Saturday, June 16, 2007

LA Kings 2002 Draft: Who? Why? Where is He Now?

The list of 2002 Draft picks doesn’t look very promising. A couple names sound familiar and I think one or two guys have suited up in a Kings jersey. I wish I could say that the majority of the players are honing their skills in Manchester, but I have a strong feeling that most are not even within the Kings system. Here we go…

  1. Denis Grebeshkov (R1)
  2. Sergei Anshakov (R2)
  3. Petr Kanko (R3)
  4. Aaron Rome (R4)
  5. Mark Rooneem (R4)
  6. Greg Hogeboom (R5)
  7. Joel Andresen (R5)
  8. Ryan Murphy (R6)
  9. Mikhail Lyubushin (R7)
  10. Tuuka Pulliainen (R8)
  11. Connor James (R9)
Denis Grebeshkov had a couple stints with the Kings and Manchester before being traded to the NY Islanders along with Jeff Tambellini (we’ll get to him tomorrow), and a third round draft pick in the 2006 Draft in exchange for Brent Sopel and Mark Parrish. Yeah, that’s fair. He then returned to Russia after being unable to come to a contract agreement with the Islanders and earlier this year his rights were traded to the Oilers for Marc-Andre Bergeron and a third round choice in the 2008 Draft. Wait. What? Does that trade make sense to anyone? I guess we’ll have to wait a year or two to find out if Grebeshkov (a) leaves Russia and plays with the Oilers and (b) is better than Bergeron.

Why wouldn’t
Sergei Anshakov be in Russia?

When Petr
“Panko Bread” Kanko played 10 games with the Kings, I would have rated his performance with two thumbs down. When I saw that he was picked in the third Round I thought Dave Taylor must have been out of his damn mind. But look at Kanko’s career stats. How in the world has his production dropped so dramatically? He had three solid seasons in the OHL but has never been able to put up great numbers since then. I guess Kanko has the potential to be a very solid winger, but apparently he needs more time in the minors and hopefully more time down there will equal better development. The guy is only 23 so he has a couple years to work things out before his stock plummets. Also, he looks like he’s about to choke a bitch.

How does
someone get drafted by the Kings but begins his pro career with the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, then plays with the Portland Pirates, and then gets called up by the Anaheim Ducks for their playoff run? I don’t get it. When were his rights acquired by the Ducks? Who did we get in return?

Mark Rooneem plays in the minors and it’s unclear whether or not the Kings still have the rights to them. Considering he has played the last three years in Louisiana, Texas and Florida, I’m guessing…no.

At first I wasn’t going to give
Greg Hogeboom more than one sentence, but after looking at his stats, I’m not giving up on this guy yet. He played four years at Miami University in Ohio and has been going back and forth between Manchester and Reading. I’m not really sure how the AHL and ECHL differ, but he had quite the season last year while with the Reading Royals. He is 25 so he might be on the “Noah Clarke path” to the Kings.

I don’t even know what to say about
Joel Andresen. I mean, what in the world is the GerObl League? I could Wikipedia it but that would require too much work.

There are six possible players named
Ryan Murphy and the first one was drafted by Carolina.

I wonder if
Mikhail Lyubushin and Sergei Anshakov are shacking it up together in Russia.

Wow, another player (Tuuka Pulliainen) doesn’t exist. And I think that brings the total of “nonexistent players that were drafted by the Kings” to 5.

I wouldn’t be surprised if
Connor James is called up more in the future. He’s only played two games with the Kings but has consistently been tallying around 40 points per season in the minors. Hell, I would rather see him in a Kings jersey than Noah Clarke.

Overall, this Draft royally sucked. I don’t even know what else to say. Now I’m depressed and I have a feeling that I’m going to be this way till the 2005 Draft.

4 comments:

Isleschick said...

Grebeshkov went to Russia cause he (and his agent Gandler) was upset that he wasn't going to get a 1 way contract from the Isles. Supposedly the Oilers already signed him to a 1 year/1 way contract.

Marie said...

Interesting. Thanks for the info. What's a 1 way contract?

Isleschick said...

Same salary in the NHL and minors. 2 way means you get paid much less in the minors.

Marie said...

Never knew about that stuff. Thanks!