Our management hazes, they don't develop.
I am still amazed that the Kings felt the AHL was a better development spot than a 2nd year back in college (AT) or learning to be a pro at the NHL level (QB), just defies all logic, even almost 4 years later its maybe the worst decision I've ever seen with the handling of an NCAA prospect. Just completely ignoring the evidence that is all around them, around the entire league, because they are to egotistical and stubborn to think their way might be wrong. I get it why many here were excited, it was a chance to see Turcotte locally and in theory it was "a step closer to the NHL", but man the history of guys going from freshman to the AHL is just so bad, and this has sadly become another cautionary tale for teams that still think this is optimal (not many do). You think Power, Beniers, Hughes, Caufield, Boldy are where they are playing in the AHL instead of a 2nd year in college? zero chance.
What is really crappy is their poor evaluation and development choices have no consequences for Blake and the Beach Boys (they all get extensions and promotions), but for guys like Byfield, Bjornfot and Turcotte (and maybe Clarke is next) it ends up costing them any chance of getting anything remotely similar to what their friends and peers got on 2nd contracts. Maybe its just better for everyone involved that the Kings decided to largely gut much of their future the last couple of years by trading Faber, and 1sts in 2022 and 2023. The Kings just have shown they don't have much of a clue how to develop guys into star players. If you were a 1st round pick would you want to go to the Kings? Or an organization that may give you a chance to actually show what you can do and be compensated well for it. Look at Faber, he will sign a big contract (not this big) next summer, and will have 2 full seasons and 3 (possible) playoff appearances going into that contract. LA would have made him pay his dues and he'd be making 1/5 of what he probably will be making two seasons from now. By the end of this season its very likely Faber will be as good or better than Roy, with a cap hit of 925k this season and next. This is how most teams do it, they try and replace expendable vets with younger players on ELC's and use the saved money to address problems elsewhere (like goaltending in LA), but the Kings would never have even given him the chance to show he's better because he was coming from the Minnesota Golden Gophers instead of the Ontario Reign. The same can be said of Clarke as well (even if he's a much different style player).