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.
Sure, the Lucic trade sucked. Point being Dean was trying to keep the contending window propped open while Blake moved a 1st round pick (and a legend in Quick) for Gavrikov and then had to move other assets in order to sign him for a grand total of two years, a length of time that will not see the team be a contender.
Blake has had six first round picks in his seven drafts. Only Vilardi and Byfield are impactful NHL players and he traded the former for a boat anchor along with one of his failed first rounders in Kupari. So we are looking at Byfield and Clarke. We can only hope Turcotte can be as good as Trevor Lewis was at this point.
With that said, why the hell is this guy moving a first round pick (and then more to make space to sign him) for a non-difference maker like Gavrikov? That doesn't even get into him moving a 1st along with his best draft pick to date for Fiala.
I'm just going around in circles though. I've banged the drum on how the asset management has been horrific and, again, Management should know its own prospect doesn't have what it takes before the rest of the league does and move on from them before they have no value.
The Gavrikov thing though...like, I think he's a good player but they are down to one more season on his contract and have won three playoff games with him. Two more than the Lucic Kings in one additional postseason. There are bigger things to roast Bowlby about, but this one seems to fly under the radar. The Petersen contract should probably be brought up more as well but PLD is just a total eclipse of ineptitude so I get it.
Blake completely misjudged what he had on his hands going into the 2018-19 season and he has done the same with this roster, starting with the Fiala deal. When I say roster, I'm talking about the prospects as well. I think the first correct assessment I've heard from him was last week when he basically called the team p***yes. Let's hope his eyes are finally open.
Looks like all the preseason games will be out of town. What better way to hide the carcass of this roster than by playing more games in Quebec than LA while fans are trying to figure out whether to give a shit.
The clownish decision streak is unabated and picking up massive steam.
I'm beyond stoked that I don't have to pay for preseason seats I won't use.
