Speculation: 2019-20 News/Rumors,Roster thread Post Deadline

[EbonyRaptor]

They were up against the cap and had no choice to let go of Buf, Ladd, etc. However, you ask Bowman he'd probably say he kept his core w/ Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, and Sharp.

Damn, that team was stacked...

I may have started this little kerfuffle regarding actual rebuilding versus giving lip service to rebuilding because it seemed to me (as an outsider) that the Kings were on a similar trajectory as the Hawks were in trying to get another run at the Cup with the core players from the Cup winning teams, rather than committing to actually using their assets to expedite a tear it down rebuild. I still think that although it now looks like the Kings have made more progress in restocking their system than the Hawks have to date.

I think a factor that most fans (including me) don't give enough credence to is the potential for a significant financial downturn once the fans realize the plan is to be bad for a few years before hopefully being good again. Gate/concession receipts, merchandise sales, etc, will be impacted if fan enthusiasm wanes and nothing is more effective in turning fans away than losing. Most fanatical fans want want we want now - not having to wait three years to get what we want which is to see our team win.

That said, while I can understand the financial concerns for ownership/management, I still want what I want and I want it now.

 

[EbonyRaptor]

They were up against the cap and had no choice to let go of Buf, Ladd, etc. However, you ask Bowman he'd probably say he kept his core w/ Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, and Sharp.

Damn, that team was stacked...

Probably all fans can lament the ones that got away, and certainly a lot of pretty good players got away from the Hawks since that first Cup win ten years ago. Course, each player that leaves the team isn't done in a vacuum - there's a continuous ripple effect from previous moves - we wouldn't have acquired player-B if player-A wasn't traded, etc.

I don't regret this, because I can't regret the Hawks won the Cup(s), but it is sad to think the Hawks, for one reason or another, do not have these players anymore: Buf, Ladd, Sharp, Campbell, Versteeg (when he was still good), Hjalmarsson, Teravainen, Hossa, Panarin, just to name the ones off the top of my head.

 

[KINGS17]

What did he say in that interview that indicated changes are coming? He talked about balancing a team that has won and with players still in their prime, and made no indication whatsoever that he was going to have to hit the reset button.

I ask again, why did he sit on his hands the entire season? Why can that be used as an excuse for Lombardi but the same can’t apply towards Blake in his first season as GM?

The Kings had the ninth worst winning percentage and had the sixth worst offense in his last season here. What did Lombardi do at the deadline? Want me to remind you for the umpteenth time so that you can ignore it yet again?

He voiced his displeasure on how it worked out with the Sekera trade.

In a later interview, which I can't find at the moment, Dean said something akin to "these players need to be treated more like assets".

I ignore nothing. I met Lombardi more than once. I have a pretty good idea as to his mindset, which is why I advocated patience when people like you were calling for his head back in 2011-12. I believe he knew after the 2016-17 he had gone a season too far with this core and roster.

Lombardi didn't trade for any additional help during the 2016-17 season. It is correct to criticize his efforts to extend the window the last couple of seasons. Back during the 2011-12 through 2013-14 seasons, he pulled all the right levers to move the team from also rans in the playoffs to Stanley Cup contenders.

You're obviously a fan of what Blake is doing, and that is fine. Dean is correct in his assessment of this type of situation, which is "this is the easy part". I am with @BigKing on this one. Blake has done okay, but he hasn't done anything special just yet.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

He only took the worst prospect pool and in two years turned it into one of the deepest, and also signed four undrafted prospects who are now full time NHLers. I think he’s doing pretty okay with this rebuild so far.

 

[BigKing]

What did he say in that interview that indicated changes are coming? He talked about balancing a team that has won and with players still in their prime, and made no indication whatsoever that he was going to have to hit the reset button.

I ask again, why did he sit on his hands the entire season? Why can that be used as an excuse for Lombardi but the same can’t apply towards Blake in his first season as GM?

He sat on his hands and got fired.

He didn't trade the 1st round pick in order to try and help the team make the playoffs. Cernak trade sucks but, again, there is more to this trade as Cernak has bad things to say about the organization and they obviously soured on him. Total mistake but they obviously weren't high on him at that point. That still falls on Lombardi but its also the same scouting staff that are considered all-stars again.

Lombardi would not have blown it up but he definitely wasn't moving 1st rounders again. Point being that if Blake is just going to do the same thing, then why move away from Lombardi if it is more of the same?

Now, Lombardi says in these coffee interviews about 49'ers management walking away and how difficult it is to try and stay on top and what it does to you. He held the job for a long time, reached the pinnacle and then had a very difficult few years: not just from results but personally with Richards, Pool Party Bust and Voynov. Maybe he knows Sutter is toast so he digs in and goes with the "you'll have to fire me too" while being okay if that is how it goes down.

All of what happened is very interesting and I believe there is more to it than simply "you missed the playoffs two-out-of-three years so you are out of here" because you can also say "you missed the playoffs two-out-of-the-last-eight years with two Cups and a WCF in the last six years" in the same breath. When all of this is done so proven winners at the President/GM/Coach level can be replaced by Kings alumni in Luc/Blake and the longtime assistant coach, it begs the question "why" if the plan is to do the same thing. It is much more understandable if it is a results based firing if the new guy comes in and shakes things up but it's the old "definition of insanity" thing if the new guy just does the same thing and expects a different result.

Blake did the same thing, sat on his hands and still has as many playoff wins as Lombardi did in 2017 but he got to draft at #20 instead of #11.

 

[KINGS17]

He only took the worst prospect pool and in two years turned it into one of the deepest, and also signed four undrafted prospects who are now full time NHLers. I think he’s doing pretty okay with this rebuild so far.

Give us a break with this garbage. Blake kept his draft picks. Any GM would have improved the prospect pool and signed undrafted college free agents to fill out the roster. As I said, nothing special yet.

...and prospects are just that, prospects. The organization needs to develop them now. I have high hopes for some of these young players and look forward to watching them grow.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Here’s what annoyed me most in the last Lombardi/Sutter season: this is the same time frame Lombardi arrogantly called a team that went on to win championships in back-to-back seasons and a team that hasn’t missed the playoffs in 14 years the “flavor of the week,” and said the team has to adapt after they went out on a whimper in the first round against the Sharks.

They gave up a lot to rent Lucic for one season and he left as a UFA, they treated the former captain like shit as well as Matt Greene, made a last ditch effort to re-sign Lucic (thank God that didn’t happen), and went dumpster diving because the team had absolutely nobody in the system to bring up. He shot himself in the foot with that one trade that I have always said set the team back for years. And the only player Lombardi dealt from those Cup winning teams was Dwight King.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Give us a break with this garbage. Blake kept his draft picks. Any GM would have improved the prospect pool and signed undrafted college free agents to fill out the roster. As I said, nothing special yet.

...and prospects are just that, prospects. The organization needs to develop them now. I have high hopes for some of these young players and look forward to watching them grow.

Right, I’m sure you already knew of the talents of Iafallo, Walker and Lizotte as well and any buffoon could’ve outbid 20+ other GMs to sign coveted free agents that were being persuaded by other clubs.

Any fool could hang onto draft picks, save for the previous GM who kept giving them away. Other former Cup winning GMs like Neil Smith did that for a long time as well in his failed attempts to recapture goalie.

I guess trading draft picks and prospects away is tougher than hanging onto them then? Ever heard of the saying that sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make?

 

[BigKing]

He only took the worst prospect pool and in two years turned it into one of the deepest, and also signed four undrafted prospects who are now full time NHLers. I think he’s doing pretty okay with this rebuild so far.

When you hold on to your picks and then sell basically every veteran of value on the team for more picks and prospects, you should have a deep prospect pool unless you draft horribly. Even then, you don't really know if you drafted horribly this early except in rare cases like Colten Teubert. Up until 2010, Lombardi always had 9-10 picks in each draft. Blake had seven in his first two drafts when he wasn't rebuilding but had nine last season and 12(!) this year. The strength of the prospect pool is dominated by last year's draft, the first one under a rebuild with multiple 1sts. This is all awesome stuff and I look forward to next season for some improvement but hopefully another Top 10 pick.

He is doing a good job of the rebuild and doing exactly what he should be doing. This decision at #2OA is possibly a career-defining pick for Blake as a GM and I think he knows it as they've already stated that this "accelerates" things. If he hits big on this then you don't necessarily need to count as heavily on all of these other prospects since none of them scream "elite" like a Kopitar or Doughty. It also allows you to move some of these futures for proven talent.

That said, this is the easy part but I am glad he looks to be doing it properly. It does appear to be all business since the Muzzin trade, a much needed departure from Lombardi and Phase 1 Blake.

 

[KINGS17]

Right, I’m sure you already knew of the talents of Iafallo, Walker and Lizotte as well and any buffoon could’ve outbid 20+ other GMs to sign coveted free agents that were being persuaded by other clubs.

Any fool could hang onto draft picks, save for the previous GM who kept giving them away. Other former Cup winning GMs like Neil Smith did that for a long time as well in his failed attempts to recapture goalie.

I guess trading draft picks and prospects away is tougher than hanging onto them then? Ever heard of the saying that sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make?

Any buffoon? No, but most GMs with an NHL roster spot for which the college free agent can compete, yes. It's not like Blake is the first GM to ever sign an undrafted college free agent to fill out an NHL roster.

All I (and several others) have pointed out is Blake has not done anything yet, which hasn't been done by Lombardi when he was building a team. Would you like to give Blake credit for inventing the wheel as well?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Any buffoon? No, but most GMs with an NHL roster spot for which the college free agent can compete, yes. It's not like Blake is the first GM to ever sign an undrafted college free agent to fill out an NHL roster.

All I (and several others) have pointed out is Blake has not done anything yet, which hasn't been done by Lombardi when he was building a team. Would you like to give Blake credit for inventing the wheel as well?

That’s exactly what I’m doing when giving Blake credit for actually starting to accumulate free assets. So what stopped Dean from doing the same thing? You seem to dodge that question like a politician.

 

[KINGS17]

That’s exactly what I’m doing when giving Blake credit for actually starting to accumulate free assets. So what stopped Dean from doing the same thing? You seem to dodge that question like a politician.

When it came to college free agents, Dean didn't have an NHL roster spot to offer up for competition.

When it comes to trading some of the so-called "core" for future assets, I criticized him for that as well. Seems to me you were with the, "You can't get rid of the {fill in the blank} crowd. Explain your willingness to keep players who had enormous value once it was recognized the window was closed. Oh wait that's right, you were also one of the people saying all the players needed was to get rid of Sutter and it would be all better.

In fact, as @bland pointed out Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick had career years in Blake's first season and it still did not matter. Why? Because the team was done like like a steak left on the grill for an hour.

 

[BigKing]

That’s exactly what I’m doing when giving Blake credit for actually starting to accumulate free assets. So what stopped Dean from doing the same thing? You seem to dodge that question like a politician.

UDFA college guys don't generally want to sign with teams where they don't see a clear path to playing time. Dean was able to sign these types of players as well (I'm still holding out hope for Piskula) when they sucked.

Petersen is interesting since Quick was/is still here but it was on the heels of Quick missing most of the season and the backup goalie being Kumper who was basically left for dead and signed to a one year deal. You get to lean on the Kings recent track record of goalies with the most recent season seeing Budaj excel in the NHL and Campbell come back from the dead in Ontario. Tell the kid he will split time in the AHL for his first pro season and, at that point, he's probably only battling with Campbell for back-up duties behind and aging, athletic goaltender. Makes sense, although I wonder if he thought he'd have been in the NHL as the backup a tad sooner.

Back to Blake...it is great that he has sprayed all fields. When your prospect pool is trash and you know it, these UDFAs know it too and like that there is opportunity. Pulling Iafallo, Lizotte, Petersen and Walker is awesome and he's at almost a 50% hit rate when you include Boko, Luff, Rempal, Brickley and Strand in to the mix for these types of signings. Guess it is 50% when including Fantenberg but I don't like calling him an NHL player.

It's good business for Blake and any team with both a bad prospect pool and a bad team since it has obviously been good business for the four dudes that are on the NHL roster and, really, it's on the five other guys for not making it because spots on the NHL roster are/were there for them if they were able to grab it. Look no further than another UDFA in MacDermid.

 

[HeadInjury]

All I (and several others) have pointed out is Blake has not done anything yet, which hasn't been done by Lombardi when he was building a team. Would you like to give Blake credit for inventing the wheel as well?

I have a hard time with this Blake hasn't done anything yet take. If you're a GM, holding on to your picks and trading players for a grand total of one extra 1st round draft pick does not guarantee your team going from the basement in terms of prospect depth to the consensus top prospect pool in 2-3 years. It's a hell of an accomplishment. Blake may not be the drafting mastermind, but it's under his leadership and he's given his front office team the tools they needed.

DL never had that type of success.

 

[KINGS17]

I have a hard time with this Blake hasn't done anything yet take. If you're a GM, holding on to your picks and trading players for a grand total of one extra 1st round draft pick does not guarantee your team going from the basement in terms of prospect depth to the consensus top prospect pool in 2-3 years. It's a hell of an accomplishment. Blake may not be the drafting mastermind, but it's under his leadership and he's given his front office team the tools they needed.

DL never had that type of success.

The Kings had one of the highest rated prospect pools in the NHL after the Schenn draft. In fact, not soon after that draft Schenn was regarded as the best prospect not playing in the NHL.

 

[Docgonzo]

I have zero issues with either Lombardi or Blake. But it seems that people love to bash Blake and forgive Lombardi, I know he brought us our first cups but everybody glosses over the negative real easily. Of all the negative that happened under his reign.

-Stripped our 2 time Stanley Cup winning Captain of his C. What are we the Sharks??
-Richards and his issue, doesn’t buy him out until he gets caught at the border.
-Voynov domestic violence
-Barstok domestic violence
-Pool party drug issue in Vegas
-Trading Cernak for Bishop and then trying to extend Bishop
-Missing out on the 2015 draft with the Lucic trade and then trying to extend Lucic
-Gaborik contract
-Supposed rumors of Doughty and Simmonds hard partying

I’m probably missing stuff but how much rope does on guy get? He was learning? I feel like if our GM’s name wasn’t Rob Blake he wouldn’t get as much crap as he does from this fan base. If his name, doing the same actions, was Futa he’d be praised like crazy.

 

[BigKing]

I have zero issues with either Lombardi or Blake. But it seems that people love to bash Blake and forgive Lombardi, I know he brought us our first cups but everybody glosses over the negative real easily. Of all the negative that happened under his reign.

-Stripped our 2 time Stanley Cup winning Captain of his C. What are we the Sharks??
-Richards and his issue, doesn’t buy him out until he gets caught at the border.
-Voynov domestic violence
-Barstok domestic violence
-Pool party drug issue in Vegas
-Trading Cernak for Bishop and then trying to extend Bishop
-Missing out on the 2015 draft with the Lucic trade and then trying to extend Lucic
-Gaborik contract
-Supposed rumors of Doughty and Simmonds hard partying

I’m probably missing stuff but how much rope does on guy get? He was learning? I feel like if our GM’s name wasn’t Rob Blake he wouldn’t get as much crap as he does from this fan base. If his name, doing the same actions, was Futa he’d be praised like crazy.

People love to bash Lombardi just as much or more than Blake bashing.

 

[HeadInjury]

The Kings had one of the highest rated prospect pools in the NHL after the Schenn draft. In fact, not soon after that draft Schenn was regarded as the best prospect not playing in the NHL.

Ask yourself what was the worst pick made in DL's first three drafts. It's hard to say because their were so many. Other than Doughty, all first rounders were busts. (Yes, Bernier is a bust as the 11th overall and Lewis is a bust as the 17th overall.)

Then tell me one bad draft pick by Blake in any of his first three drafts. Just one. What are you going to say, Kupari? Shafigullin?

I know that you will probably say it's too soon to judge Blake's picks. Fair enough, but a lot of people here were shaking their heads when the likes of Lewis, Hickey, Joey Ryan, Oscar Moller and Colton Teubert were drafted so high.

 

[BigKing]

I have a hard time with this Blake hasn't done anything yet take. If you're a GM, holding on to your picks and trading players for a grand total of one extra 1st round draft pick does not guarantee your team going from the basement in terms of prospect depth to the consensus top prospect pool in 2-3 years. It's a hell of an accomplishment. Blake may not be the drafting mastermind, but it's under his leadership and he's given his front office team the tools they needed.

DL never had that type of success.

I just posted yesterday that HF had the Kings rated as having the #1 ranked prospect pool in the Spring of 2017 based upon Lombardi acquisitions and Bernier. Boyle and Tukonen were #'s 4 and 5 on the list. Fall of 2018 had them ranked #2 led by Doughty and followed by Bernier and Hickey and Teubert. All 1st round picks with only one of these being traded for which, c'mon Lombardi, was bad asset management with Cammalleri. Anyways, all of these guys were 1st round picks except O'Sullivan on the 2017 list (1st round talent but 2nd Round faller because of his issues) and Purcell at #5 on the 2018 list. Post Schenn draft had them ranked #5 with Hickey/Bernier/Schenn/Moller/Voynov. All 1st round picks at the top with 2nd round picks rounding it out.

Blake has had four first round picks, including 5OA with this pick currently ranked as the Kings #1 prospect until October when he'll slide to #2. Wheeler has the Top 5 as Turcotte/Kaliyev/Fagemo/Vilardi/Kupari. Three of his four first round picks--not even the one he traded for--along with a guy right at the top of the 2nd that fell because of "issues". None of us would blink if Kaliyev went at #22 instead of Bjornfot. Now, this list is prior to Madden being added and Wheeler has him in the Top 50 drafted players so he would slot ahead of Kupari but, again, this speaks to how you can build an impressive prospect pool by trading established talent for picks and prospects such as Madden. Having acquired so many picks and using all of your picks in the prior two drafts allows you to package an additional pick to target someone you want, i.e. Fagemo.

Anyways, the Kings were ranked #1 with Johnson/O'Sullivan/Bernier/Boyle/Tukonen. I think that Boyle made an all-star game somehow but none of the other guys even did that. Wheeler has three 2019 draft picks as the Kings Top 3 prospects. He's not a huge Bjornfot fan but he looks like a sure thing NHL player so Wheeler is living in a world here the Kings pull NHL'ers out of all of their first four picks in the 2019 draft. That's pretty insane and would be surprising to see actually happen.

If this 2019 draft plays out like some believe, then I'll agree that DL never had a draft like this. You are, however, believing that Blake's drafting is "night and day" better based on having the results of Lombardi's picks (let's just point out that "best defenseman on the team" last season in Roy is a DL pick) v. the tasty potential of Blake's. I sure as shit hope it all pans out but that tasty potential put Lombardi's pool at the top of the league as well--in one year on the job--and nobody in that Top 5 wound up being a difference maker. The Kings prospect with the greatest career in a Kings sweater at the time of that ranking is Trevor Lewis, unless you want to count Johnson for being used to get Carter.

While they weren't ranked last or next to it in 2017, Ottawa was generally in the mid-20s. In Wheeler's recent rankings, they are #7 and that is with losing the 4th overall last season in the horrible trade with Colorado. If they don't move that pick and simply hold it, they possibly have Byram right now and would legitimately be pushing LA for #1 seeing how Wheeler has Byram ranked ahead of Turcotte and Kaliyev. So there is another team that moved up considerably from 2017 and is probably #1 or 2 if they didn't blow things with the Duchene trade. If you hold on to your picks and then add additional picks/prospects by selling legit NHL talent, you should move up the rankings considerably after three drafts: especially if you mix in a Top 5 pick.

 

[Docgonzo]

People love to bash Lombardi just as much or more than Blake bashing.

Not at all, people were arguing and screaming to not have his number retired. Blake is hated by many still from his player days. And that hatred spills over into his GM work, don’t pretend it doesn’t.

 

[psych3man]

I always wonder what other info that we have no way of knowing is a business leader like GM Blake weighing when he makes decisions. I know as a small business owner I make all decisions based on weighing many different data points and options, some of this info my employees know (or can wisely ascertain) and other info they would not know. Was Blake hired and told to go for it one more time? Did he sense his core and locker room needed to know he would give them another year to compete? We may never know. Without this information everything comes down to armchair calls with insufficient data (and judging yesterday with today's jury).

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Ask yourself what was the worst pick made in DL's first three drafts. It's hard to say because their were so many. Other than Doughty, all first rounders were busts. (Yes, Bernier is a bust as the 11th overall and Lewis is a bust as the 17th overall.)

Then tell me one bad draft pick by Blake in any of his first three drafts. Just one. What are you going to say, Kupari? Shafigullin?

I know that you will probably say it's too soon to judge Blake's picks. Fair enough, but a lot of people here were shaking their heads when the likes of Lewis, Hickey, Joey Ryan, Oscar Moller and Colton Teubert were drafted so high.

I'm gonna say "too early to tell," but if I'm extra critical about it, I could say we could easily have 0 NHLers from the 2018 draft, and that we're mistaking Blake taking 'fallers' for good draft strategy.

I'm not a huge Kupari fan, Akil Thomas is a great human being and player I'd like to root for but there's a chance he just does nothing well and doesn't quite hack it (think Roland McKeown but forward), Bulat is a huge home run swing loaded with potential but never fulfills it OR comes over, Aidan Dudas isn't any better than any other 4th liner, Hrenak does nothing of note, Sodergran never takes a step, Ingham stagnates.

Personally I think Kupari makes it as a middle six winger, Thomas is a trevor lewis clone, and Ingham has a future, but that's really it. I'm rooting for Dudas too, but I don't think he sticks long-term. The others are longshot darkhorses. And again, the above is all just me being really, really pessimistic. But I think it's fair. But I don't think any of them are 'bad picks' either.

I always wonder what other info that we have no way of knowing is a business leader like GM Blake weighing when he makes decisions. I know as a small business owner I make all decisions based on weighing many different data points and options, some of this info my employees know (or can wisely ascertain) and other info they would not know. Was Blake hired and told to go for it one more time? Did he sense his core and locker room needed to know he would give them another year to compete? We may never know. Without this information everything comes down to armchair calls with insufficient data (and judging yesterday with today's jury).

Yeah we'll never be privy to much but public statement. But Blake is well regarded and well connected around the league as both a player, executive with the league, and Kings hockey ops. The path he's taken to get here--as an NHL player, college educated, league groomed--is more than most. "on paper" he's very qualified, and I know that doesn't count for much,but the public facing knowledge and data suggests he's a good one that just has to learn the GM job more. All that and we know he's a pretty soft spoken, measured dude. I definitely miss a good Lombardi tirade haha.

 

[HeadInjury]

I'm gonna say "too early to tell," but if I'm extra critical about it, I could say we could easily have 0 NHLers from the 2018 draft, and that we're mistaking Blake taking 'fallers' for good draft strategy.

I'm not a huge Kupari fan, Akil Thomas is a great human being and player I'd like to root for but there's a chance he just does nothing well and doesn't quite hack it (think Roland McKeown but forward), Bulat is a huge home run swing loaded with potential but never fulfills it OR comes over, Aidan Dudas isn't any better than any other 4th liner, Hrenak does nothing of note, Sodergran never takes a step, Ingham stagnates.

Personally I think Kupari makes it as a middle six winger, Thomas is a trevor lewis clone, and Ingham has a future, but that's really it. I'm rooting for Dudas too, but I don't think he sticks long-term. The others are longshot darkhorses. And again, the above is all just me being really, really pessimistic. But I think it's fair. But I don't think any of them are 'bad picks' either.

I don't disagree with your analysis of some of the picks, but there's no one who sticks out as a reach let alone a bad call. Do you remember Hickey when his name was called at the draft? Even he couldn't believe it. He looked sheepish.

Only time the consensus here was to criticize Blake was when we picked Bjornfot over Kaliyev in the first round last year. That nearly caused a mass suicide on this board. Yet Blake got the last laugh when Kaliyev was still available in the second.

 

[BigKing]

Not at all, people were arguing and screaming to not have his number retired. Blake is hated by many still from his player days. And that hatred spills over into his GM work, don’t pretend it doesn’t.

Give me a break. Blake was a f***ing deity on here by December of 2018 because the Kings were fighting for 1st in the division, had made some college signings and hadn't traded a draft pick. Any criticism of Blake is met with a direct comparison to Lombardi and, more often than not, references to the Lucic or Cernak trades. When I say direct comparison to Lombardi, I don't mean putting together a three year string of Cup-WCF-Cup but rather just the three years after that stretch.

I get that this is a "what have you done for me lately" world: especially when it comes to sports; however, if all I'm going to read on here is how horrible Dean was during his last three years then those of us that want to criticize Blake for his work prior to actually rebuilding are well within our rights to do so. I mean, how many GMs add a pricey UFA as the "missing piece" in the summer and then finish the season second to last in the entire league? That's f***ing wild.

You are completely right that Blake's playing days make many of us not like him: I've never shied away from that fact even though I'd watch a 30 minute video of him crushing opponents right now with a nice alcoholic beverage. In that same vein, Blake is still well-liked by many from his playing days and *that* opinion spills over into the analysis of his GM work, absolving him of any responsibility for anything up to this point except the good things.

Pre-Muzzin trade he was shit. Since then, he's been doing a bang-up job of conducting a true rebuild. I'll give him credit where it is due but I'm going to criticize what I think is worthy of criticism. What will get me going are the comparisons to Lombardi that infer Blake is doing a better job because he hasn't traded picks/prospects as if Lombardi never did a rebuild which led to the best time of our lives as Kings fans. When we say that Blake hasn't done anything yet, it literally means that nothing tangible has occurred. I don't have an issue with believing he is doing a good job because, yes, he is doing a good job since the rebuild started; however, there are a lot of people getting very ahead of themselves.

 

[BigKing]

@Raccoon Jesus

Agree about the 2018 draft. While doing all of this looking back at draft picks, that one doesn't have anyone that jumps out and screams "pencil me in".

It's still too early though.