Is he? I don't know where to find league wide numbers, but if you look at 2007 to 2016 picks 1 and 2 just for LA this is what it breaks down to going into their D+2 season right?
2007 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 280 NHL Games - 164 AHL games
2008 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 249 NHL Games - 293 AHL/ECHL games
2009 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 164 NHL Games - 14 AHL games
2010 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 72 NHL Games - 223 AHL Games
2011 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 0 NHL Games - 112 AHL Games
2012 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 25 NHL Games - 105 AHL Games
2013 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 0 NHL Games - 111 AHL Games
2014 - 1st and 2nd round picks - 10 NHL Games - 327 AHL Games
2015 - 1st and 2nd round picks - NA
So total under DL is 800 NHL games into D+2 and 1,349 AHL games....
Top 15 picks
3OA Johnson - 0 AHL games
11OA Kopitar - 0 AHL games
2OA Doughty - 0 AHL games
4OA Hickey - 212 AHL games
5OA Schenn - 7 AHL games
15OA Forbort - 194 AHL games
13OA Teubert - 39 AHL games + 18 ECHL games before trade
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2OA Byfield - 59 AHL games
5OA Turcotte - 126 AHL game
8OA Clarke - 55 AHL games
11OA Vilardi - 75 AHL games
This looks like a slow cook to you, GBH? When analyzing high-end picks it's not even a comparison. The Kings under DL put high-end players into the NHL much quicker than similarly drafted players under Blake. Look at the players who had major AHL time for DL, you see something similar about all those guys? D-man who ended up just not being good at all.
15-30 picks
29OA Kempe - 104 AHL games
30OA Pearson - 105 AHL games
17OA Lewis - 182 AHL games
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Bjornfot - 59 AHL games (played 1 NHL game before any AHL games)
Harder to draw on for this selection. The Kings have had very very few picks in the back half of round 1 in the last 18 years.
2nd round picks (only including players who had NHL careers or still project to)
52OA Moller - 102 AHL games (46 game NHL debut after 2)
61OA Simmonds - 0 AHL games
34OA Voynov - 266 AHL games
35OA Clifford - 7 AHL playoff games
47OA Toffoli - 76 AHL games (10 game NHL debut after 58)
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41OA JAD - 115 AHL games (9 game NHL debut before AHL)
51OA Thomas - 157 AHL games
33OA Kaliyev - 40 AHL games
50OA Fagemo - 201 AHL games (4 game NHL debut after 90)
Don't know how to group Faber into this, he was very likely to be put on the JAD path, where he plays a few NHL games but then spends a season in the AHL. Grans, I don't know either, maybe its even tough to project him as likely to have an NHL career. But another player who was rushed over from Europe to early to be put in the AHL with terrible results.
Still don't see how you look at this and say they are the same, the Kings under DL consistently put the high end guys into the NHL at a much younger age, and with much fewer AHL games than under Rob Blake. The Kings did not even put a #2 OA pick into the NHL (when that has been the norm for decades) and wouldn't give Clarke an NHL spot despite a historically great junior career and pretty close to dominant play in the AHL. There is no way Clarke and QB would have been handled the same 15 years ago, no way.
I like TB and like everyone else I think he was mishandled and it was also terrible asset management. I hope he has a great NHL career BUT he has only played 4 games in Florida (hockeydb is wrong and says 1), all in the regular season. Even if Florida wins he may not get a ring and he has a long way to go before he cements himself as a regular, which I think (and hope) he will do. So it’s a way to go for him to make anybody look like idiots…. more than they already do, that is.
I think TB peaked early, and I think the Kings contributed to him peaking early because the Kings denied another year of growth in the Swedish Elite League, in favor of putting him in the AHL as an 18 year old, and under the watch of the King of the plateau Glen Murray. Another member of this organization that won't get a comparable job whenever this is all blown up.
Helge Grans and Kupari were the same way. Just let NCAA and European players develop in their own leagues, it works for everyone else, but Rob Blake is always trying to re-invent the wheel.