It’s a concept that was coined by former Los Angeles GM Dean Lombardi when the Kings were at the peak of their power during the middle of the last decade. He called the trio of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick the Kings’ microcore. The theory was pretty simple: Teams that build around high-end players at those three positions – No. 1 center, No. 1 defenseman and goaltender – should be in pretty darn good position to challenge for a Stanley Cup.



That’s not to say other ingredients, like say, depth and scoring wingers aren’t important. But recent history suggests that elite talent in those three slots tend to equal high-end success. They’re also the toughest positions to acquire. A lot of teams can get two-thirds of the way there, but it’s hard to collect all three.



“There would be unbelievable 1-2 combinations on this list,” said one NHL scout when he was going through the following exercise.