I still think to this day the Fiala trade was a good trade for the time being. I am not a fan of speculative bullshit. I think its dangerous to compare a player who never made landfall on the Kings as going to be the same exact player you are seeing in Minnesota. You're completely ignoring all the variables that make Faber the player who he is on the Wild as if he is going to be the same player on the Kings. Kings cannot develop nor give apt icetime to players who haven't been in the minors for an eternity. Fiala is the most talented player the Kings have ever had for many many years despite the fact he does dumb shit. And his dumb shit is blown out of proportion because people like you are still hung up on a player that for some reason think he'd be the same player on the Kings that he is on the Wild. Kings traded Vilardi when he broke out. Kings traded Faber without knowing what kind of NHL player he even possibly looked at. Completely different story. Vilardi trade was definitely much worse.
Do you seriously think Byfield is on the fast track of his development? Just how? Im sorry but I have to look at Kopitar's rookie year vs Byfields player to player. Byfield isn't going to be a super star by any stretch of the imagination. His mental game isn't there nor is his finishing ability. He's fast, decent hands, and a good passer. Hardly superstar material.
so it was confirmed that there was a locker room issue?
Well, I agree with your first point, since Blake was foolishly contending and since he had drafted so poorly it made sense to trade for a scorer. Even if the decision to go to war sucks, you have to make the best moves before individual battles. The decision to go to war was horrific, but once you commit to that you have to do something. The Fiala/Faber trade was the result of one of the worst decisions a Kings GM has ever made, the one Blake made following the 2021 season to end the rebuild. I blame him more for the summer of 2021 decision than any of the subsequent moves to try and achieve that goal.
You must have me mistaken with someone else, I have defended Fiala and said his positive offensive contributions outweigh his deficiencies, but he's a winger making a ton of money who was traded for a 20 year old who stepped right into the NHL 8 months later and was an instant star defenseman. Even if you thought it was worth it at the time, it's apparent now (and last season) that it was a huge disaster. And ya, maybe it's unfair to Fiala to judge him based on who he was traded for, but I know you have referenced Stutzle on numerous times when discussing Byfield, which is the same thing, right?
I think my views on Faber are more than documented on this forum, not to toot my own horn, but I was the OG Faber guy on here, he is probably the best defensive player I have seen in my 20+ years of following college hockey, there was no way he wasn't going to be at worst a Slavin type defender (which was his floor). He has the type of game-sense/hockey IQ whatever you want to call it that only comes around every couple of drafts. He is the defensive d-man version of Quinn Hughes with the way he thinks the game, he is just a step ahead of everyone and almost always makes the right play. I said that he was every bit as good as the players I saw regularly at Michigan who went Top 5 in the draft (Power and L Hughes). So no, it's not fair to say I didn't see this coming. Did I think it would be star right away? Did I think the offense would be this good, this fast? Probably not, even I misjudged just how much his smarts would also carry into the offensive zone. But there was never any doubt he was going to be an impactful NHL player.
As far as the AHL stuff, Faber and his advisors made the smart career decision to return to college for a third year, where he was the best defenseman in the country and was ready to step into the NHL right away. The Kings do obsess over AHL usage, but have shown a willingness to insert college players immediately into the lineup (Lizotte and Laf). Had Faber signed with the Kings after his sophomore year (they tried) I have no doubts he would have stupidly been sent down to "Pay his dues" and "Learn the system" in the AHL , but I think coming off his junior year he would have been handled like Laf has been. He was to good to be in the AHL last year at 21, even for a team with archaic development views like the Kings.
And no Sol, I certainly did not say Byfield was on the fast track, come on man, have you ever read my posts before on QB? He was handled differently than over 95% of similar players over the last 20 years and was slow-cooked more than any non-bust Top 3 pick in recent memory. I was saying that had the Kings made the decision that any other team in the league would have made and put him in the NHL at 18, it likely results in Vilardi moving to wing that season, likely moving his breakthrough up and also fast-tracking Byfield to develop as a C. Vilardi never should have been playing C and Byfield never should have been in the AHL.
And I never said Byfield was Kopitar, I have been saying for years that he reminded me of PLD (which can't be used now because we all despise PLD). A player with a nice measurable/skill combination, but one that probably ends up as a 60-70 point guy and not a dominant 1C. I swear, I post on these forums so much and like to use player comps, yet nobody gets the player comps right when replying to me. Although in this case it's overstating the comp and not understating it (like calling Turcotte a Copp/Cogliano makes him a bust apparently) and Byfield being PLD is "Bustfield", so thanks for at least overstating it by using AK. But I agree with you, and have said as much many times, guys who are future stars, show a lot more by now. People will come back with the Tage Thompson stuff, but Tage Thompson is an outlier and not the standard when it comes to player development.
