Speculation: Another year of this Bluc **** (The 2024-25 season thread)

[King'sPawn]

Greene over Mitchell?

I know Willie is a left shot, and didn't play as many games here, but he's better than Greene and more important to the cup runs.

I love Mitchell, but Lombardi identified Greene and Stoll as culture changers, and he was on both cup teams. He was with the Kings from the start of things turning around.

Nothing wrong with Mitchell, but that's why I give Greene the edge.

 

[FSL KINGS]

I love Mitchell, but Lombardi identified Greene and Stoll as culture changers, and he was on both cup teams. He was with the Kings from the start of things turning around.

Nothing wrong with Mitchell, but that's why I give Greene the edge.

Tell the truth. It was about Mitchell's whippy stick wasn't it?

 

[tigermask48]

Never forget that time Willie could have died messing with Williams.

 

[KingsHockey24]

Matt Greene would've been an all-time fan favorite if he could win a fight.

 

[bland]

Never forget that time Willie could have died messing with Williams.
View attachment 969846

You know the balls it takes to even sit by Mr Williams before a game 7?

 

[bland]

I love Mitchell, but Lombardi identified Greene and Stoll as culture changers, and he was on both cup teams. He was with the Kings from the start of things turning around.

Nothing wrong with Mitchell, but that's why I give Greene the edge.

Mitchell being 8-0 in playoff series as a King is legendary.

 

[KingPuckChoo]

Is EVERYBODY fired yet? I'm losing my mind

 

[FrozenKing18]

Personally would put Greene over Norstrom but overall legends. Good memories

View attachment 969335

Pssh, ain’t got nothing on the REAL first team

Kyle Calder- Derek Armstrong-John Zeiler

Peter Harrold-Randy Jones

Yutaka Fukufuji

 

[KingsOfCali25]

I'm definitely done with what Blake/Luc has built. I'm ready for 9-8 hockey games. Fire everyone between the owner to the players. Let's get the US development coach from Denver University and go with the youth movement.

Who can stay:
Kempe, Laferiere, Byfield, Turcotte, Clarke, Spence, Thomas, Anderson, Moverare, Edmundson and the prospects. Kopitar and Doughty can stay if they want, but won't be resigning after their current contracts end. Kuemper can stay as the backup because I doubt anyone will take his contract.

Trade bait:
Gavrikov, Foegele, Danault, Moore, Fiala, Jeannot

Retirement:
Lewis, Englund (AHL), Burroughs (AHL), Rittich

Kempe-Byfield-XXX
XXX-Turcotte-Lafreniere
XXX-Kopitar-Thomas
Lee-Helenius-XXX

Anderson-Clarke
Moverare-Spence
Edmundson-Doughty

Portillo
Kuemper

You live by the sword or you dead by the sword. If you fail that is okay because there is enough high-end talent coming in the draft it will be better.

2025: Schaefer, Hagens, Misa, Martone, McQueen
2026: McKenna
2027: Dupont

 

[johnjm22]

I'm definitely done with what Blake/Luc has built. I'm ready for 9-8 hockey games. Fire everyone between the owner to the players. Let's get the US development coach from Denver University and go with the youth movement.

Who can stay:
Kempe, Laferiere, Byfield, Turcotte, Clarke, Spence, Thomas, Anderson, Moverare, Edmundson and the prospects. Kopitar and Doughty can stay if they want, but won't be resigning after their current contracts end. Kuemper can stay as the backup because I doubt anyone will take his contract.

Trade bait:
Gavrikov, Foegele, Danault, Moore, Fiala, Jeannot

Retirement:
Lewis, Englund (AHL), Burroughs (AHL), Rittich

Kempe-Byfield-XXX
XXX-Turcotte-Lafreniere
XXX-Kopitar-Thomas
Lee-Helenius-XXX

Anderson-Clarke
Moverare-Spence
Edmundson-Doughty

Portillo
Kuemper

You live by the sword or you dead by the sword. If you fail that is okay because there is enough high-end talent coming in the draft it will be better.

2025: Schaefer, Hagens, Misa, Martone, McQueen
2026: McKenna
2027: Dupont

In this scenario, why are we keeping Kempe?

Pending UFA. 30yo in the first year of his next contract. Doubt he wants to be part of rebuild.

 

[Herby]

In this scenario, why are we keeping Kempe?

Pending UFA. 30yo in the first year of his next contract. Doubt he wants to be part of rebuild.

Yeah, I love him as a player and think he’s one of the best all-around players in the league, but Kempe’s age doesn’t work with what is going to be (barring crazy draft luck) a pretty long tear down and rebuild from the disaster BLuc has left in their wake.

The Kings (and any rebuild) need to have multiple seasons where they are in contention for the 1st overall pick, and having a player like Kempe doesn’t help that.

 

[KingsOfCali25]

In this scenario, why are we keeping Kempe?

Pending UFA. 30yo in the first year of his next contract. Doubt he wants to be part of rebuild.

Only because I don't think we'd get enough for him in a trade as a pending UFA. Unless someone over pays for him, I wouldn't move him for cap purposes

 

[Peter James Bond III]

If they made Kempe available? The best 5.5 M player in the league, with another year?
Honestly, talk about the best possible haul. 2 #1's easily...consider TBL dealt 2 #1's for Hagel.
If yet-to-be-a-legit-top4- defenseman, David Jiricek gets: a #1, #2, #3 and Hunt...what does Kempe get? QB? Clarke?

With Mikey out (even a month?) I think Cal and Van passes the Kings.
I say fire Hiller and Newell Brown now and give DJ Smith the team, until they find replacement.
Gallant? Or just wait until they get a deal struck with a real coach.

I'd ask 8, 11, 22, 24 to give their lists of teams and 84 if he has an updated list.
Deal them all, including 12. I'd give 12 away, if someone takes that 4.2 for 3 more yrs.
He's become the worst in entire NHL top 9 F. Does nothing and not involved on the boards,
not creating, soft, been months since he's sniped one of his top shelf snipes. Don't see him recovering to a
4.2 M player for 3 more years. Package him.

If they are going to keep Clarke out and mess with him...I'm pissed. I bet teams are calling on him already.
I'm not dealing him, unless Tage Thompson, Barzal, types are being discussed. I'm just not dealing him.
I'm not against Brady Tkachuk, but would take getting Moore taken. I recently saw a Brady interview with Seravalli and I changed my view on him to more positive. Or at least not negative. He has true passion to win and be a leader. Maybe Kopi is tired and lost the passion to be capt...or be pissed and energized to do something. DD has not looked so good and I'm feeling this ship will continue to sink and that's ok, cuz that;s THE ONLY WAY CHANGES WILL HAPPEN. The worst thing would be: make the 8th seed, trade fuures for a 3rd tier F and get swept, rd 1. The last thing I want to see again.

Petterssen? Would be a 3 team deal and the 11.6 is an issue...would have to take on Fiala and he has a NMC.

I'd honestly love to see tomorrow, that Bluc has been fired, as well as coaches...as long as Emerson is not given the team. LOL.

 

[BringTheReign]

Th ceiling of this team isn’t a contender. It’s why it’s hard for me to get too excited or too worked up about this version of the team.

It might’ve been higher with Faber, Vilardi, and the extra 1sts we gave up the last few years in the fold trending towards full-time roles (Ohgren just scored for the Wild).

Blake really did a number on what was a fairly well-executed tear-down phase rebuild/retool initially.

 

[NikF]

There's three ways forward pre-deadline:

- go all in (Clarke, Greentree and others available), massive rebuild in 1-2 years
- stay the course (marginal additions or nothing, see where you're at later)
- sell, rebuild off the bat, let Doughty/Kopitar know you're not thinking of winning within the next 3 years, turn the franchise over to the next wave and hope to add 2-3 quick lottery picks.

Option 2 probably has 90% chance of happening. Option 1 has 4% chance of happening. Option 3 has 1% chance of happening. That is probably in inverse correlation of what is the most healthy for long-term health of this franchise.

Although if the Kings have another 1st round exit (or miss the playoffs entirely), you could have those percentages change after the season somewhat.

The fact is they already had a mini-rebuild and bungled it by turning it into a re-tool for Kopitar and Doughty instead of turning the franchise over to the new core.

The good news is cumulative mistakes in management tend to slowly direct the organization towards the inevitable, it just takes a lot longer than being pro-active. Even the golden standard: Nashville Predators - decades of putting out competitive teams without bottoming out - will ultimately turn into a rebuild before a Stanley Cup. And I would argue it will be hard for Blake/Luc to reach Nashville's level of competence. They drafted Roman Josi, Shea Weber, Pekka Rinne and Juuse Saros outside of the first round. Acquired another 1st liner in Filip Forsberg for basically nothing. That's two HOF careers, two star goalies and a young 1st line wing. And despite the fact that Nashville is properly given credit for being a model franchise - it was still not enough. I will be shocked if the Blake regime will be able to show anything in line with that level of competency to begin with.

The other issue that stems from the rebuild is: we still don't know if any of their picks will turn into a HOF type career, right now it's not looking likely. Barring a surprise only Byfield and Clarke are left in this age-group and it's probably a long-shot for both. Historically if you want to win, you need at least one but probably two HOF type talents at their peak on your team. We know the easiest way historically to get them is with very high picks (with the occasional exception ie Vegas-Eichel, it's also probably true that it is better to squander all of your assets on a truly star quality player rather than acquiring two 1b types like Fiala and Dubois, this is an old adage anyways quality always beats quantity in trade).

In the end if you look at paths forward, there doesn't seem like there is any clear path towards becoming a legit Cup contender. The smartest would be to do a sell-off and finally stop treating Doughty and Kopitar with golden gloves, the golden boys from the 10s era were still influencing the Kings decision-making through the previous rebuild/retool and it will predictably not end up working out.

The best idea would be to push Byfield and Clarke to bigger roles so you can find out what they are while adding lottery picks. If Byfield and Clarke look good ie star level good, you pull out of the rebuild a bit faster. If they don't, you use them as bridges until you get the franchise player with a high pick.

If you go all-in now and it fails (which it would) - that is good too, it would be an accelerated path towards a proper rebuild instead of languishing in mediocrity. However, and here I think this is a distinct possibility for Blake/Luc - they could go all-in on a younger player with term like Elias Pettersson. If they can make that work cap-wise (and if it's EP specifically, convince Vancouver to trade in division), it would kick the problem a few years down the line, provide new energy and give the current regime more time and a lifeline.

I wouldn't be entirely surprised if those type of ideas have at least circled in Kings offices - it "makes sense" from the product on ice standpoint and it gives more hope - that some sort of solution can be found in this new restructuring. However it's in all likelihood just kicking the problem a few more years down the road, as the cost to acquire such a player would be high and Kopitar and Doughty's advanced age will require further band-aid solutions. Simultaneously, they have already blown through a lot of capital by trading for Dubois and Fiala, so the reserve list isn't packed with options. Can you trade for EP-level of player without including Byfield or Clarke? Highly unlikely. And Faber and Vilardi you've already used as trade assets.

What is most likely to happen is option two though. They'll continue being a mediocre team with no top talent nor a chance of obtaining one through draft. If someone's goal is to watch a marginal playoff team for a decade or two and pin their hopes on "we could get lucky this year" type of planning because in 20 years the St. Louis Blues are the single one and lone team to pull that off, or think that you can replicate Vegas' expansion draft manoeuvres...I suppose that's an easier option to stomach. From a corporate standpoint obviously it's sensible - high job security, nobody gets fired, the franchise keeps value and the cash-flow is running, the hope is alive.

It's just incredibly unlikely to ever result in serious and prolonged Cup contention. We all know winning the Cup is very unlikely regardless of what you do, but the only consistent way of getting into the conversation that has proven to be repeatable is through obtaining HOF talent with draft picks. I don't want to sound like a defeatist but if you look at franchise trajectories since 2005, that's pretty much it. Then it's just a case of percentages, it's much easier to draft one at the very top of the draft. The only repeat winners since 2005 have all been built that way - Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA, Tampa.