Speculation: 2021-22 LA Kings News, Rumors, Roster Thread Part VI

[King'sPawn]

Everybody complains about old boys club so I decided to look at Detroit since Yzerman is a genius.

Pat Verbeek AGM
Niklas Kronwall Director of European player development
Jiri Fisher associate director of player personnel
Dan Cleary assistant director of player development
Kirk Maltby pro scout
Chris Yzerman pro scout
Kris Draper director of amateur scouting.

That’s a lot of former teammates and Red Wings, are they all qualified? Surely he isn’t just hiring his friends like BLuc.

How long have they been there? Were they hired before Yzerman was part of the org?

Do you see Yzerman firing his former teammates if they don't meet a certain threshold of performance?

The question isn't just about hiring "buddies." It's a question of what degree of accountability they get held.

The thing is, Luc is a very likable and by all accounts a friendly person. Is he mean enough to fire a close friend if he needs to? I don't expect him to fire people at this moment, but I think the question is if he has the capacity to do so.

Fair enough, all I've read on here, is how he has destroyed...the Habs......how...he never had a long term vision, (though they conveniently left out the market pressures in Montreal) that's all conjecture AT BEST.... and it stems from..... He's Lucs friend....

The initial response from everyone should be.....interesting, let's see where it goes, I'm with you on this, since no one asked, I don't really care about Bergevin, can be be good, sure, can he suck donkey balls, absolutely, I'm just not willing to default to the 2nd option based on him being friends with someone.

That's understandable. I'd be less inclined to default to him being friends with someone if I was more impressed with his body of work. I concede working in Montreal is a tough situation to work under. Unfortunately, that's the only frame of reference I have.

Anyway, thank you for discussing. I look forward to more opportunities with you.

 

[Statto]

That's understandable. I'd be less inclined to default to him being friends with someone if I was more impressed with his body of work. I concede working in Montreal is a tough situation to work under. Unfortunately, that's the only frame of reference I have.

Anyway, thank you for discussing. I look forward to more opportunities with you.

I think with Bergeron, prior to taking the Montreal job he was highly though of in Chicago for what he did there. I’m assuming (perhaps just being hopeful) he’s more likely to be working in that sort of capacity, if so I’m not overly concerned. It’s all about scope of his role for me.

 

[BigKing]

It just hits different when one old boys club has a bunch of dudes in it that were on teams together that were always at the top of the league and the other old boys club is comprised of the late 90's/early 00's Kings.

What is happening here with the Kings "nepotism" isn't some rare thing in the NHL; however, it is perfectly reasonable to be scared that the 1998-99 LA Kings are supposed to take this franchise back to the promised land. It's also a bummer when it gets mixed with a little bit of late 00's/early 10's San Jose, a franchise that solidified itself as the biggest choke artist and waste of talent in the league during that time. The fact they finally made the Cup Finals after dismissing T-Mac is damning.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

You don't really understand the Montreal market....but that's another conversation,

graduating more than one prospect?

Galchenyuk, De La Rose, Lehkohnen (which you gave), Mete, Sergachev (traded for Drouin, both prospects, so sub Drouin in) Kotkenami, again, drafting is not his strong suite,

But you mock 7 transactions over what....a decade.....how many transactions do you think are actually MADE by a team in a given year? 2-3 trades, MAYBE...and what, 4-5 UFA signings? MAYBE....

You act as if we are taking about thousands of transactions...instead of what....70 maybe? Depends on if you want to include the drafting....as a transaction.

If you have a decade, multiple lottery picks, a highly desirable market and some of the biggest financial backing in the league....my bar for being excited for a hire is more than 'oh cool he's been out of the first round twice,' especially if you've proven you can't draft/develop for shit and all your other moves are mediocre at best. It's ridiculous that a job that's been open for 2 years just gets handed to this mediocre good ol' boy within a month.

What is his 'specialty' that he's bringing value to this organization? Because I see a guy who can't win, can't draft, can't develop, arguably can't really trade/sign. But he speaks French. And was hired with lightning speed for...reasons?

I get that I'm on the extremely angry end of the spectrum for this one, but no one who's 'for' it is doing/saying anything that would help me be excited, either, we're just arguing about how 'ok' his trades are. What does he help with?

And Blake and Luc know it's a bullshit signing with baggage too, hence the lack of Q/A and media availability, frankly that's completely douchey.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Poor Frk man, really cannot catch a break.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

If you have a decade, multiple lottery picks, a highly desirable market and some of the biggest financial backing in the league....my bar for being excited for a hire is more than 'oh cool he's been out of the first round twice,' especially if you've proven you can't draft/develop for shit and all your other moves are mediocre at best. It's ridiculous that a job that's been open for 2 years just gets handed to this mediocre good ol' boy within a month.

What is his 'specialty' that he's bringing value to this organization? Because I see a guy who can't win, can't draft, can't develop, arguably can't really trade/sign. But he speaks French. And was hired with lightning speed for...reasons?

I get that I'm on the extremely angry end of the spectrum for this one, but no one who's 'for' it is doing/saying anything that would help me be excited, either, we're just arguing about how 'ok' his trades are. What does he help with?

And Blake and Luc know it's a bullshit signing with baggage too, hence the lack of Q/A and media availability, frankly that's completely douchey.

Decade of multiple lottery picks?

Galyenchuk, 2012 - 3rd OA - then, in order 25, 26, 26, 9, 25, 3, 15, 16, 31....

Highly desirable market? WTF not even close....Canadian dollar, insane taxes, insane media pressure,

Biggest financial backing doesn't mean shit.....in a cap league.

My god you would think you would at least LOOK at what the hell is you are pissed about, you've been wrong on so many fronts here it's embarrassing.

 

[unicornpig]

he isn't the worst gm... but anyone defending his time in montreal looks just as foolish. i'm ok with this hire as long as he is never the gm.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

How long have they been there? Were they hired before Yzerman was part of the org?

Do you see Yzerman firing his former teammates if they don't meet a certain threshold of performance?

The question isn't just about hiring "buddies." It's a question of what degree of accountability they get held.

The thing is, Luc is a very likable and by all accounts a friendly person. Is he mean enough to fire a close friend if he needs to? I don't expect him to fire people at this moment, but I think the question is if he has the capacity to do so.



That's understandable. I'd be less inclined to default to him being friends with someone if I was more impressed with his body of work. I concede working in Montreal is a tough situation to work under. Unfortunately, that's the only frame of reference I have.

Anyway, thank you for discussing. I look forward to more opportunities with you.

His body of work is mediocre at best, I don't fault him for the Sergachev deal, that's ownership getting involved and bowing down to the French Media....other than that, just like EVERY GM, he's had some solid trades/signings, and he's had some that he wants back....

I haven't delved into his work with the Hawks etc.....

 

[bmr]

Poor Frk man, really cannot catch a break.

Thinking the same thing. Frk is the kind of guy that will really make you upset if he is off the team and kills it somewhere else. I would really like to see him stick with the Kings. There are so many potential 3rd/4th liners on this team. Who do you keep and who do you let go?

Things are going to change next year when Brown's contract is over. I don't see Athanasiou as a good fit for this team. I wouldn't be upset if we lost Grundstrom. Andersson is kind of an enigma to me thus far. Kaliyev is here to stay. Kupari has shown a lot of potential and will start improving. We all wanted Moore benched, but he is doing pretty good with 12 points in only 13:24 average ice time. You gotta expect that Turcotte, Byfield and JAD are locks at some point. Who do you get rid of? Lemieux and Lizotte are gonna stick. I think that 3rd line is really up for grabs....

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Decade of multiple lottery picks?

Galyenchuk, 2012 - 3rd OA - then, in order 25, 26, 26, 9, 25, 3, 15, 16, 31....

Highly desirable market? WTF not even close....Canadian dollar, insane taxes, insane media pressure,

Biggest financial backing doesn't mean shit.....in a cap league.

My god you would think you would at least LOOK at what the hell is you are pissed about, you've been wrong on so many fronts here it's embarrassing.

I never said he had a decade full of lottery picks.

You don't even know what you're mad about anymore, you're just seeing red and making shit up.

Just like most of the other discussions...done with you at the point you just start pacing up and down the hall yelling at invisible people. Go get some fresh air, I'm not responding to any more of your sweat on the keyboard.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

I never said he had a decade full of lottery picks.

You don't even know what you're mad about anymore, you're just seeing red and making shit up.

Just like most of the other discussions...done with you at the point you just start pacing up and down the hall yelling at invisible people. Go get some fresh air, I'm not responding to any more of your sweat on the keyboard.

You literally said, decade, multiple lottery picks.....

I mean, he had 3....in 10 years.....which...is about average, you get some outliers, Pittsburgh had 1, Washington had 2, Boston had 2, San Jose had 2, St Louis with zero, Tampa had 2 etc,

Not sure if that is the method of successfully evaluating GMs, having multiple lottery picks in a decade....and not winning.....

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

You literally said, decade, multiple lottery picks.....

I mean, he had 3....in 10 years.....which...is about average, you get some outliers, Pittsburgh had 1, Washington had 2, Boston had 2, San Jose had 2, St Louis with zero, Tampa had 2 etc,

Not sure if that is the method of successfully evaluating GMs, having multiple lottery picks in a decade....and not winning.....

It was a list separated by commas, my dude.

He had a decade. Multiple lottery picks. A desirable market (you disagree). Big money backing (yes cap league but it matters).

Re the lottery picks he didn't hit on them in any way shape or form. Well, TBD on the latest one, he looks good. But Kotkaniemi and Galchenyuk is not a good look, especially when your drafting beyond that is worse than even the oilers. Since Gallagher, they have not one single roster regular outside of Lehkonen. You brought up De La Rose, he's 13th-14th STL forward, if that. Andrighetto, never played anwhere close to a full season and is no longer in the NHL. Mete's been waived multiple times and is the Sens 7th-8th guy. To his credit, I'm high on Romanov--not as high as some MTL fans, but he looks like a beauty. And let's not dwell too much on Cole Caufield's fall backwards. But that's ALL he has to show for a decade of picks. That's bad.

So that would lead you to believe they're a competitive team, right? Since they're not focusing on drafting and development? Nope--nothing but barely-move-the-needle trades to either miss the playoffs or exit the first round the vast majority of the time....and right now they have the highest Cap in the league.

My friend, I don't know what your metric for GM success is, but it most assuredly is not "no drafted roster regulars for a decade, no Stanley Cups, 8 non-qualifcations or first-round-outs, above the upper cap limit, no vision or future plan due to limited assets and an aging roster."

Like I said before I'll concede the pressures of the market and the ownership but nothing else he has done has really impressed me. I'm really not sure what there is to stick up for other than some abstractions that i agree with--he's been around the block as a player and executive and has 'good ol boy' hockey knowledge as well as Eastern Conference perspectives. So long as he remains in the "hey coffee runner, what do you think?" role I'm good with it. The moment it smells like he has ANY bigger job, I am absolutely done. Beyond.

 

[kilowatt]

@Raccoon Jesus the ignore button is your friend, don't put yourself through this misery. from my point of view, it just looks like you're arguing with yourself.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

It was a list separated by commas, my dude.

He had a decade. Multiple lottery picks. A desirable market (you disagree). Big money backing (yes cap league but it matters).

Re the lottery picks he didn't hit on them in any way shape or form. Well, TBD on the latest one, he looks good. But Kotkaniemi and Galchenyuk is not a good look, especially when your drafting beyond that is worse than even the oilers. Since Gallagher, they have not one single roster regular outside of Lehkonen. You brought up De La Rose, he's 13th-14th STL forward, if that. Andrighetto, never played anwhere close to a full season and is no longer in the NHL. Mete's been waived multiple times and is the Sens 7th-8th guy. To his credit, I'm high on Romanov--not as high as some MTL fans, but he looks like a beauty. And let's not dwell too much on Cole Caufield's fall backwards. But that's ALL he has to show for a decade of picks. That's bad.

So that would lead you to believe they're a competitive team, right? Since they're not focusing on drafting and development? Nope--nothing but barely-move-the-needle trades to either miss the playoffs or exit the first round the vast majority of the time....and right now they have the highest Cap in the league.

My friend, I don't know what your metric for GM success is, but it most assuredly is not "no drafted roster regulars for a decade, no Stanley Cups, 8 non-qualifcations or first-round-outs, above the upper cap limit, no vision or future plan due to limited assets and an aging roster."

Like I said before I'll concede the pressures of the market and the ownership but nothing else he has done has really impressed me. I'm really not sure what there is to stick up for other than some abstractions that i agree with--he's been around the block as a player and executive and has 'good ol boy' hockey knowledge as well as Eastern Conference perspectives. So long as he remains in the "hey coffee runner, what do you think?" role I'm good with it. The moment it smells like he has ANY bigger job, I am absolutely done. Beyond.

I brought up drafted players that have or had, 200+ games in the league.....if you have that, you are a useful or were a useful player at some point, but again, for the umpteenth time, I've said, drafting is not his forte, not his strong suit.

OF course they have been a competitive team, his entire tenure, what is it, 9 full seasons, 6 made the playoffs, once SCF, sorry, that's competitive....

 

[KingsFan7824]

It just hits different when one old boys club has a bunch of dudes in it that were on teams together that were always at the top of the league and the other old boys club is comprised of the late 90's/early 00's Kings.

What is happening here with the Kings "nepotism" isn't some rare thing in the NHL; however, it is perfectly reasonable to be scared that the 1998-99 LA Kings are supposed to take this franchise back to the promised land. It's also a bummer when it gets mixed with a little bit of late 00's/early 10's San Jose, a franchise that solidified itself as the biggest choke artist and waste of talent in the league during that time. The fact they finally made the Cup Finals after dismissing T-Mac is damning.

What do the 98-99 Kings have to do with anything? How are you blaming players from those days for what management back then did?

Let's not worry about the Sharks finally having a decent goalie in 2016. Courtesy of that winner DL, who hadn't won diddly before begging his farm boy buddy to save his ass.

 

[Master Yoda]

If you have a decade, multiple lottery picks, a highly desirable market and some of the biggest financial backing in the league....my bar for being excited for a hire is more than 'oh cool he's been out of the first round twice,' especially if you've proven you can't draft/develop for shit and all your other moves are mediocre at best. It's ridiculous that a job that's been open for 2 years just gets handed to this mediocre good ol' boy within a month.

What is his 'specialty' that he's bringing value to this organization? Because I see a guy who can't win, can't draft, can't develop, arguably can't really trade/sign. But he speaks French. And was hired with lightning speed for...reasons?

I get that I'm on the extremely angry end of the spectrum for this one, but no one who's 'for' it is doing/saying anything that would help me be excited, either, we're just arguing about how 'ok' his trades are. What does he help with?

And Blake and Luc know it's a bullshit signing with baggage too, hence the lack of Q/A and media availability, frankly that's completely douchey.

About the no media availability part, has there ever been a press conference, availabity etc for a new special advisor to the GM? I don't recall one for Hextall. The advisor Hextall not the AGM Hextall. I saw his face on TV maybe one time during his tenure.

I think another thing people need to acknowledge is that he's been named a senior advisor to the gm. He's not the AGM. At least not yet.

 

[Ollie Weeks]

Which one have you been all arguing with the last few weeks?

 

[TruKingFan]

About the no media availability part, has there ever been a press conference, availabity etc for a new special advisor to the GM? I don't recall one for Hextall. The advisor Hextall not the AGM Hextall. I saw his face on TV maybe one time during his tenure.

I think another thing people need to acknowledge is that he's been named a senior advisor to the gm. He's not the AGM. At least not yet.

Where’s the fun in that?

 

[lumbergh]

About the no media availability part, has there ever been a press conference, availabity etc for a new special advisor to the GM? I don't recall one for Hextall. The advisor Hextall not the AGM Hextall. I saw his face on TV maybe one time during his tenure.

I think another thing people need to acknowledge is that he's been named a senior advisor to the gm. He's not the AGM. At least not yet.

 

[Bandit]

Which one have you been all arguing with the last few weeks?

It’s been a regular Golden Shower in here.

 

[BigKing]

What do the 98-99 Kings have to do with anything? How are you blaming players from those days for what management back then did?

Let's not worry about the Sharks finally having a decent goalie in 2016. Courtesy of that winner DL, who hadn't won diddly before begging his farm boy buddy to save his ass.

The core players from those loser teams are running the show with the head coach of the biggest chokers coaching this team now.

 

[cyclones22]

It’s been a regular Golden Shower in here.

A Golden shower of bad Hockey takes. And before he shows up like Beetlejuice I've had him on ignore for like 2 weeks.

 

[KingsFan7824]

The core players from those loser teams are running the show with the head coach of the biggest chokers coaching this team now.

Those loser teams never had a chance in a no cap league. The owner that spent money had none to spend, and the other guys were barely able to keep the franchise together. Both choosing to leave when they knew they couldn't win here(or ownership was too cheap), so they're not oblivious.

And how far can you really go with a lightweight like Thornton leading the way? It was up to Wilson to get some real leaders on the Sharks like DL did here, and he just kept adding dud after dud.

 

[kingsfan]

How many teams don't have some level of an 'old boys club' issue going on, good or bad? I think the system lends itself to it, as any ex-player looking to get into the management side of things will probably find it easier to do so either through the team that they had tenure with or with former teammates who made the jump before them. We've done it for years before Blake too, it just wasn't maybe as obvious, but so do a lot of other teams. The only real issue is whether or not a friend can fire a friend, and I'd assume that'd fluctuate team by team. Edmonton was a glaring example of when it goes bad.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

How many teams don't have some level of an 'old boys club' issue going on, good or bad? I think the system lends itself to it, as any ex-player looking to get into the management side of things will probably find it easier to do so either through the team that they had tenure with or with former teammates who made the jump before them. We've done it for years before Blake too, it just wasn't maybe as obvious, but so do a lot of other teams. The only real issue is whether or not a friend can fire a friend, and I'd assume that'd fluctuate team by team. Edmonton was a glaring example of when it goes bad.

For sure, it's one of the big concerns with hockey, it's just retread after retread and that's not at all exclusive to the Kings.