Confirmed with Link: Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kuapri, Gabe Vilardi + 2024 2nd round pick to Winnipeg for Pierre-Luc Dubois

[Herby]

I can't believe i went from Blake supporter to just want him gone.

He started with great patience and long term targets to panic mode within 1 year or so.
Now we still don't have a competing team but gave the pieces away that could be one after the Oldies are gone.

We went from best prospect pool in the league to empty shelves at lightning speed
without any kind of improvement.

Vilardi alone is a better player than PLD, giving up Kupari and a 2nd as well is close to treason.
But what can you expect from someone who betrayed the Kings before

No manager in the league would take Vilardi over PLD but it’s casually just thrown around here that “Vilardi is better than PLD” despite absolutely zero evidence to support it.

And my condolences on losing one half of your scoring line centers this year. Kupari couldn’t shoot a puck into the ocean but he should be on a scoring line.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Pretty obvious Bluc just does whatever the trend is in the league. When they took over it was about speed (smaller players), then they watch Vegas and Edmonton crush it for 5 years with size and skill.

Then they transition to bigger players. You look at our top 6, and we have some size now. The off-season isn’t over but what’s clear is Bluc have gone all in, put all their chips to the middle of the table. It doesn’t matter that management is burning up assets,

Arvidsson for example may be on his way out. Doesn’t matter if Blake burned some draft picks to get him just a couple seasons ago. They may recoup that next week, who knows.

What matters is if this teams takes the next step this season and are contenders for the Cup. They are making a last ditch effort to give Kopitar and Doughty one last run.

That Martinez to Quick cup handoff had to singe deep down for management. They took over the Kings promising cup runs for them and to see John Stevens, Amadio, McNabb, Martinez, and Quick hoisting Stanley on a rival team has to sting. That was what Bluc promised on day one here.


Bottom line is, this is it. They have to be hoping to sign some veteran UFAs hungry for a cup at a discount and that prospects are ready to graduate.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The 2022-23 Kings were around the middle of the pack when it came to average age, with 8 skaters in the lineup who were 24 or younger, and that doesn't include the likes of Spence, Clarke, and Fagemo, who all have a realistic shot at making the team this upcoming season.

The top prospects in the pipeline now consists of Pinelli, Chromiak, the oft-injured Turcotte, Lee, Helenius, Hughes, Portillo, Kirsanov, Jamsen, Simontaival. Not a whole lot of flash in that list after a couple of the top names.

The moves in the past couple of summers are a clear indication they want to win now, but they also are trying to do so while adding some dynamic players who are entering their prime, rather than waiting on some of their own drafted players to reach that level (most of whom are questionable to even be as productive as the players they've acquired).

It'll be interesting to see how they restock the pipeline with prospects, not just on draft day, but heading into the summer with the possibility of adding undrafted prospects to the prospect pool. They really need to replenish the reserve list.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

This just proves the fallacy of this site, everyone here would take a 1st round pick over a 22 year old proven player......it's insane.

 

[Schmooley]

That Martinez to Quick cup handoff had to singe deep down for management. They took over the Kings promising cup runs for them and to see John Stevens, Amadio, McNabb, Martinez, and Quick hoisting Stanley on a rival team has to sting. That was what Bluc promised on day one here.

It should have signaled to Blake that the depth was never the problem.
Instead he goes out and trades the depth. I dont mind the deal as much but I dont think there will be gigantic gains in standings from it.

 

[Bandit]

I think a more proper description would be trading 5 quarters for a dollar bill.

Don't forget to throw in that extra dime just 'cause.

 

[Little Psycho]

It’s hilarious seeing all the “I love this trade as an oilers fan” comments. Like let’s not forget that they have a lot of dumb players that do stupid things and you just can’t fix stupid.

 

[bland]

I think a more proper description would be trading 5 quarters for a dollar bill.

Think you have that backwards.

 

[Herby]

Pretty obvious Bluc just does whatever the trend is in the league. When they took over it was about speed (smaller players), then they watch Vegas and Edmonton crush it for 5 years with size and skill.

Then they transition to bigger players. You look at our top 6, and we have some size now. The off-season isn’t over but what’s clear is Bluc have gone all in, put all their chips to the middle of the table. It doesn’t matter that management is burning up assets,

Arvidsson for example may be on his way out. Doesn’t matter if Blake burned some draft picks to get him just a couple seasons ago. They may recoup that next week, who knows.

What matters is if this teams takes the next step this season and are contenders for the Cup. They are making a last ditch effort to give Kopitar and Doughty one last run.

That Martinez to Quick cup handoff had to singe deep down for management. They took over the Kings promising cup runs for them and to see John Stevens, Amadio, McNabb, Martinez, and Quick hoisting Stanley on a rival team has to sting. That was what Bluc promised on day one here.


Bottom line is, this is it. They have to be hoping to sign some veteran UFAs hungry for a cup at a discount and that prospects are ready to graduate.

Vegas should put Blake’s name on the cup, they don't have it without him. The Kings were in a better position to make that trade than anyone else in the league and Blake took a pass and he ended up in the division.

Blake could have bought Park Place for $220 and passed, and less than 2 years later he bought Indiana Ave for the almost the same price, while missing out on 2 playoff runs with Park Place. Well done!

I'll be there on Thursday. I'm giving myself the rest of today to be bummed about Blake's butchering of this rebuild and organization. Tomorrow, i wake up and let that go -- looking forward to the new season. But today

It just sucks because we had an opportunity to truly rebuild and build a monster. But they fast forwarded everything 2-3 years early in order to get 1st round exits. Sure, it's a better product on ice and more exciting. But i was willing to suffer for another couple years in order to have a LT sustained roster and farm system that could truly contend annually for SCups for many years. But ok, two years later and here we are. I'll enjoy and then hopefully i get a TRUE rebuild at the latter half of the 2020s.

Doing a true rebuild would have required them moving on from Doughty and Kopitar, I agree they should have done that but a lot of people were against it and DID NOT want to do a true rebuild. You can check the receipts on this forum from 2 summers ago, most people were quite happy with the moves made, even though it obviously signaled the end of a rebuild and moving into a smaller window to compete.

I get what Blake was trying to do, get 3-4 high picks and double back and contend with 11 and 8. I'm sure their grand vision was QB-Turcotte-Kopitar down the middle right now, and really with where each player was taken that wasn't unreasonable. I mean things are a lot different now if LA makes the right picks, but they didn't, they realized it quickly and then made the decision to throw it out the window and surround 11 and 8 with veterans. Maybe it will work, I doubt it, but maybe. But I think keeping Faber and all the picks and drafting high in 2022 and 2023 would have put the Kings in a much better position to win a cup sometime in the next 8 years.

 

[tny760]

This just proves the fallacy of this site, everyone here would take a 1st round pick over a 22 year old proven player......it's insane.

wild huh, people are allowed to have opinions that differ from yours

i know that's groundbreaking information, i'll give you a moment to digest it

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

It should have signaled to Blake that the depth was never the problem.
Instead he goes out and trades the depth. I dont mind the deal as much but I dont think there will be gigantic gains in standings from it.

My optimistic side--we just opened up a lot of spots for kids and we will elevate.
My pessimistic side--we just gutted the depth to become POSSIBLY more top heavy if PLD shows up and ultimately its' not a 'gain', just a sidegrade, if not a downgrade.

Especially with the dissonance between shipping out defensive savants in favor of 'offensive' players while still using a 1-3-1 scheme.

 

[bland]

Nah, I disagree, McMaster was the worst and followed closely by George McGuire.

You can certainly call out the drafting record but Blake has made some good trades and I think this one will work out in the end.

McMaster had no money to pay bills, no developmental system, a discontented group of vets who only wanted out to specific locations, and an amateur scouting department that consisted of one coffee-stained copy of the Hockey News Draft Special. No state of the art practice facilities, no AHL team within the same building either.

Blake has had all the luxuries of a world class infrastructure built by Lombardi at his disposal and squandered it thru a series of half-measures and poorly thought out planning that has led him to overpaying regularly for B-list players.

 

[kingskring]

McMaster had no money to pay bills, no developmental system, a discontented group of vets who only wanted out to specific locations, and an amateur scouting department that consisted of one coffee-stained copy of the Hockey News Draft Special. No state of the art practice facilities, no AHL team within the same building either.

Blake has had all the luxuries of a world class infrastructure built by Lombardi at his disposal and squandered it thru a series of half-measures and poorly thought out planning that has led him to overpaying regularly for B-list players.

lol

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

McMaster had no money to pay bills, no developmental system, a discontented group of vets who only wanted out to specific locations, and an amateur scouting department that consisted of one coffee-stained copy of the Hockey News Draft Special. No state of the art practice facilities, no AHL team within the same building either.

Blake has had all the luxuries of a world class infrastructure built by Lombardi at his disposal and squandered it thru a series of half-measures and poorly thought out planning that has led him to overpaying regularly for B-list players.

There was an interesting discussion on TSN talking about Shanahan being a firm believer in riding regular season success into the postseason.


This is a copycat league, and the success demonstrated by Vegas is going to be copied, with a budget tandem in net, and a lot of firepower upfront. Whether or not the Kings can match up with the likes of them and Edmonton is yet to be determined, but that's the avenue they're taking.

 

[Schmooley]

This is a copycat league, and the success demonstrated by Vegas is going to be copied, with a budget tandem in net, and a lot of firepower upfront. Whether or not the Kings can match up with the likes of them and Edmonton is yet to be determined, but that's the avenue they're taking.

A big part of Vegas is their size and how much speed they have considering their size.
Also their defense is big and imposing.
I like their recipe but it is not the only way. Last year half the league was tanking and it was anyones cup to win if you got in the playoffs.
Once the cap goes up and the next crop of stars pushes out the Crosby Kopitar Ovechkin era things will become more clear.

 

[KingsFan7824]

He started with great patience and long term targets to panic mode within 1 year or so.

Blame Kopitar for having a league wide recognized Hart trophy caliber 17-18 season. Blame Doughty for finishing 2nd in Norris voting. Blame hiring a coach that revitalized Brown. Blame Quick for playing well against Vegas. Blame the whole team that lacked depth for only being a few points away from a top 10 overall finish while missing Carter for 55 games.

Had that season just continued the downward trend they were on, maybe things would've been different.

But just like that little blip in 14-15(a team that still had Justin the hockey leader god Williams on it) that made DL think, oh, the Kings I molded are back, we just have to get in, of course Blake will take the bait, as even a real professional manager like DL got fooled multiple times by actual leaders that he himself brought in, let alone the 3 of the Fraud 4 that he inherited.

 

[Herby]

Blame Kopitar for having a league wide recognized Hart trophy caliber 17-18 season. Blame Doughty for finishing 2nd in Norris voting. Blame hiring a coach that revitalized Brown. Blame Quick for playing well against Vegas. Blame the whole team that lacked depth for only being a few points away from a top 10 overall finish while missing Carter for 55 games.

Had that season just continued the downward trend they were on, maybe things would've been different.

But just like that little blip in 14-15(a team that still had Justin the hockey leader god Williams on it) that made DL think, oh, the Kings I molded are back, we just have to get in, of course Blake will take the bait, as even a real professional manager like DL got fooled multiple times by actual leaders that he himself brought in, let alone the 3 of the Fraud 4 that he inherited.

The 2017-2018 season was one of the worst in team history.

Not only did they miss out on a Top 10 pick in a draft with 5 clear hits of those 10 picks, but it validated these guys beliefs they could still win with 11 and 8.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Was just carousing the Montreal boards, and holy crap, the sense of entitlement and jealousy displayed by a bunch of their bitter fans is both comical and pathetic.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

We can do this in the Habs form, not the Kings. But I will say this, I’m no basher or troll. I pointed out why I think we shouldn’t acquire this player and apparently management agreed because they held their ground and never got into a bidding war. You seem to confuse bashing with educating a fanboy looking threw rose colored glasses. You fell in love with an idea that was never realistic. If the Habs boards are so toxic, you should avoid them. This is an English discussion board and most people aren’t interested in your pro French propaganda. Give it up already.

I'm pretty confortable with the Habs not acquiring PLD at any cost. Too bad for Habs they didn't have enough nhl players to satisfy the Jets in that trade. Prospects, Harris, Dvorak and Ylonen wasn't enough. This shows how pathetic this team has become. Not able to make a trade for a 8,5m player. I wasn't so much a PLD fan, it's just that he would have accelerate the rebuilt process by at least 2 years and we would have someting interresting to watch instead of watching F*** Dvorak and F*** Evans. If you search on the Hbs board, I'm not posting angry posts, like out of my mind with rage. Nothing. The deal didn't happened so be it.

As for the french factor, you seems to hate any player who speaks french. You and your friends on Habs board are spending time to bash any player who speaks french. Is that include Bergeron and Marchessault? I don't have time to check. Thanks for the usa citizens they don't have to be loyal to the King Charles, they kicked brits out of their country to built the no1 nation of the world. They are free and they don't have to suffer the snobby arrogant attitude of some english canadians (I'm partly anglophone with british blood btw). Imagine the reaction of the americans if they had to discuss on daily basis with some canadians. Maybe they could fall in love with them but after one week they would hate them. An english canadian equals " you can't do this. No. It's too expansive, you see things with colorized glasses." Canada is the "we can't do that" nation. Better stay conservative and be realistic. Man it's sooooo boring! The nothing happen country mentality.

 

[ZJames]

My optimistic side--we just opened up a lot of spots for kids and we will elevate.
My pessimistic side--we just gutted the depth to become POSSIBLY more top heavy if PLD shows up and ultimately its' not a 'gain', just a sidegrade, if not a downgrade.

Especially with the dissonance between shipping out defensive savants in favor of 'offensive' players while still using a 1-3-1 scheme.

Unfortunately one of the players that they traded away was one of our most promising "kids". He and Fiala seemed to have good chemistry together. I was hoping for a Fiala-Byfield-Vilardi line this season.

Hopefully time proves me wrong, but right now I don't like this trade. Vilardi (next to Clarke) is the last of our kids I would have wanted to trade.

 

[DryIslandBartender]

Vegas should put Blake’s name on the cup, they don't have it without him. The Kings were in a better position to make that trade than anyone else in the league and Blake took a pass and he ended up in the division.

Blake could have bought Park Place for $220 and passed, and less than 2 years later he bought Indiana Ave for the almost the same price, while missing out on 2 playoff runs with Park Place. Well done!

A year ago Eichel and VGK went nowhere, it looked like a bad trade. IDk if the Kings make the playoffs last year with that trade.

The Kings have made it twice now, and they are going all in. It’ll either work out or completely blow up on this FO. I don’t think they are going to just bring up prospects to fill the holes in the lineup. I’m expecting some veterans on cheap deals to be added, like Nieto. They are going to want guys that know the grind. They noted yesterday that they may be at the cap and not have the full 23 guys on the roster.

 

[Rick Knickleback]

Vilardi (next to Clarke) is the last of our kids I would have wanted to trade.

Yeah, same. I hate the trade less after a night, but I still don't like it. GV seemed like a great candidate to help establish a post 11 & 8 identity for the Kings. I get that C > Wingers and Gabe's inability to make it work at Center probably made him expendable in the eyes of management, but I just think it stinks. Hope PLD proves me wrong.

 

[Jungle Boy]

the Jets somehow made a gamble to take Vilardi as the center piece of this deal. I really like Gabe but everytime he was hit hard everybody started worrying. Hope he is healthy and he thrives as he career goes on but people keep forgeting about this.

 

[LAKings88]

A year ago Eichel and VGK went nowhere, it looked like a bad trade. IDk if the Kings make the playoffs last year with that trade.

The Kings have made it twice now, and they are going all in. It’ll either work out or completely blow up on this FO. I don’t think they are going to just bring up prospects to fill the holes in the lineup. I’m expecting some veterans on cheap deals to be added, like Nieto. They are going to want guys that know the grind. They noted yesterday that they may be at the cap and not have the full 23 guys on the roster.

There is really one spot open.

Guessing competition will be Fagemo and JAD if he comes back.

Lafferiere is an accomplished collegiate player who probably has a shot too.

Who knows about MacEWen?

I think the lineup is what it is aside from another goalie.

Maybe LA moves more salary out via Grundstrom if needed.

 

[BigKing]

@Herby Love the comment about Blake's name being on Vegas's Cup. I've said regularly on here that Rob Blake's purpose for existing is to torment the LA Kings franchise. The last moment of Jon Quick's career is probably him holding the Cup in a f***ing Vegas uniform. Blake helps beat the Kings two years in a row as an Av--including injuring one of the LAPD line--then rolls back in here on a fat contract to float around for a couple of seasons, veto a TDL trade and then go to San Jose anyways.

I did not want to say "told you so" about Rob's #1 rated prospect pool when everyone was slobbering over it because I hoped it turned out a bunch of studs. Well, what it has done is land the Kings nice players in Fiala, PLD and Gavrikov but on big-time contracts. The lack of production from ELCs over this time has been appalling.

Still have hope for Byfield and I love Kaliyev but we are talking about sucking ass for multiple seasons and there is no impact yet from the reward for tanking.

Save us Brandt Clarke: you're our only hope.