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

[AbsentMojo]

This org has quite the talent for minimizing asset value...who has thrived coming to this org?

 

[Lt Dan]

Maybe the Kings really did get lucky with that three-year stretch from 2012 to 2014, because in the three years afterwards, the Kings missed the playoffs twice, and their only playoff appearance in between those seasons was a first round elimination in 5 games to the Sharks.

We had a GM who knew what he was doing. His greatest fault was being too loyal to coaches.

I believe that the people above him put too much pressure on him to win one more cup and thought it was way easier than it was.

This is by far the most successful stretch in LA Kings history

(continued on next post)

 

[The Butcher]

I sometimes think one of you made a deal with the Devil in 2012, 2 Stanley Cups for a decade of misery. Hey it was a great deal, but man hopefully it was a decade and not longer.

It's crazy to think of all the bad things that have happened to the Kings since Martinez scored, some due to bad luck, some do to bad decisions.

- Voynov deported as he's beginning to really take off in his career.
- Richards not bought out and eventually sent to the minors
- Sekera trade, they trade a 1st for a rental and miss the playoffs
- Lucic trade, that was where they were going to get that elusive 2C to play behind Kopitar. Instead Barzal ends up on the Island and 9 years later the Kings still don't have that legit 2c behind AK.
- Lombardi trades what becomes a 2nd pairing defender on a back to back cup winner, for 7 games of Ben Bishop.
- Gabe Vilardi's back injury threatens his career and slows his development
- The Kings finally get a Top 5 pick for the first time in over a decade, and he has 1 career goal 5 years later.
- The Kings trade a prospect who ends up being a Calder Trophy finalist.
- The Kings trade for a player who, say what you want, but had been a pretty consistent 2nd line producer, they give him a bloated contract and then watch him have the worst season of his career in year 1 of 8 in the extension.

I'm sure there are others I am forgetting. But that is a pretty sad to look back at the last decade.

Jaret Stoll with blow.

Kovalchuk.

Cal Petersen.

Idk, seems like we could write a novel here.

 

[Lt Dan]

Let's compare GM tenures

Lombardi

Scary that they would fire him and that 3 season stretch after winning 2 cups in three years and going to the CF and losing to the eventual cup winner (f*** you Luc!!)


Considering.....
Blake

Taylor "Dumpster Diving Dave"

Sam "The Disaster"

Nick Beverly "Hills"

Rogie

How can Blake's tenure be ruled as anything but a failure at this point? 7 years and his teams can't win a round.
Taylor's team at least won 1 round and he has seriously hamstrung with the purse strings, pre salary cap .

 

[King'sPawn]

Let's compare GM tenures

Lombardi
View attachment 877906

Scary that they would fire him and that 3 season stretch after winning 2 cups in three years and going to the CF and losing to the eventual cup winner (f*** you Luc!!)


Considering.....
Blake
View attachment 877907


Taylor
View attachment 877908


Sam "The Disaster"

View attachment 877909

Nick Beverly "Hills"
View attachment 877910


Rogie
View attachment 877911




How can Blake's tenure be ruled as anything but a failure at this point? 7 years and his teams can't win a round.
Taylor's team at least won 1 round and he has seriously hamstrung with the purse strings, pre salary cap .

What was Blake supposed to do with a core of cup winners he inherited?????

 

[Lt Dan]

What was Blake supposed to do with a core of cup winners he inherited?????

You won the internet today my friend

 

[Herby]

The Kings have 0 playoff series wins in the last 10 years, and in 8 of those seasons they were trying to win (at least when the season started).

The draft picks that resulted from 0 playoff series wins

2015 - Traded
2016 - Traded
2017 - #11
2018 - #20
2019 - #5
2020 - #2
2021 - #8
2022- Traded
2023 - Traded
2024 - #21

 

[Schmooley]

The Kings have 0 playoff series wins in the last 10 years, and in 8 of those seasons they were trying to win (at least when the season started).

The draft picks that resulted from 0 playoff series wins

2015 - Traded
2016 - Traded
2017 - #11
2018 - #20
2019 - #5
2020 - #2
2021 - #8
2022- Traded
2023 - Traded
2024 - #21

View attachment 877918

I thought Blake was steering the team into the blackhole but if you lay it out like that the reality is theyve been in one all along.

 

[bland]

Not a single playoff series win was "likely"? No way, that is a ridiculous take, nobody can predict a team to win 0 series in 10 years.

There are 32 teams in the league, and only 3 of those 32 teams (LA, Buffalo and Detroit) have not won a playoff series since the 2014 post-season.

There have been waaaaaaaaay worse contracts handed out than the one given to Kopitar and that hasn't stopped teams from having playoff success.

This has happened because the Kings were terribly managed from June 2014 to April 2017 and then followed that up with a seven year run of even worse management, that is how you end up with such pitiful results over a 10 year period.

Lol.

I laid it all out 8 years ago in lengthy and elaborate posts and it unfolded EXACTLY as explained. Has nothing to do with Kopitar per se, but as mentioned over and over, that was the Waterloo moment the organization chose prolonged mediocrity over progress.

For the millionth time, and folks please try to keep up, when you have a barren asset list, multiple retirement contracts locked in and only in the early stages of their respective deals, next to zero cost-controlled production and quality veteran depth pushed out due to the raises given to very good, but aging AND satisfied players, you have the perfect recipe for a team that will not progress past mediocrity.

The first half of that 8 year deal was going to see a team on a steady decline leading to an inevitable rebuild that would see no playoff success during the growth stages. It was ALWAYS going to be the most likely scenario.

The truly depressing thing was that the wait for that inevitable rebuild was completely worthless as it's fruits have largely been wasted by a feckless group of executives who chose to sell out the rebuild in favor on enhancing the mediocrity.

 

[Herby]

Let's compare GM tenures

Lombardi
View attachment 877906

Scary that they would fire him and that 3 season stretch after winning 2 cups in three years and going to the CF and losing to the eventual cup winner (f*** you Luc!!)


Considering.....
Blake
View attachment 877907


Taylor "Dumpster Diving Dave"
View attachment 877908


Sam "The Disaster"

View attachment 877909

Nick Beverly "Hills"
View attachment 877910


Rogie
View attachment 877911




How can Blake's tenure be ruled as anything but a failure at this point? 7 years and his teams can't win a round.
Taylor's team at least won 1 round and he has seriously hamstrung with the purse strings, pre salary cap .

I was of the belief that it was time for Lombardi to go, he was making hockey moves that were doing significant damage to the organization. Major changes needed to be made and he was just unwilling to do it, either with the coaches or with the players. Then you had the whole Richards fiasco with not buying him out, and then trying to terminate his remaining $30m, and letting Voynov practice after the incident. Plenty of other GM's in pro-sports have been let go 3 seasons after success.

What makes zero sense is why ownership was kind of proactive with firing Dean before more damage could be done, but has done nothing as Rob Blake has made awful move after awful move with no results at all. You would think the guy with the Stanley Cup's would have the extended leash and the guy who's won nothing wouldn't be given an 8th season and a 4th coach.

Oh sorry, I forgot, Pravda says Tmac was the only coach Blake has hired so far, so lets see if Hiller counts as a hire or not. Pravda might say he's still on his first coaching hire.

 

[Lt Dan]

I was of the belief that it was time for Lombardi to go, he was making hockey moves that were doing significant damage to the organization. Major changes needed to be made and he was just unwilling to do it, either with the coaches or with the players. Then you had the whole Richards fiasco with not buying him out, and then trying to terminate his remaining $30m, and letting Voynov practice after the incident. Plenty of other GM's in pro-sports have been let go 3 seasons after success.

What makes zero sense is why ownership was kind of proactive with firing Dean before more damage could be done, but has done nothing as Rob Blake has made awful move after awful move with no results at all. You would think the guy with the Stanley Cup's would have the extended leash and the guy who's won nothing wouldn't be given an 8th season and a 4th coach.

Oh sorry, I forgot, Pravda says Tmac was the only coach Blake has hired so far, so lets see if Hiller counts as a hire or not. Pravda might say he's still on his first coaching hire.

Bolded part:
I blame Luc. He staged a coup against Dean and is protecting Blake

He was one of my all time favorite players in his first two stints, but post 2002 Luc is (insert expletive)


Italicized part:
Knowing what I know about AEG , I am pretty confident that a fire was being lit under him to make some of these moves. Each was worse than the prior and was more desperate. but I could also be wrong. I am wrong often

 

[Lt Dan]

The Kings have 0 playoff series wins in the last 10 years, and in 8 of those seasons they were trying to win (at least when the season started).

The draft picks that resulted from 0 playoff series wins

2015 - Traded
2016 - Traded
2017 - #11
2018 - #20
2019 - #5
2020 - #2
2021 - #8
2022- Traded
2023 - Traded
2024 - #21

and more importantly, those picks resulted in

2015 - Traded
2016 - Traded
2017 - #11- Vilardi traded for Pretty Lazy Dude
2018 - #20 Kupari -Bust/traded for Pretty Lazy Dude
2019 - #5 Alex Turcotte -we shall see, but not looking good
2020 - #2 Q!!!!
2021 - #8 Clarke- rotting in the A
2022- Traded
2023 - Traded

 

[The Butcher]

I was of the belief that it was time for Lombardi to go, he was making hockey moves that were doing significant damage to the organization. Major changes needed to be made and he was just unwilling to do it, either with the coaches or with the players. Then you had the whole Richards fiasco with not buying him out, and then trying to terminate his remaining $30m, and letting Voynov practice after the incident. Plenty of other GM's in pro-sports have been let go 3 seasons after success.

What makes zero sense is why ownership was kind of proactive with firing Dean before more damage could be done, but has done nothing as Rob Blake has made awful move after awful move with no results at all. You would think the guy with the Stanley Cup's would have the extended leash and the guy who's won nothing wouldn't be given an 8th season and a 4th coach.

Oh sorry, I forgot, Pravda says Tmac was the only coach Blake has hired so far, so lets see if Hiller counts as a hire or not. Pravda might say he's still on his first coaching hire.

I never wanted Lombardi gone. He made mistakes but took winning personally and probably should have had a longer leash.

Also, if what is being speculated about Luc is true, Dean had been a real boy scout about keeping his mouth shut. I wonder if we'll ever get the truth about what really happened from 2014 to 2017.

 

[Herby]

and more importantly, those picks resulted in

2015 - Traded
2016 - Traded
2017 - #11- Vilardi traded for Pretty Lazy Dude
2018 - #20 Kupari -Bust/traded for Pretty Lazy Dude
2019 - #5 Alex Turcotte -we shall see, but not looking good
2020 - #2 Q!!!!
2021 - #8 Clarke- rotting in the A
2022- Traded
2023 - Traded

I think Pretty Lazy Dude has overtaken Pierre-Luc DuSquat as my favorite PLD name so far.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

I was of the belief that it was time for Lombardi to go, he was making hockey moves that were doing significant damage to the organization. Major changes needed to be made and he was just unwilling to do it, either with the coaches or with the players. Then you had the whole Richards fiasco with not buying him out, and then trying to terminate his remaining $30m, and letting Voynov practice after the incident. Plenty of other GM's in pro-sports have been let go 3 seasons after success.

What makes zero sense is why ownership was kind of proactive with firing Dean before more damage could be done, but has done nothing as Rob Blake has made awful move after awful move with no results at all. You would think the guy with the Stanley Cup's would have the extended leash and the guy who's won nothing wouldn't be given an 8th season and a 4th coach.

Oh sorry, I forgot, Pravda says Tmac was the only coach Blake has hired so far, so lets see if Hiller counts as a hire or not. Pravda might say he's still on his first coaching hire.

I'm guessing different goals, wasn't there a change in the top level of ownerships etc? Different expectations, different goals, different mindsets

 

[AbsentMojo]

[..]

What makes zero sense is why ownership was kind of proactive with firing Dean before more damage could be done, but has done nothing as Rob Blake has made awful move after awful move with no results at all. You would think the guy with the Stanley Cup's would have the extended leash and the guy who's won nothing wouldn't be given an 8th season and a 4th coach.

I believe AEG is afraid to fire team "legends" because of the fallout they perceive would come from fans.. thats what I think is holding them back. It will have to get objectively worse and hurt their wallets before they'll do anything... thats the problem w putting these former team icons in executive roles.

 

[BigKing]

It's funny that everyone hated DL for trading 1st round picks when he was trying to keep a real team at the top but Rob Blake is over here moving a 1st round pick for Gavrikov and then also moving a bunch of other shit--and taking on dead cap--so he could sign the guy two a two year deal which, in the first year, saw the Kings win one playoff game. He's a goner after next season and the Kings will not have come close to winning a f***ing thing.

BUT LUCIC!!!!

 

[KINGS17]

Let's compare GM tenures

Lombardi
View attachment 877906

Scary that they would fire him and that 3 season stretch after winning 2 cups in three years and going to the CF and losing to the eventual cup winner (f*** you Luc!!)


Considering.....
Blake
View attachment 877907


Taylor "Dumpster Diving Dave"
View attachment 877908


Sam "The Disaster"

View attachment 877909

Nick Beverly "Hills"
View attachment 877910


Rogie
View attachment 877911




How can Blake's tenure be ruled as anything but a failure at this point? 7 years and his teams can't win a round.
Taylor's team at least won 1 round and he has seriously hamstrung with the purse strings, pre salary cap .

Only one DNQ for Rogie, but I think that was back in the day when every team except for 5 teams made the NHL playoffs.

 

[Herby]

It's funny that everyone hated DL for trading 1st round picks when he was trying to keep a real team at the top but Rob Blake is over here moving a 1st round pick for Gavrikov and then also moving a bunch of other shit--and taking on dead cap--so he could sign the guy two a two year deal which, in the first year, saw the Kings win one playoff game. He's a goner after next season and the Kings will not have come close to winning a f***ing thing.

BUT LUCIC!!!!

I don't know, the Lucic trade was pretty awful. I think a case can be made that it was the worst move of the past 10 years of mostly awful moves by the GM's. Futa told us that's who they were taking, so unless Futa is another Yannetti we can take that as fact.

Barzal is not exactly McDavid, but he would have been an ideal 2nd line center while Kopi was still at the top of his game (Barzal had 80 points as a rookie the same year Kopitar was a Hart finalist) and he is still young enough where he could play with young players if they went the rebuild route.

And we start to go butterfly effect, but it's very likely the Kings aren't going four centers in a row between 2017 and 2020 if they had Barzal. The Kings have spent an enormous amount of draft capital and other assets desperately trying to find someone to play 2C behind Kopi, if this trade isn't made that hole doesn't exist and draft capital can be spent elsewhere.

It was a significant blunder that still hurts the team to this day.

 

[KINGS17]

The Kings have 0 playoff series wins in the last 10 years, and in 8 of those seasons they were trying to win (at least when the season started).

The draft picks that resulted from 0 playoff series wins

2015 - Traded
2016 - Traded
2017 - #11
2018 - #20
2019 - #5
2020 - #2
2021 - #8
2022- Traded
2023 - Traded
2024 - #21

View attachment 877918

True, but at least we had Kopitar and Doughty to mold the next generation of Kings players.

 

[SaltyElkHunter]

Blake is pouring salt on his own lawn. In days he will announce we trade our first for someone who is signed to too many years for not enough awesome!

 

[Buddy The Elf]

There was so much criticism of Lombardi leading up to the Cup wins. I was drinking the Kool-Aid up until Sutter was hired. It was clear that Murray did the best he could and a change was needed. I though Sutter was a bad hire and was obviously completely wrong. Lombardi was also heavily criticized following the Cup wins because of stagnation and moves of desperation. But in hindsight it's pretty crazy he was run out of town while Blake seems to have an endless amount of rope with zero results.

I can only guess that it's because the fan base is still strong and seats continue to be filled. I mean go back to the 04/05 lockout and as a guy who was making like $40k a year I was able to buy a pair of season tickets for $1,000 bucks. I couldn't even give away my tickets back then. The point being the team must be doing ok financially or I don't think Blake or Luc would still be around.

Ironically, I do remember Lombardi making an emphasis on having alumni in and around the organization. I'm pretty sure he was responsible for the whole Legends night idea and bringing former players into the organization in support roles. Part of that culminated in a resurgence of the country club atmosphere he was critical before his arrival.

They should promote Luc and Blake to manage the Oceanwide Plaza. I don't think they could do any damage there.

 

[Herby]

There was so much criticism of Lombardi leading up to the Cup wins. I was drinking the Kool-Aid up until Sutter was hired. It was clear that Murray did the best he could and a change was needed. I though Sutter was a bad hire and was obviously completely wrong. Lombardi was also heavily criticized following the Cup wins because of stagnation and moves of desperation. But in hindsight it's pretty crazy he was run out of town while Blake seems to have an endless amount of rope with zero results.

I can only guess that it's because the fan base is still strong and seats continue to be filled. I mean go back to the 04/05 lockout and as a guy who was making like $40k a year I was able to buy a pair of season tickets for $1,000 bucks. I couldn't even give away my tickets back then. The point being the team must be doing ok financially or I don't think Blake or Luc would still be around.

Ironically, I do remember Lombardi making an emphasis on having alumni in and around the organization. I'm pretty sure he was responsible for the whole Legends night idea and bringing former players into the organization in support roles. Part of that culminated in a resurgence of the country club atmosphere he was critical before his arrival.

They should promote Luc and Black to manage the Oceanwide Plaza. I don't think they could do any damage there.

Ya, that was another thing Dean would probably like to have back. When Ron Hextall left for Philadelphia they should have again looked to someone with no connection to the Kings. That was the beginning of the coup.

Blake never should have been welcomed back in the organization in any capacity. I was going to say he could do an ambassador role like Hull and Mikita did in Chicago, but considering a majority of the fanbase hates him from 2001 and 2007 that probably wouldn't have worked either.

Luc would be great in that role, schmoozing people on the Premier level, he's an outgoing and friendly guy. But what are his qualifications to be President of an NHL club worth almost $2 billion.

 

[AbsentMojo]

For those wondering whats been going on w Todd, here's an update - cc @Lt Dan

 

[Lt Dan]

For those wondering whats been going on w Todd, here's an update - cc @Lt Dan

and soon someone will capture this image