Do you really think Blake had a green light to rebuild any sooner than he did? I don’t. History tells us that rebuilds do not happen in LA without the say-so of ownership it was the same for DL. He then started well by signing a coach that will ensure the best possible draft pick. I’m also not convinced we had any option other than to honour the promise that have been made to Stevens with regards to the head coach job. The interview process always seemed to be a case of going through the motions to make it look like Blake had final say so. Given that promise have been made it was probably the right thing for the integrity of the organisation, if nothing else.
Honoring promises, meh. We want the ruthlessness. That's what we criticize DL on. It's believing in the myth of Mike Richards. Today, we love how he took it upon himself to trade Visnovsky before the NTC, that he gave Visnovsky, kicked in. At the time, I think there were people that were worried about the morality of it, but then when Stoll scored that OT goal, screwing a guy over in the pursuit of glory is for the greater good. We wouldn't trade that goal to make Visnovsky feel better.
But the rest of it, 100% agree. Had they not managed to make the playoffs in 17-18, maybe Doughty isn't here. He probably still is, because if one of the biggest names in franchise history wanted to stay, they were going to find a way to keep him, but maybe Doughty himself would've wanted out a little more. Certainly there's no Kovalchuk if they don't play 4 games against Vegas.
You are right, Dean took over a franchise with a number 1 center, number 1 winger and number 1 goalie in the system. Blake took over a team with those same players in the system except they had big contracts and were on the wrong side of 30.
Who was the biggest prospect in the Kings pool when Blake took over? Amadio?
I'm not sure Quick was, or was seen, as a #1G at the time. Bernier was supposed to be the guy. Quick stole his spotlight. He wasn't the 11th pick. #1W might be a bit much for Brown too. He was good, a #1W here, but league wide, he was probably below that 1st tier of wingers.
But yeah, DL and Blake started in two different places. Not even close to the same. Recent success by the team was sort of similar, but the contract stuff is the most important part, and the two situations couldn't have been more different.
Begs the question, is it ever a good time to move any of these players.
I think they would have received a nice return for Doughty, but in a salary cap league they would have had to take back at least one contract from the other team's NHL roster. A GM today has to be creative.
A year too early rather than a year too late is the classic time. Doughty isn't being traded in 17-18 because they made the playoffs. Would that have been too late to get prime value even if the team sucked? Probably. If 16-17 would've been the right time, 15-16 is even better, but DL was all in that year. It doesn't seem like DL had any thoughts of doing much during 16-17, so really it comes down to the 2017 draft as the only realistic time Doughty would've or could've been dealt. That's still a 1 year rental situation though. The best time is the 2016 draft, and yet better still might've been when the run was over after 14-15.
