I just genuinely cannot WAIT until Blake and his surfboard are shot out of a f***ing cannon. Luc and their counterparts as well. I really try to avoid starting arguments / drama on here but of course Surf Nutz is no where to be found. "Blake is here to stay" comments were mind numbingly annoying, especially when the dude constructed one of the most mediocre "contenders" in recent memory.
Yeah, not surprising at all that they are all gone. It's just a shame that the "Masterclass by Rob Blake" post celebrating a third straight 3rd place finish and calling out myself, Sol and RJ was removed from the main board.
I still, for the life of me, don't understand how anyone could be happy with the management of this team. I know at this point it's basically only Axl, GBH, SN and a few other less outspoken ones, but it's still crazy any exist with 0 playoff series wins in 7 years.
3 significant NHL players in 15 years worth of draft picks. It hurts to type that.
And who is the constant in all of this? Yet some people here continue to fall for the fast talking liar and try and place all of this on the feet of Blake (and Lombardi). There were certainly awful development decisions made on many of these prospects, but lets be honest, there have been many terrible poor evaluations that were later compounded by poor development decisions (Turcotte and Bjornfot notably), but even if these guys were developed correctly their lack of upside and ceiling made it impossible for them to ever be good picks. A good chunk of the failure of these picks and the lack of results has to fall out the feet of scouting, you can't just blame Blake, Emerson and Surf Nutz for everything wrong.
Now the defense as always will be, "But that is where they were projected by the magazines" , but if that is the case and we are just going to pick based on the magazines, why even have a scouting staff?
In the last 8 years the organization has made two picks that would be considered big-time hits based on draft capital used to make them, Brock Faber and Mikey Anderson. Two defensive defenseman drafted out of the USHL, who developed multiple years in college (what do you know).
2nd round has been a graveyard
Hughes - probably won't even be tendered
JAD - never made an impact, waived
Kaliyev - likely gone this summer for almost nothing
Pinelli - a terrible rookie season in the AHL for a Top 45 pick.
Helenius - no-upside 4th line center if he makes it
Grans - Another poor evaluation.
Fagemo - AAAA player, no impact at the NHL level
Thomas - We will see, showed some promise, but as of now little impact.
The problem I have with Yanetti and this group is the inability to dodge the bombs that are players who aren't going to get much better. These guys are paid to figure out not who is the best player at 18, but who the best player at 22 will be. In the first round you have Turcotte, Bjornfot and Kupari who all appear to have peaked at 18-19, when comparing them to their peers. The same appears to be true with Grans, Hughes and JAD in the 2nd round. All these guys are passed over by other teams, and then plateau with the Kings, never reaching levels that the evaluators told us they would. You can't just blame all of this on bad luck or the Kings development.
i imagine she got about 1000 "let the players cook" comments and couldn't handle it, deleted them all and mentioned only's it
actually hilarious seeing people learn about social media in real time
She says stupid things, and like just about every other media member involved with the Kings has gone out of her way to defend horrific results, but people shouldn't be nasty to her. But also, what does she expect, had the Kings gone on a run this spring she'd be the first one asking where the negative fans are, so she shouldn't be surprised as a water carrier to get it back when she was proven wrong. Nobody is asking her to be overly critical of the team, but nobody would care if she just said nothing.
I still have no idea what Marc Bergevin does for the KIngs , aside from getting a six figure salary. I don't think I saw him once this season.
He's a consultant. Every team in the league has guys like this, but for some reason in LA many fans seem to think he is the guy behind the green curtain. This organization is in the spot it's in primarily because of Rob Blake and Luc Robitaille. He was GM of the Habs when the stupid decision to end the rebuild was made, and Blake had previously shown interest in PLD. Do I want the guy to be the Kings next GM? No, I don't, but to blame him for any of this nonsense is ridiculous.
Brisson's son was also drafted by and is part of one of the most shady organizations in the Vegas Golden Knights. He's often within arm's reach of questionable ethical or dishonest situations.
Brendan Brisson played for UM and Pat Brisson represents Power, Beniers, L Hughes, Q Hughes, Portillo, Fantilli amongst others. I have never heard anything unethical about the guy other than the Pacioretty thing. I do find it interesting however that the Kings were able to get Turcotte to sign after his freshman season, yet the vast majority of Brisson's NCAA clients played 2 years, despite basically all of them having better freshman seasons. Fanttilli did leave after 1 season, but he was the best player in college hockey, was a post 9/15 birthday and went right to the NHL. I think Turcotte leaving school early, when he never should have, is another feather in the cap to some kind of collusion between the Kings and Brisson. Considering it was one of the worst college pulls of all-time it would make sense that it was orchestrated by a clueless front-office with the help of a friend to make it happen. Brisson's client list speaks for itself, but if I were a player and he were my agent, I'd be very worried about him doing business with the LA Kings, considering the Pacioretty and Turcotte situations.