Speculation: 2020-21 LA Kings News/Rumors/Roster Discussion Part II

[KINGS17]

Finally had a chance to listen to the podcast where Dean Lombardi was interviewed. Can't believe AEG fired him, and then replaced him with what we have today.

Of course, some commented something along the lines of, "Even Dean Lombardi admitted he did a bad job after the second cup." Uh yeah, that's exactly why you want Dean Lombardi to be running your hockey team.

The Kings may never contend again.

‎The Athletic Hockey Show: A show about the NHL: Shea Weber injuries to prevent him from playing next season? Parise, Suter, Yandle buyouts. Andre Tourigny - Arizona Coyotes head coach. two time Stanley Cup Champion Dean Lombardi on Apple Podcasts

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Finally had a chance to listen to the podcast where Dean Lombardi was interviewed. Can't believe AEG fired him, and then replaced him with what we have today.

Of course, some commented something along the lines of, "Even Dean Lombardi admitted he did a bad job after the second cup." Uh yeah, that's exactly why you want Dean Lombardi to be running your hockey team.

The Kings may never contend again.

‎The Athletic Hockey Show: A show about the NHL: Shea Weber injuries to prevent him from playing next season? Parise, Suter, Yandle buyouts. Andre Tourigny - Arizona Coyotes head coach. two time Stanley Cup Champion Dean Lombardi on Apple Podcasts

I guess you choose to forget the one playoff game won and the failure to reach the playoffs in two out of three seasons with one of the most expensive payrolls and a completely empty prospect pool.

Love listening to Dean talk, but he lost his way because he couldn’t adapt, and same goes for Sutter. What success have the organizations they’ve been with had since they left the Kings?

 

[Kudelski37]

Finally had a chance to listen to the podcast where Dean Lombardi was interviewed. Can't believe AEG fired him, and then replaced him with what we have today.

Of course, some commented something along the lines of, "Even Dean Lombardi admitted he did a bad job after the second cup." Uh yeah, that's exactly why you want Dean Lombardi to be running your hockey team.

The Kings may never contend again.

‎The Athletic Hockey Show: A show about the NHL: Shea Weber injuries to prevent him from playing next season? Parise, Suter, Yandle buyouts. Andre Tourigny - Arizona Coyotes head coach. two time Stanley Cup Champion Dean Lombardi on Apple Podcasts

Pretty much all of his moves for the three years leading to his firing were wrong. Simply doing nothing would have been much better. It took him four years from his firing to admit his mistakes.

People say Blake keeping picks and drafting talent is easy. Lombardi couldn't do it. Lombardi should have been fired as soon as he thought about trading for Lucic.

 

[KINGS17]

I guess you choose to forget the one playoff game won and the failure to reach the playoffs in two out of three seasons with one of the most expensive payrolls and a completely empty prospect pool.

Love listening to Dean talk, but he lost his way because he couldn’t adapt, and same goes for Sutter. What success have the organizations they’ve been with had since they left the Kings?

I forget nothing. He realizes he failed to adapt, and I still believe he was going to start making some player personnel moves to correct some of his mistakes.

It comes down to would I rather have Dean Lombardi, who knows how to make a plan and execute it in charge, or would I rather have Bluc? The choice is obvious.

I even understand Dean being fired, but why go back to the tired old BS of bringing in former players to run things in LA? Guys that never won jack while playing for the Kings. AEG should have went outside the organization again to hire a GM after firing Lombardi.

 

[KINGS17]

Pretty much all of his moves for the three years leading to his firing were wrong. Simply doing nothing would have been much better. It took him four years from his firing to admit his mistakes.

People say Blake keeping picks and drafting talent is easy. Lombardi couldn't do it. Lombardi should have been fired as soon as he thought about trading for Lucic.

How do you know it took him four years? Did you listen to the podcast? They were thrilled to have him on, because he doesn't do media hardly at all anymore. You think he was going to do an interview with the clowns in LA who cover the Kings?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I forget nothing. He realizes he failed to adapt, and I still believe he was going to start making some player personnel moves to correct some of his mistakes.

It comes down to would I rather have Dean Lombardi, who knows how to make a plan and execute it in charge, or would I rather have Bluc? The choice is obvious.

I even understand Dean being fired, but why go back to the tired old BS of bringing in former players to run things in LA? Guys that never won jack while playing for the Kings. AEG should have went outside the organization again to hire a GM after firing Lombardi.

I look at it this way: did Lombardi leave the a Kings’ roster, cap situation and pipeline in a better place than when he took over?

I don’t have a complete picture with the current management group to answer your question because they needed to fix many issues, which didn’t start taking place until the rebuild. But thus far, they have significantly improved the two areas that Lombardi failed to address his last few years here, and that’s the cap space and prospect pool.

Now comes the hard part of building this team into a winner. Some fans think that should happen overnight and ignore how long of a process it was the last time the team went through a rebuild.

 

[kingsfan28]

I guess you choose to forget the one playoff game won and the failure to reach the playoffs in two out of three seasons with one of the most expensive payrolls and a completely empty prospect pool.

Love listening to Dean talk, but he lost his way because he couldn’t adapt, and same goes for Sutter. What success have the organizations they’ve been with had since they left the Kings?

Proof that Dean lost it is right there in the interview Bob Miller [coffee with Bob?] he did in 2015 or 16' . He was flat out denying the league was evolving right before his eyes, and that there were issues with Sutter and the players. We should've seen this coming when he built the 2014 Olympic team of all will and no skill.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Proof that Dean lost it is right there in the interview Bob Miller [coffee with Bob?] he did in 2015 or 16' . He was flat out denying the league was evolving right before his eyes, and that there were issues with Sutter and the players. We should've seen this coming when he built the 2014 Olympic team of all will and no skill.

I know Dean was on the 2014 US Olympic selection committee, and he was one of the most vocal in criticizing guys who can score, like Phil Kessel and Bobby Ryan. Then he had full autonomy with the 2016 US World Cup team that got embarrassed and finished 7th out of 8 teams. Once again he left of Phil Kessel, but at least they had Justin Abdelkader!

That tournament is the one that really made me question his judgement in talent. He had a talent pool to pick the best players to represent the U.S. in tournaments, and he assembled a team that got shutout by a random mishmash of talent in Team Europe, and lost all three tournament games.

 

[johnjm22]

Then he had full autonomy with the 2016 US World Cup team that got embarrassed and finished 7th out of 8 teams. Once again he left of Phil Kessel, but at least they had Justin Abdelkader!

That tournament is the one that really made me question his judgement in talent. He had a talent pool to pick the best players to represent the U.S. in tournaments, and he assembled a team that got shutout by a random mishmash of talent in Team Europe, and most all three tournament games.

I still think this is one of the main reasons he hasn't gotten another GM job since. This really impacted how he was viewed in the hockey world.

Rightly or wrongly, I think he's seen as an unadaptable, old school, curmudgeon whose time has passed.

 

[kingsfan28]

I forget nothing. He realizes he failed to adapt, and I still believe he was going to start making some player personnel moves to correct some of his mistakes.

It comes down to would I rather have Dean Lombardi, who knows how to make a plan and execute it in charge, or would I rather have Bluc? The choice is obvious.

I even understand Dean being fired, but why go back to the tired old BS of bringing in former players to run things in LA? Guys that never won jack while playing for the Kings. AEG should have went outside the organization again to hire a GM after firing Lombardi.

Dean showed no signs of changing.He 's as stubborn as they come and an ego now driven by 2 cups. Do you really think he'd start drafting skilled forwards and faster dmen, going completely away from what he thinks worked.He was in total denial when the Pens won the cup with a fast skilled line up. He's never going to go away from his "character first" philosophy whether it be drafting or FA. Its burned into him [and his old school thinking], and you see what we got, a bunch of guy like Andreoff.

It sounds like your issues are more with Luc and Rob, being former Kings, not what they're doing. Rob has all the skills to succeed, he learned under Dean and Hextal and saw how to build a winner. This isn't a Dave Taylor situation where a guy had no experience gets promoted.
This is just like what Yzerman did with Tampa. He learned while in Detroit, moved onto the job with Tampa and built a winner through the draft, using what he learned under Holmgren.. Now he is going to try and do it with Detroit as the GM. I see this as what Blake is doing now, learn, build , win, and not using it as a reason why it's not going to work.

 

[BigKing]

Pretty much all of his moves for the three years leading to his firing were wrong. Simply doing nothing would have been much better. It took him four years from his firing to admit his mistakes.

People say Blake keeping picks and drafting talent is easy. Lombardi couldn't do it. Lombardi should have been fired as soon as he thought about trading for Lucic.

It is easy and Lombardi did it too. He also got tons of shit while he was doing it because it is so f***ing easy to lose on purpose.

DL made the right moves after the losing on purpose and brought this pathetic organization it's best moments. The fact that so many on this board continue to stone him for not winning a third title or some shit is f***ing insane.

We have three straight years of awesomeness in basically 40 years of darkness but some of you want to say a guy in Rob Blake is a better GM than the dude who made that happen. Just absolutely mind-blowing.

This isn't an argument for not firing DL but rather a pull your head out of your asses. Oh he traded for Lucic!! f***ing Christ. How about 2012 and '14 being the best times of your lives?

It's ungrateful trash behavior. He's dead, assholes. Hasn't been the GM for years. Yet your still roasting the only guy that made it ever happen for us. We don't even deserve to experience it again if this is how we treat the ones that make it happen.

 

[kingsfan28]

I know Dean was on the 2014 US Olympic selection committee, and he was one of the most vocal in criticizing guys who can score, like Phil Kessel and Bobby Ryan. Then he had full autonomy with the 2016 US World Cup team that got embarrassed and finished 7th out of 8 teams. Once again he left of Phil Kessel, but at least they had Justin Abdelkader!

That tournament is the one that really made me question his judgement in talent. He had a talent pool to pick the best players to represent the U.S. in tournaments, and he assembled a team that got shutout by a random mishmash of talent in Team Europe, and most all three tournament games.

Dean was the GM and had the final say in who went. The only thing he got right was the goalies. Quick was just awesome in that insane shootout against Russia that Oshi just owned.

 

[kingsfan28]

It is easy and Lombardi did it too. He also got tons of shit while he was doing it because it is so f***ing easy to lose on purpose.

DL made the right moves after the losing on purpose and brought this pathetic organization it's best moments. The fact that so many on this board continue to stone him for not winning a third title or some shit is f***ing insane.

We have three straight years of awesomeness in basically 40 years of darkness but some of you want to say a guy in Rob Blake is a better GM than the dude who made that happen. Just absolutely mind-blowing.

This isn't an argument for not firing DL but rather a pull your head out of your asses. Oh he traded for Lucic!! f***ing Christ. How about 2012 and '14 being the best times of your lives?

The same guy who made it happen also make it disappear as fast as he won the cups. 2 cups in 3 years, one playoff win in 3 years after and counting...

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

It is easy and Lombardi did it too. He also got tons of shit while he was doing it because it is so f***ing easy to lose on purpose.

DL made the right moves after the losing on purpose and brought this pathetic organization it's best moments. The fact that so many on this board continue to stone him for not winning a third title or some shit is f***ing insane.

We have three straight years of awesomeness in basically 40 years of darkness but some of you want to say a guy in Rob Blake is a better GM than the dude who made that happen. Just absolutely mind-blowing.

This isn't an argument for not firing DL but rather a pull your head out of your asses. Oh he traded for Lucic!! f***ing Christ. How about 2012 and '14 being the best times of your lives?

It's ungrateful trash behavior. He's dead, assholes. Hasn't been the GM for years. Yet your still roasting the only guy that made it ever happen for us. We don't even deserve to experience it again if this is how we treat the ones that make it happen.

Remember when Kevin Lowe responded to critics by saying he’s won Stanley Cups before and he knows how to win when he was Oilers GM? This is what that sounds like.

Is anybody critiquing the Cup wins? Are Pens fans yearning for Shero or Rutherford to return? Are Hawks fans also clinging to the past and asking for Dale Tallon and Joel Quenneville to come back? I know many Hawks fans who also wish Stan Bowman was gone by now (and he should be for quite a few reasons).

I guess we should sweep the problems created and instead focus our ire on Rob Blake, because he’s the evil villain you guys still haven’t gotten over since 2001. And you’re telling others to get over it. That’s rather comical and hypocritical of you.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

I still think this is one of the main reasons he hasn't gotten another GM job since. This really impacted how he was viewed in the hockey world.

Rightly or wrongly, I think he's seen as an unadaptable, old school, curmudgeon whose time has passed.

Uh, no. He’s turned down jobs and interviews. He is perfectly happy in Philly and the east coast. He’ll always be one of the top GMs in the game.

 

[Vino]

I don’t have a complete picture with the current management group to answer your question because they needed to fix many issues, which didn’t start taking place until the rebuild. But thus far, they have significantly improved the two areas that Lombardi failed to address his last few years here, and that’s the cap space and prospect pool.

How many cup contenders have the cap space or deep prospect pool? If you want to succeed you have to pay your players, so you lose your cap space. If you want to get those "missing parts", you have trade your best prospects to get a good player (Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, etc.). It's mission impossible to build a cup contender and keep your cap space or deep prospect pool same time.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

It is easy and Lombardi did it too. He also got tons of shit while he was doing it because it is so f***ing easy to lose on purpose.

DL made the right moves after the losing on purpose and brought this pathetic organization it's best moments. The fact that so many on this board continue to stone him for not winning a third title or some shit is f***ing insane.

We have three straight years of awesomeness in basically 40 years of darkness but some of you want to say a guy in Rob Blake is a better GM than the dude who made that happen. Just absolutely mind-blowing.

This isn't an argument for not firing DL but rather a pull your head out of your asses. Oh he traded for Lucic!! f***ing Christ. How about 2012 and '14 being the best times of your lives?

It's ungrateful trash behavior. He's dead, assholes. Hasn't been the GM for years. Yet your still roasting the only guy that made it ever happen for us. We don't even deserve to experience it again if this is how we treat the ones that make it happen.

The funny thing is people roast DL for his post cups moves but ignore that Blake continued the same philosophy. The firing wasn’t because of Deans inability to see the game differently because that doesn’t line up with the current regimes action in taking the mantle from DL. Retained the same players, retained Stevens, signed Cammaleri, traded him for Jussi Jokinen, traded for Nate Thompson, Mitchell (not the defenseman).

Blake taking over that off-season was funny, everyone expected a faster team but it was more of the same, and got swept right out of the playoffs to the Vegas knights. What did Blake do? Made an old Kovalchuk an offer that no one else was offering.

DL was praising Vegas for the job they’ve done in retooling every year. They’ve traded their picks and prospects for certain guys and it’s been successful to a point. DL largely did the same thing, it nearly led to a dynasty.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

How many cup contenders have the cap space or deep prospect pool? If you want to succeed you have to pay your players, so you lose your cap space. If you want to get those "missing parts", you have trade your best prospects to get a good player (Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, etc.). It's mission impossible to build a cup contender and keep your cap space or deep prospect pool same time.

You do realize when the team is close to taking that next step to contend, those assets are used to acquire the likes of Richards and Carter, right? Because in 2017, Rob Blake didn’t have that luxury. Did you think the cap space and prospects were magically going to appear overnight?

 

[Reclamation Project]

Vegas series was the same old sorry Kings. Can't score for shit and Quick plays his heart out. A wonderful microcosm of this team's identity. 3 total goals in 4 goals. Quick had a 1.55 GAA and .947 SV%. What a pathetic group of losers.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The funny thing is people roast DL for his post cups moves but ignore that Blake continued the same philosophy. The firing wasn’t because of Deans inability to see the game differently because that doesn’t line up with the current regimes action in taking the mantle from DL. Retained the same players, retained Stevens, signed Cammaleri, traded him for Jussi Jokinen, traded for Nate Thompson, Mitchell (not the defenseman).

Blake taking over that off-season was funny, everyone expected a faster team but it was more of the same, and got swept right out of the playoffs to the Vegas knights. What did Blake do? Made an old Kovalchuk an offer that no one else was offering.

DL was praising Vegas for the job they’ve done in retooling every year. They’ve traded their picks and prospects for certain guys and it’s been successful to a point. DL largely did the same thing, it nearly led to a dynasty.

Funny, weren’t you critical of Blake for trying to retool the Kings, and repeatedly brought up the failed Pacioretty trade as an example? Now you’re praising it when another team does it. Some of you talk from both sides of your mouths.

 

[johnjm22]

Uh, no. He’s turned down jobs and interviews. He is perfectly happy in Philly and the east coast. He’ll always be one of the top GMs in the game.

He has not turned down a GM job, because he hasn't been offered one.

It's strange to me Lombardi has fans. I've never seen a GM have fans before. You and K17 are Dean's "Chad Rawn".

 

[johnjm22]

This article from an outsider gives some perspective on how others view Lombardi:
I don’t want Dean Lombardi anywhere near my hockey team

Not surprisingly, his management of team USA was brought up as evidence of him having an outdated philosophy.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Funny, weren’t you critical of Blake for trying to retool the Kings, and repeatedly brought up the failed Pacioretty trade as an example? Now you’re praising it when another team does it. Some of you talk from both sides of your mouths.

I was critical of how Luc was a snake in that proposed deal and how bad this franchise looked because of it. Calling in a favor to get Pacioretti to accept a low ball offer without him knowing? Sad!

Pacioretti quickly changed agents after.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

He has not turned down a GM job, because he hasn't been offered one.

It's strange to me Lombardi has fans. I've never seen a GM have fans before. You and K17 are Dean's "Chad Rawn".

He’s turned down several interviews, obviously he’s happy where he is at. Nothing wrong with that and doesn’t take away what he’s accomplished.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

This article from an outsider gives some perspective on how others view Lombardi:
I don’t want Dean Lombardi anywhere near my hockey team

Not surprisingly, his management of team USA was brought up as evidence of him having an outdated philosophy.

Funny enough, the Flyers hired him anyway.