andr lor today it's it's the age old a hl debate winning versus development what's more important the rain winning or the rain existing primarily to develop players for the kings and you know they have to juggle those things nick wants to know what those interviews be one episode or two please say two it is two separate episodes nelson emerson will be available again later tonight or tomorrow and the andr lor d1 will be available at the very outset of the rookie camp i think next thursday it's scheduled to publish so and we have other things lined up and and expected to go but we want we had an opportunity today to knock those two out and rookie camp is coming up camp is i mean honestly like next week so today's Thursday tomorrow's

47:06Friday one week from tomorrow i will be going into tojo desperate's performance center and watching the rookies practice and then the next day they start playing rookie games so we're a week away essentially a week and two days away from this whole thing getting underway and some of these answers there's some of these questions getting answered um going back to the commas roes of dumber can the finish goalie signed with the king's despite his current euro contract um i think he can i don't know i have to talk my head i'd have to look into it i don't know what the league uh nhl transfer agreement is but i mean the nhl he his rights were drafted by the kings he doesn't have a contract i think pitory rippin and could sign with the kings and come over um i don't think it's likely but i mean i think in theory maybe he could um so i don't know about that sorry i wish i knew better

48:08um bezinga 270 as far as trading i mean first the team will quote unquote need a goalie second novellia comes calling other teams james will know lia has a surplus and in a need to make a move therefore not offering a decent return well i guess the question i would have at this point is what's the decent return for a 26 year old goal and i'm not trying to knock erick portillo i like erick portillo i want erick portillo to have success but erick portillo was acquired for a third round pick a few years ago and since then he has he left college he was at michigan when when the kings acquired him if i remember correctly and you know he played in ontario for three years he's got 29 or 39 games in one season 24 games the next season 30 games the next season 918 safe percentage in year one and eight eight nine safe percentage in year two and a 907 safe percentage in year three he's 26 years old and he's got one game of nhl experience so what is

49:08the valet what is the trade value for a player like that i don't think it's very high you're not going to get a roster player certainly you might get a draft pick nicks wants to know if we can get that third round that draft pick like maybe but i mean i don't i every team you know you look at buffalo they got rid of devon levi and and buffalo has been shedding gold tenders for years right like first it was wasn't it calpideerson from buffalo then then a few years later erick portillo devon levi winds up in edmonds and like i just don't think that there's much i just don't think there's much value for for goalies in their mid to late 20s i don't know do you know when the current contract is up ribkin or rimpinan i think you're talking about the finish goalie peterri rimpinan i i don't often talk my head remember how long the contract is but i do remember seeing an article about it it's one or two years i don't remember um but he's all

50:13his seasons already started we showed a highlight last night he won his first game in liga so congrats to him but um yeah and ribkin will will start uh in monkton this year i think presumably but he'll be at the rookie showcase um one final thing before i wrap up uh quiku 3293 says lately the insider videos have been amazing in terms of info to you or zack decide what to do for those videos or what's the procedure um it depends zack and i talk pretty regularly uh we touch base about scheduling what the podcast is going to look like in season is very easy because mondays are always uh king of the week and then thursdays we try and figure in guess and we react to the things that are happening summer is tough so in the summertime we sit down um no dan i'm not going to the king's 5k i just answered that real quick at that out of the way i will not be attending the king's 5k um zack and i sit down and we map out what we want a few weeks ahead to look in month six weeks out

51:19and we schedule it out and then you know you sort of break the summer down into bar it's so you know that at some point the season is going to end like in the playoffs we're like okay the season is going to end and once the season ends we'll do you know exit interviews player evaluations we sort of schedule it out i start reaching out to people to get guests on then once that all wraps up we know okay the draft we have the date on the draft we know when the draft is going to happen so we start scheduling you know reach out a few months in advance and say all right let's get crisp Peters or Scott Wheeler or somebody like that in to talk to us we you know try and get ahead of these things as well as we can so that we can be prepared and so that we can schedule these things then you know start reaching once the draft happens and free agency happens we start reaching out to people to try and talk to them we know that marki netty is always going to come on because mark's a friend and is always agreed to talk to us so that's a lock um and in this case we've just been pestering PR for a while um mostly Zach thanks to Zach for for the quality and guests over the last

52:23few weeks Zach does a great job of communicating with the PR department and lining up the guests and then once the guest is lined up Zach and I touch base we share notes we figure out what questions we're going to ask what questions have to be asked because that's really I don't know if this is helpful or interesting to anybody or not but um the process of doing one of the interviews like for example with um Phil Howesley I think is a great example um we have I don't know maybe a dozen questions that we're like all right this is what we have to ask these are the talking points that have to be discussed we have to talk about brant Clark we have to talk about the power play we have to talk about your experience with Peter LaVie let so both of us have our notes in front of us when we're doing the interview and those are the sort of landmarks that we have to pass through the course of the conversation but then in the conversation if somebody says something that triggers a question about a follow-up Zach and I um if we're recording it online we send each other texts

53:24just to say like hey don't talk over to me and if we're in person we just sort of communicate with little looks and glances and head nods and and so we don't talk over each other um but yeah I appreciate the fact that everybody is liked seems like people are really enjoying the podcast this summer I feel like they've been really really good um I am I'm pretty proud of it frankly um but yeah so like I said we've got two weeks coming up Nelson numbers in this week Andrew Lordnext week after that then we're into camp and once the season starts stuff start especially in the early days the show really takes care of itself because we're reacting to roster decisions training camp cuts will start happening we'll figure out who the captain is we'll figure out who the starting goal is we'll figure out who the number one center is Peter Labia let you know we'll be making decisions Ken Holland will making be making decisions we'll get a better sense of how Phil Howesley and Ray Whitney and Chris Hyte are all gonna interact with each other Mike Buckley will be around there's a ton to talk about once camp starts and falls into place and so for now

54:27um that's sort of that real quick going back to the comments because I see a couple people saying stuff um never fall in love with the back of goalie yes doesn't go exactly that's a song that I co-wrote with a young woman named Haley Ruger very proud of it it's available on the Royal Hyperadio YouTube page and I believe it don't fall in love with backup goalies because backup goalies are not long for your team they come and they go Joseph Dunbar says my dad fell in love with Peter Boudai got his jersey then decided never to get a player name going forward Peter Boudai is a perfect example Peter Boudai super nice guy came in in what 2016-17 when quick went down with an injury and the Kings changed everything about how they played to make sure that he was competitive played 53 games 9-17 safe percentage 2.12 goals against and then was gone at the trade deadline I believe as soon as quick was healthy that was the end of Peter Boudai they got they got Ben Bishop and and quick came back and then no no more Peter Boudai and

55:30I think they brought him back um yeah he played three games a few years later and and was an Ontario in his final season but yeah Peter Boudai is a perfect example don't fall don't do it don't fall on them and this is again no knock on all the backup goalies this is just a helpful piece of advice for your own heart health falling in love with backup goalies is just gonna hurt your feelings that's all um just trying to help you guys avoid hurt feelings that is it there's no other motivation behind that thought um next as I know you're trying to wrap up but if you tried reaching out to the NHL schedule makers I like Darren Abbott but I have not yet reached out to them I should if people want to pass for me about that on social media and remind me I you know we have we have talked frequently to people involved in different Lee things and it's always interesting you always learn all sorts of stuff and for example that conversation with Darren Abbott I learned that there's a date in the NHL schedule where you're not allowed to do jersey retirements after

56:30and I don't know who decides that or why that was decided but I will definitely look into that um that's a good very good question boot I did come back to Ontario to retire and dad were just good I'm glad Joseph Dunbar that your dad got to wear his Peter boot I'm jersey again and Gary Schultz wants to know so should I get rid of my Gary Edwards number one jersey no I think once a goalie leaves once a player leaves well first of all I'm not and I say this with no disrespect to John Hogan I'm not in the business of telling people what they can wear to games you want to wear a jersey with your own name on the back of it or your kid's name or your favorite muse like if you want to get a you know Frankie says relax jersey go be go for it I I don't care what people wear to games I think interesting jerseys are interesting and funny I liked jersey fouls when Wyshinsky was doing it but I always thought that it's sort of created an air and a vibe of like hostile weird hostility and meanness that doesn't need to exist going one of the fun things about going to rain games is

57:32seeing all the crazy jerseys and the teams that you know kids going around in their roller hockey teams and you know and and and and beer league jerseys is great it's great if you have a jersey man wear your jersey who cares what team it is Gary Edwards is a perfect yeah where your Gary Edwards Jersey Wyshinsky I felt bad for Cal Peterson could really COVID really messed up his development I think other things messed up his development but I do also feel bad for Cal Peterson I always thought Cal Peterson would have been better had things gone differently um um Eddie Shaq come out good for you Gerald Eddie Shaq Jersey is a solid one um Joseph Dunbar one final thought before I do actually wrap up doubt he deserves to be the next captain in the words of Jean Hackman I know it's not a corner of Clint Eastwood I guess it's Clint Eastwood in the unforgiven deserves got nothing to do with it whether or not Drew Doudy is the next captain I don't think should have anything to do with whether or not he deserves it if he's the right pick for captain okay he's the right pick and I'm open to arguments in favor of that but I don't

58:37think it should be because he quote unquote deserves it I think that is a recipe I think playing the deserve game especially in professional sports is a recipe for disaster but that's just my personal belief about it um and just random thought if you haven't seen the unforgiven uh watch it solid movie Jean Hackman Clint Eastwood great movie um anyway there you go uh all right that is going to do it for tonight um tuning tomorrow and we'll do this on Friday and thanks as always for watching everybody we'll talk to you you know we do the best we can but thanks for watching September now things are starting to pick up there's no hockey on 12 how much longer is this gonna take I in a week or two I'll be ready to face the world again how many days wait 16 days first pre-season now's is the 19th of September can I wait? on the meantime go to the lights and subscribe check out my patreon blah blah blah