Either he doesn’t have the desire, doesn’t know how, isn’t surrounded by people who do (his agent, trainers, etc), and/or he was never pushed to do so by management. They have had plenty of time to fix this glaring gap in his development. It is really not that hard to do, instead they (team? PT? himself?) have him doing side lunges with a 35 lb kettlebell which is gonna do absolute shit for his strength.

RE him making his linemates better: I think you miss the concept. Setting up your teammates with glorious scoring chance after glorious scoring chance is in fact making them (look) better. He can’t also put away those glorious scoring chances himself. They spent a lot of time in the offensize zone as well. The defensive chances against wouldn’t have looked so bad if they had been able to put away some of those nice setups. Obviously his defensive zone play has some gaps, but imo a lot of that can be improved simply by getting stronger which he could be doing right now.

Who knows, maybe he is already getting stronger right now and shows up in camp significantly improved in that regard.

“And I’m pretty sure Lombardi’s staff has evaluated future Toffoli versus present Doan; they’re offering a contract to Doan anyway. Maybe he doesn’t even see Toffoli and Doan in conflict.”

I think having a mediocre third line was a huge part of the problem last season — during the scary problem part, not the winning the cup part. Maybe Lombardi thinks the problem was Murray and now that’s solved. Maybe he’s right.

But I still want a third line that is a pure offensive line that destroys people with speed and snipery goodness. It’s highly unlikely any Loktionov or Toffoli will have a shot no matter how good they are, when the personality and concept of the third line — not to mention the personnel — is set. Remember when everyone was upset about the third line of Frolov/Handzus/Simmonds costing $7MM? Gagne/Stoll/Doan = $10-11MM, or thereabouts.

I’m not saying I’m right. It’s just what I would do. I’m wrong all the time. I would have traded Brown.

And I don’t like the idea of a third line that is really just an inferior version of the first two lines, a hybrid checking-scoring line that isn’t that good at either.

Doan, uh, if we had to. How about this, drop Fraser and Stoll, sign Doan. Oh, but we don’t have to sign Doan. Just like I understand but can not countenance his frustration.

Loktiionov, man he needs to eat lots of chicken this off season. Fill up on those hormones they use to grow these massive, leg breaking chicken breasts found 16 per package at Costco. That boy has got the smarts but sure needs some muscle.

But its the ELC rotation that (IMO) is key to building anything close to a consistently deep playoff team.

And Doan. Maybe he wises up when he stops wondering the desert and ceases to devolve.

I agree with all you said in the second half of your post. Your point on the first half might be somewhat valid in that he didn’t have greatest wingers. But the job of a center is to make his wingers better. Not the other way around. And if he can’t do that then at least he better be covering his responsibilities defensively.

So do we retool the 3rd or 4th line w/ wingers to help Lokti? I say he either takes a giant leap in his abilities at center, learns to transition to wing or finds some other way to become a versatile player that can get spot duty and then maybe move up the lines. Short of that we trade him this season.

There’s where we differ, because we’re projecting unknown commodities versus predicting a proven scorer’s fitness and decline. Where’s the line? I’m not particularly a fan of the Doan option, but I don’t see how prospects are more certain than him. It’s a guess. And I’m pretty sure Lombardi’s staff has evaluated future Toffoli versus present Doan; they’re offering a contract to Doan anyway. Maybe he doesn’t even see Toffoli and Doan in conflict.

And to the idea that Shane Doan isn’t going to help scoring 5v5 — he’s much, much better at that than Stoll, if that means anything.

Not all veterans are the same.

For all that Purcell has done in Tampa Bay I don’t think that he would be the same guy here in LA. Lokti is in a similar spot though in that I don’t see him fitting in as a center on this team. Even if Stoll went down I would see Lewis or Fraser stepping in first. Or even play Carter there if you want to really roll 3 offensive lines as Quisp argues. Or even Richardson has been better at center than Lokti in a pinch.