Speculation: Fire Rob Blake Blow it Up Offseason Thread (update: Robitaille, Blake and Hiller stay)

[johnjm22]

At this point I think you just move forward with a retool and move on from the vets but keep him around. His value won't get better, I highly doubt a buyout is on the way, and getting rid of the vets opens alot of cap space on guys who will get value like a Danult/Gavrikov. Showcase him, either he becomes someone to keep or down the line someone is less appalled by term/cap hit as the ceiling increases

I really think having a guy like PLD around is bad for team culture.

I don't think he's a bad guy, but he is a slacker. Him getting a fat paycheck and prime minutes is terrible for team morale.

This is not someone you want in the organization when you're trying to rebuild and create a winning identity. He has to go.

 

[DyslexicTom]

At this point I think you just move forward with a retool and move on from the vets but keep him around. His value won't get better, I highly doubt a buyout is on the way, and getting rid of the vets opens alot of cap space on guys who will get value like a Danult/Gavrikov. Showcase him, either he becomes someone to keep or down the line someone is less appalled by term/cap hit as the ceiling increases

Unfortunately there's a tiny little thing called a no movement clause standing in the way. Even if you showcase him, he still has the right to nix any move. Yay!

 

[tny760]

as huey said, it's fun to dream

 

[Moses Doughty]

Dubois is a Jonah. His attitude is a poison. It would be better to buy him out than let him be an influence on the young players.

I really think having a guy like PLD around is bad for team culture.

I don't think he's a bad guy, but he is a slacker. Him getting a fat paycheck and prime minutes is terrible for team morale.

This not someone you want in the organization when you're trying to rebuild and create a winning identity. He has to go.

As much as I've hated on PLD, I think it's something that can be corrected/mitigated with the right locker room culture. Some of it is maturation, but some of it is the room. This room is an absolute mess with poor leadership/accountability with no winning history. You can have a guy like this in the right room (like how Carter was talked about at times before LA). He was a frontline guy on the two best teams the Jackets ever had. You can make it work, and those teams had guys like Foligno, Dubinsky, and Savard. Put some vets who have won in leadership roles and he can fall in line. This team just doesn't have that outside of Danault.

Unfortunately there's a tiny little thing called a no movement clause standing in the way. Even if you showcase him, he still has the right to nix any move. Yay!

Good call on the NMC, my brain optimistically forgot that part. There's always ways around it, PA be damned on the grievance.

 

[jtalton]

Not only do you want to buy him out i think you have to send a message that you don't want that crap on you team.

Fire Blake, Fire Luc, Buyout PLDumb and send a message to everyone on the team that the culture is changing. Honestly hire DL to do the rebuild. Burn this crap down. Stop hiring former players to run the show, or at least if you are going to hire a player hire one that WON something with the team, not an a-hole that took the C off and left, then left again for money. "get over it, its just business" okay well Blake has WON nothing for the Kings. FIRE HIM... "its just BuiZNEszzzzz."

As much as I've hated on PLD, I think it's something that can be corrected/mitigated with the right locker room culture. Some of it is maturation, but some of it is the room. This room is an absolute mess with poor leadership/accountability with no winning history. You can have a guy like this in the right room (like how Carter was talked about at times before LA). He was a frontline guy on the two best teams the Jackets ever had. You can make it work, and those teams had guys like Foligno, Dubinsky, and Savard. Put some vets who have won in leadership roles and he can fall in line. This team just doesn't have that outside of Danault.

this is the 3rd team. So you are saying there are 3 locker rooms that didn't fit for PLDumb? its the locker room thats the problem? For the money PLDumb is making he should be fixing the locker room.

 

[Moses Doughty]

this is the 3rd team. So you are saying there are 3 locker rooms that didn't fit for PLDumb? its the locker room thats the problem? For the money PLDumb is making he should be fixing the locker room.

Can't believe I'm excusing PLD but I think there's been issues in the locker rooms that went beyond him, even if he hasn't been a solution. Kings locker room hasn't been right for awhile now predating him, rudderless/leaderless leading to inconsistent effort for years under Todd because Kopi/Drew aren't the kind of leader that Brown is and they don't have the complement leadership to make up for it. Winnipeg's issues long predate him, and I think them getting rid of Wheeler did a whole lot more to help the team than they'd be willing to admit (and Byfuglien previously). And whatever was going on in Columbus post-COVID with Jones/Atkinson was a mess.

But when Columbus had a stable locker room with Dubinsky/Foligno, he was their best scorer.

 

[crassbonanza]

We should have traded Roy.
We should have traded RV (understandable we didnt here)
We should have traded Daneault.

We shouldn’t have traded Vilardi.
We shouldn’t have traded Faber.

We haven’t won a playoff series since 2014. That’s third worst in the league.

This team is squarely in the mid category. Right alongside the Islanders.

The Islanders have had a lot of success recently, with the 7th most playoff wins since 2018 and the 5th most since 2020. I don't think the Kings should be compared to them if we are discussing post season success.

 

[johnjm22]

There was an idiot around here who tried to tell me PLD's poor play was Todd's fault.

Dubois has been on multiple teams, had multiple coaches, and yet the problems are always the same.

PLD gonna PLD. Not much you can do about it.

 

[jtalton]

Can't believe I'm excusing PLD but I think there's been issues in the locker rooms that went beyond him, even if he hasn't been a solution. Kings locker room hasn't been right for awhile now predating him, rudderless/leaderless leading to inconsistent effort for years under Todd because Kopi/Drew aren't the kind of leader that Brown is and they don't have the complement leadership to make up for it. Winnipeg's issues long predate him, and I think them getting rid of Wheeler did a whole lot more to help the team than they'd be willing to admit (and Byfuglien previously). And whatever was going on in Columbus post-COVID with Jones/Atkinson was a mess.

But when Columbus had a stable locker room with Dubinsky/Foligno, he was their best scorer.

Look, i get what you are saying but this is a grown man making 8.5m, its time for him to take responsibility and give a crap and help fix the situation. That goes for Doughty and Kopi too. If these guys cant show as much passion on the ice that i show in my post (lol) then get rid of all of them. They need a willie mitchell / justin williams in the worst way.

 

[BaileyFan]

If there’s one silver lining to all this, it’s that the wheels fell off the Kings as early as they did. I, like many here, thought that the Kings were gonna smash their regular season points record, win the Pacific, struggle but squeak by a wild-card team, then get bulldozed by EDM in the 2nd round. In that scenario, Blake, Todd and co get fat extensions and jettison every young player not named Clarke this summer for more 28-30 year old big names.

Instead, the Kings crapped out 3 months early and are now in a position where unless they win 4 out of 6 against a team that is strictly better at every position, it’s bye bye Blakey. I have my doubts as to whether his replacement will be any better but it’s at least reason for a little bit of hope for this team’s future.

 

[crassbonanza]

There was an idiot around here who tried to tell me PLD's poor play was Todd's fault.

Dubois has been on multiple teams, had multiple coaches, and yet the problems are always the same.

PLD gonna PLD. Not much you can do about it.

I think the wildest thing is that he has had 3 different coaches with 3 different teams publicly call him out. I gdt some coaches suck, i mean we all watched wd for half a season, but when it happens everywhere in such a short career maybe there is something to it.

 

[DyslexicTom]

If there’s one silver lining to all this, it’s that the wheels fell off the Kings as early as they did. I, like many here, thought that the Kings were gonna smash their regular season points record, win the Pacific, struggle but squeak by a wild-card team, then get bulldozed by EDM in the 2nd round. In that scenario, Blake, Todd and co get fat extensions and jettison every young player not named Clarke this summer for more 28-30 year old big names.

Instead, the Kings crapped out 3 months early and are now in a position where unless they win 4 out of 6 against a team that is strictly better at every position, it’s bye bye Blakey. I have my doubts as to whether his replacement will be any better but it’s at least reason for a little bit of hope for this team’s future.

As much as I want to believe it, the fact is that every Kings home playoff game played increases the chances that management sticks around next year. They're already going to get 2. If they get to 3, then I feel like ownership would think that was a job well done.

 

[CowMix]

What was Blake supposed to do?!?

More importantly--has a forum ever been so sadly collectively right in their foresight?

Welcome to Hfboards where you should trade everyone and blow it up for prospects and picks which you can then complain about being busts that also should be traded.

 

[jtalton]

Welcome to Hfboards where you should trade everyone and blow it up for prospects and picks which you can then complain about being busts that also should be traded.

i watched ever single game Blake played for this team, i have watched every single game he has been in the front office of this team. I have the right to criticize Blake after watching his magnum opus of a team get curb stomped in the playoffs for a 3rd straight season and accomplish nothing in 7 years of being a GM. If after 7 years of this crap you don't want to blow it up wtf are you watching for? And where else should we vent then on the thread called "Fire Rob Blake blow it up in the offseason thread" on a site called Hockeys Future.

 

[NikF]

They are at the same exact spot they were when Bluc first took over. A decade of absolute waste of management. Maybe they can get Kovalchuk next. Wish they kept Faber, oh well. Don't think Blake will last much longer as the mistakes become more clear. They need to overhaul almost everything except the NA part of amateur scouting. It will be pretty hard, they need to find a new Lombardi who can work with Byfield-Clarke and build everything else ground up around that. Byfield-Clarke-Faber would be even better but they blew that already.

 

[BigBrown]

I'm not one of those guys carrying a vendetta against Blake going back decades. I was hopeful he'd do something good here and willing to trust that the front office was competent enough to get us to the other side of a rebuild set up for the future. A couple of mistakes along the way is normal and should be expected as long as the big picture is moving in the right direction. However it's very clear to me that he (they) botched the rebuild in multiple ways and this team will have to tear it down once again before ever becoming more than a fringe playoff team.

That being said, they still have a small chance against Oilers if they get their heads out of their asses and play to their full potential. Maybe Mcdavid gets struck by lightning or gets swallowed by a sinkhole or something.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Roy is going to walk, the Kings will have accomplished nothing but getting embarrassed, and a franchise that desperately needs assets and prospects will have flushed a first round pick plus down the toilet. This franchise is run by damn idiots

 

[LAKings88]

Blake will take some promotion and Bergie will be gm.

I’ve been waiting for this thread for four years.



Also been saying this for a f***ing year.

Yep, lost a first round pick in exchange for a first round exit.

 

[fsanford]

Thomas played great after call up
But this f***ed up Kings philosophy of experience and paying your dues puts him on the bench game 1.

I would hate to be drafted by LA cuz you probably are going to sit in the AHL for 4-5 years.

Byfield is an outlier

 

[tigermask48]

Welcome to Hfboards where you should trade everyone and blow it up for prospects and picks which you can then complain about being busts that also should be traded.

Except if you actually read what people are typing their issues with this team make sense and are valid. Game 1 went just about how people predicted it would go, and the threads in recent days back that up.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Thomas played great after call up
But this f***ed up Kings philosophy of experience and paying your dues puts him on the bench game 1.

I would hate to be drafted by LA cuz you probably are going to sit in the AHL for 4-5 years.

Byfield is an outlier

Byfield is an outlier, Andersson is an outlier, Laferrierre is an outlier, Roy is an outlier, Spence is an outlier, Kaliyev is an outlier, Lizotte is an outlier, Lots of freaking outliers, for there to be, outliers.

 

[fsanford]

Byfield is an outlier, Andersson is an outlier, Laferrierre is an outlier, Roy is an outlier, Spence is an outlier, Kaliyev is an outlier, Lizotte is an outlier, Lots of freaking outliers, for there to be, outliers.

Spence 5 years in system
Kaliyev never plays and is a high end talent that is gone.

Lafferrire 4 years from draft date though his was college.

Like I said in post Kings like to ferment guys. 4 to 5 years and with first round guys it should not be that way. You hope they have a regular role within a year of their draft.

The Kings process is one of sit on guys that is not even up debate. It's what they do regardless.

If Brock Faber was still.on the Kings he would have spent most of this past season at Ontario.

 

[BigKing]

I don't think any GM would take this job without the ability to make changes and put their own stamp on the team. Every new GM wants to make roster changes to their new team and the only way to do that here would be by making some huge moves.

Bowlby says not so fast on making changes right away.

 

[ScoreZeGoals]

Byfield is an outlier, Andersson is an outlier, Laferrierre is an outlier, Roy is an outlier, Spence is an outlier, Kaliyev is an outlier, Lizotte is an outlier, Lots of freaking outliers, for there to be, outliers.

It's 2024, trying to say 2019/2020 draftees that are now 22 and 23 year olds in their 4th and 5th pro seasons works in your favor that the Kings don't slow play the kids is absolutely hilarious. Hell, Roy's first full season was as a 24/25 year old, what are we even doing here?

 

[fsanford]

So with the roster as constructed, who would you get to coach them next year?

How many neutral zone congestion are still out there?