It’s not, like saying Kovalchuk would take ice time away from players who weren’t here or were unknown to anyone.
Might as well also call the Jeff Carter trade from 2012 an awful deal as well since he’s stopped trying and caring.
He completely gave up on a lot of those goals against Chicago and made direct turnovers that resulted in goals. And he’s blocking prospects from playing on a garbage team!
No, its dead on. You lack foresight here, same as Kings management at the time. The window closed at the end of the 2015 season, and the Kings had the choice of doubling down on the chase or rebuilding. Lombardi chose poorly and it cost him his job.
Blake came in, then tripled down on those mistakes by bringing in Phaneuf, Kovalchuk and only luckily failed at bringing in Pacioretty as well. His only future building was the signing of collegiate free agents instead of stripping the team down to bring in much needed draft picks.
I and others argued that Blake's hiring was the perfect opportunity to move Carter, Quick and Muzzin while they still had valuable years under contract. He missed out on 2 out 3, and only dealt Muzzin after his initial plan blew.up in his face.
The only reasonable plan was to go the youth route and avoid bringing in older guys who wanted to live in LA. He had to buy out Phanuef just for that reason, and is stuck with Kovalchuk for the time being.
None of this is monday morning quarterbacking. It was explained in.detail in real time, just that some folks are more interested in taking futile risks than properly building an organization.
