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

[YP44]

Welcome back! Feels like you haven't posted in awhile.

The Kings are somehow horrible at all of

Drafting
Developing
Deploying

Some of these key picks ended up with such an awful return, it's amazing all these guys still have jobs.

Turcotte (5)
Kupari (20)
Bjornfot (22)
Hughes (51)
Grans (35)
Thomas (51)
Pinelli (42)
Kaliyev (33)
JAD (41)
Fagemo (51)

I like Kaliyev and still have some faith, but lets call a spade a spade, it's been a disappointing pick, and he will be traded for less of a pick than where he was taken.

Turcotte, again you can say you like him and have faith, but lets call a spade a spade, it's been one of the worst picks in franchise history.

These 9 players, all of whom were taken with 1st or 2nd round picks between 2017 and 2022 will likely account for 2 spots on the 24-25 opening night roster (Thomas and Turcotte as 4th liners).

The one 2nd round pick that they hit out of the park they traded before he even played a game, because Blake ended the rebuild to soon and his picks sucked so he needed offense.

It's just crazy man, I feel like a performance like this for 99% of businesses in America would result in huge firings, yet nothing ever happens.

I still have hope for Thomas

 

[kovacro]

Piston, great post. Been talking up Zito recently.

Zito also built a very tough team to play against. It started with the Tkachuk deal - he changed the identity of the team. Bennett is underrated tough, they have Lomberg, and signed Gadjovich. Kulikov was a sneaky signing. Cousins in the new Matt Cooke.

He did make one bad trade - the Owen Tippet for the rental of Claude Giroux. This also cost them a 1st and a 3rd in addition to Tippet who now emerged as a star in Philly.

Not a great trade, but I don't think I would classify Tippet as a star just quite yet.

We'll see what happens with the 1st rounder which is going to be 31st or 32nd in this years draft which isn't all too strong by those in the know.

The 3rd has turned into Denver Barkey who Philly has signed. Very good junior career with London (OHL) so we'll see how he transitions to the pro ranks this coming season.

Zito has done a fantastic job in Florida. I was skeptical of the hire. We would be quite fortunate if Blake was half as shrewd as Zito is.

 

[Herby]

I still have hope for Thomas

He showed some promise at the end of the year, will probably end up being a decent bottom six guy, which is fine for a guy taken where he was. But it's an arms race league now, you need to find top end talent.

Rob Blake took over in 2017, in that time the most goals scored by a Kings draft pick was Gabe Vilardi (11 OA pick) with 23 and most points is Byfield (2 OA pick) with 55. That is despite having 14 picks(!!!!) in the 1st and 2nd round between 2017 and 2021, (6 firsts, 8 seconds), with three of those being Top 8 picks.

There is something very rotten with this team and how they develop young players, we can debate and argue whether it's evaluation or development, but since Mark Yannetti and Glen Murray are still employed, it's safe to say there is no accountability at all in the organization for the disaster that those picks as a whole have turned out to be. In the same time frame Dallas had 10 picks (one in the Top 8) and they rebuilt their entire core through those drafts.

 

[YP44]

He showed some promise at the end of the year, will probably end up being a decent bottom six guy, which is fine for a guy taken where he was. But it's an arms race league now, you need to find top end talent.

Rob Blake took over in 2017, in that time the most goals scored by a Kings draft pick was Gabe Vilardi (11 OA pick) with 23 and most points is Byfield (2 OA pick) with 55. That is despite having 14 picks(!!!!) in the 1st and 2nd round between 2017 and 2021, (6 firsts, 8 seconds), with three of those being Top 8 picks.

There is something very rotten with this team and how they develop young players, we can debate and argue whether it's evaluation or development, but since Mark Yannetti and Glen Murray are still employed, it's safe to say there is no accountability at all in the organization for the disaster that those picks as a whole have turned out to be. In the same time frame Dallas had 10 picks (one in the Top 8) and they rebuilt their entire core through those drafts.

I mean Dallas had one draft of historic value. I don't think that is the bar to measure against but the ceiling of what best possible outcome could be. That said Dallas does seem to have a good scouting department.

 

[BigKing]

This "team" Blake has constructed HAS ZERO IDENTITY. I can't stomach watching this roster every night.. We lack Size and Moxy the Kings lack Huevos, and boy is it just depressing to watch.

Don't even get me started on PLD, my god man do you have an ounce of pride?

Prospect Development has been absolute trash since Lombardi got canned.

Here are the Kings draft picks since 2017 that have scored at least 50 NHL points and played at least 100 NHL games.

1. Gabriel Vilardi
2. Arthur Kaliyev
3. Quinten Byfield

THAT"S IT - Completely Insane

Trading Brock Faber - Dear god shoot me please.

I am in a nightmare and can't wake up, we have become a worse version of the 2009 to 2015 Canucks, All flash and no substance

Nice to see you posting again. Completely spot on with the analysis.

OK, the best way to put Rob Blake’s utter failure into perspective is to compare his run with the best GM (In my opinion) in Hockey, Bill Zito of Florida. Zito has been a GM for a little more than half as long as Blake, and has his team headed to their second SC final in two years as the presumptive favorite. Before Zito got there, the Panthers were the epitome of NHL mediocrity, yet in his second year, the team won the President’s trophy and now stands four games from winning the Cup, and I guarantee neither the Oilers nor Stars are looking forward to playing them.

So, how did Zito do it? First, like Dean Lombardi, he inherited a core- Barkov is a Kopitar clone (AB is more physical but is not the skater AK is). He also had a #1 goaltender in Bobrovsky who is paid almost twice as much as Quick in his prime and who can be inconsistent in games that don’t mean anything. He also had a #1 D-man in Ekblad who is injury prone and not as skilled as Doughty. So, given this core, how did Zito turn things around so quickly? There are three ways for a GM to improve a club – drafting, trades and finding pieces that are undervalued by everyone else and bringing them in. Zito has excelled at the latter two, finding it more productive to move picks and open the team’s window of competitiveness earlier. Let’s look at some moves:

Carter Verhaege, the second leading scorer in the playoffs was signed after being non-tendered by Tampa.

Gustav Forsling, to my uneducated eyes is one of the best players in the NHL (reminds me of Nick Lidstrom without the offensive upside) was a waiver claim. He’s now signed at less the $6mm for the next 8 seasons. He’s a lot better than Gavrikov who cost us a #1 pick.

Sam Bennett, the human wrecking ball and clutch scorer, was a former #4 overall pick who was miscast in Calgary and acquired for the 61st pick in the 2022 draft plus a bag of pucks.

Sam Reinhart, the second leading goal scorer in the league and who was #1 in power play goals cost just a late #1 pick and a top goalie prospect who was redundant because Florida has Spencer Knight who was drafted by the previous regime.

Evan Rodrigues, who somehow found another gear in Florida was a UFA.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson who was miscast as a top pairing defender by two teams but who is an elite on the bottom pair was signed to a low risk, inexpensive contract and now pilots the second power play unit.

Ditto Dmitri Kulikov who is playing the best hockey of his career when placed in a sheltered role where he’s not asked to do too much.

Zito did it again with Niko Mikkola who was always undervalued by St. Louis and whose lack of foot speed is made up for by a mean streak and now clever positioning (likely due to coaching)

Brandon Montour who was the team’s best d-man last season before being surpassed by Forsling cost only a third round pick after Buffalo gave up a #1 to acquire him from the Ducks.

That makes five of their top six defensemen who were pulled off the scrap heap. Even the team’s #7 d-man, Josh Mahura, was a waiver claim. My bet is Tobias Bjornfot, who Zito also picked up on waivers, will become a legit NHL player in Florida.

One might be tempted to say that this was blind luck, but when it happens over and over again, and when you recognize something in Forsling that no one else saw, one needs to start admiring Zito’s work. These were all moves Rob Blake could have made.

Then, to cap it off, Zito makes perhaps the best trade in the NHL over the past five seasons. He takes a pushing 30 year old franchise icon who was at the top of his market value but who Zito did not want to pay and sends him along with another pending UFA in Mackenzie Weegar who Forsling replaced and a #1 to obtain one of the most impactful players in the NHL and a heart and soul guy in Matthew Tkachuk who happens to be in the heart of his prime years. And, Tkachuk is four+ years younger than Huberdeau and is pad $1mm less a season. Zito fleeced Calgary twice, Tkachuk and Bennett.

This is how winners are built. Zito has a problem in the offseason with some UFAs to sign, but if the Panthers win the Cup, who cares? He also has $20mm in cap space to play with, remarkable given he has a Stanley Cup capable roster, a core locked up and more cap space than the Kings. Zito does have one advantage that Blake lacks, the no income tax status in Florida which evidently is attractive to a lot of players. Having said that, anyone who wants to apologize for Blake’s lack of performance only needs to look at Bill Zito and what could have been. I hope Edmonton wins tonight so I can watch them get schooled by the Panthers who have that lean and hungry look to go along with their talent. Go Panthers!

Great post. I'm beating a dead horse here, but I advocated for both Bennett and Reinhart. Maybe Blake doesn't have what was needed for the latter but the former cost nothing. You have to take a chance on that pedigree (4OA) when it is also in a tough package, something the Kings completely lack.

He showed some promise at the end of the year, will probably end up being a decent bottom six guy, which is fine for a guy taken where he was. But it's an arms race league now, you need to find top end talent.

Rob Blake took over in 2017, in that time the most goals scored by a Kings draft pick was Gabe Vilardi (11 OA pick) with 23 and most points is Byfield (2 OA pick) with 55. That is despite having 14 picks(!!!!) in the 1st and 2nd round between 2017 and 2021, (6 firsts, 8 seconds), with three of those being Top 8 picks.

There is something very rotten with this team and how they develop young players, we can debate and argue whether it's evaluation or development, but since Mark Yannetti and Glen Murray are still employed, it's safe to say there is no accountability at all in the organization for the disaster that those picks as a whole have turned out to be. In the same time frame Dallas had 10 picks (one in the Top 8) and they rebuilt their entire core through those drafts.

DLs first five drafts, 1st and 2nd round:
Bernier/Lewis/Joey Ryan
Hickey/Moller/Simmonds
Doughty/Teubert/Voynov
Schenn/Clifford
Forbort/Toffoli

What stands out is not getting what you'd want out of most of the 1st round picks but going Simmonds/Voynov/Clifford/Toffoli with four second round picks in a row is elite. Then you have Martinez and King in Round 4 of the Simmonds draft and Nolan in Round 7 of the Clifford draft. Nolan and Clifford in the same draft along with Deslauriers in Round 3 and Nic Dowd in Round 7. Even thought Schenn was taken where projected, he was still a tough Western kid for a high-end prospect. Talk about going into a draft with a certain type of player in mind. That's something you can do when you have a vision of the type of identity you want to have as opposed to Blake who just collects things if he thinks it is good value. Even when trading Schenn and Simmonds, it was for a guy that epitomized winning and being a warrior at the time.

What does Blake do? Adds the sizzle of Fiala and the bowel movement that is PLD. Blake's 1st round actually stacks up to DL's--and Clarke could push it past DLs--but the work beyond Round 1 DL and his staff did was pretty insane. I said all along during the halcyon days of Blake's prospect pool that guys ranked in the Top 5-10 would bust so we would need 3rd, 4th etc...round picks to become legit players: we've got Anderson and Spence so far. Laferriere is a guy that will hopefully be a good depth guy. Traded his best pick in Faber...that's the one he needed to make up for all the first round misses, like Doughty/Voynov covered for Hickey/Teubert.

It's just pretty ugly. So much is riding on Clarke to be an insane producer and for Byfield to progress into a PPG guy and hopefully at center. Kind of unbelievable that DL inherited 11/32/23 in 2006 and Blake just kept on riding that and is still riding 11 and now 8 in 2024 while, IMO, the best forward on the team is a DL pick in Kempe.

Just a real botch job on the rebuild. That Willie D season payoff has turned into only Spence at the moment. It's so gross.

 

[Herby]

I mean Dallas had one draft of historic value. I don't think that is the bar to measure against but the ceiling of what best possible outcome could be. That said Dallas does seem to have a good scouting department.

It's not just Dallas. The teams with comparable situations to the Kings in that time frame (between Blake taking over and the end of the rebuild in 2021)

Vancouver ended up with a Norris Trophy winning defenseman in Hughes and a 90-100 point 1C in EP and also Hoglander. Despite trading their firsts in 2020 and 2021 and having significantly less draft capital to use than the Kings.

NJ ended up with the other Hughes brothers, Hischier, Mercer, Sharangovich, Zetterlund.

Ottawa with Tkachuk, Stutzle, Sanderson, Pinto, Batherson

Buffalo with Dahlin, Power, Cozens, Peterka.

If Dallas is an unfair bar to judge the Kings, then what is a fair expectation to have after the 2024 season when you had that many high picks between 2017 and 2020? You think what this organization has developed is reasonable with that many picks? I don't.

Just a real botch job on the rebuild. That Willie D season payoff has turned into only Spence at the moment. It's so gross.

I always say, I think the 2005 draft is the greatest weekend in the history of the franchise.

I think the 2019 draft has a chance to be the exact opposite. Historically bad results from Top 5 pick through 5 years, other 1st waived in year 5, early 2nd about to be traded for peanuts after year 5, Fagemo looks like a textbook AAAA tweener. It's sad that a 5'9 defenseman taken in round 4, coming off a 25 point season five years after the draft is the thing we are most excited about.

 

[Herby]

delete

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

A little bit of an aside but maaaaan that Jack Hughes pick is one of the worst 2nd roudners I've ever seen....rivals maybe Chris Gibson by my memory. I'll have to look.

 

[Trash Panda]

A little bit of an aside but maaaaan that Jack Hughes pick is one of the worst 2nd roudners I've ever seen....rivals maybe Chris Gibson by my memory. I'll have to look.

There was at least some hope accompanying the Gibson pick.

The Hughes reach seems to just be horrible.

 

[Piston]

It's not just Dallas. The teams with comparable situations to the Kings in that time frame (between Blake taking over and the end of the rebuild in 2021)

Vancouver ended up with a Norris Trophy winning defenseman in Hughes and a 90-100 point 1C in EP and also Hoglander. Despite trading their firsts in 2020 and 2021 and having significantly less draft capital to use than the Kings.

NJ ended up with the other Hughes brothers, Hischier, Mercer, Sharangovich, Zetterlund.

Ottawa with Tkachuk, Stutzle, Sanderson, Pinto, Batherson

Buffalo with Dahlin, Power, Cozens, Peterka.

If Dallas is an unfair bar to judge the Kings, then what is a fair expectation to have after the 2024 season when you had that many high picks between 2017 and 2020? You think what this organization has developed is reasonable with that many picks? I don't.



I always say, I think the 2005 draft is the greatest weekend in the history of the franchise.

I think the 2019 draft has a chance to be the exact opposite. Historically bad results from Top 5 pick through 5 years, other 1st waived in year 5, early 2nd about to be traded for peanuts after year 5, Fagemo looks like a textbook AAAA tweener. It's sad that a 5'9 defenseman taken in round 4, coming off a 25 point season five years after the draft is the thing we are most excited about.

I think we can say definitely that the Blake years are worse than a failure. At least with a failure you hit rock bottom and can rebuild. This team is in the Black Hole, and there is no way to get out of it given Fiala and PLD are locked up for 7 more seasons.

 

[BaileyFan]

A little bit of an aside but maaaaan that Jack Hughes pick is one of the worst 2nd roudners I've ever seen....rivals maybe Chris Gibson by my memory. I'll have to look.

Well yeah but it probably gave them a lot of brownie points with Habs GM Hughes which I’m sure went a long way in Blake’s quest to become the most well-liked manager in the league.

 

[MonkeysUncle]

A little bit of an aside but maaaaan that Jack Hughes pick is one of the worst 2nd roudners I've ever seen....rivals maybe Chris Gibson by my memory. I'll have to look.

To think they had Hudson or Fillip Nordberg on the board

​

 

[Johnny Utah]

There was at least some hope accompanying the Gibson pick.

The Hughes reach seems to just be horrible.

They said Jack Hughes is basically skinny and not in shape either. So not only is he small and not playing well, he's a shrimp.

 

[Statto]

The talk of the Hughes pick, which I agree was awful makes me think our drafting is decent. It’s the only obviously awful pick we all agree on. It definitely feels like the development side of things is where we struggle. It never feels like ANY of our higher picks hit their upside.

 

[kovacro]

A little bit of an aside but maaaaan that Jack Hughes pick is one of the worst 2nd roudners I've ever seen....rivals maybe Chris Gibson by my memory. I'll have to look.

In all honesty, I have not seen Hughes much at all the last two years, but is he looking that underwhelming? Jeebus.

 

[Buttonwood]

what is the expectation for Turcotte next season? sign a league minimum deal, stay healthy, and compete for a spot on the wing? hypothetically if he was offer sheeted for $1.4M (no comp) or $1.5M (3rd rounder) would you let him walk (assuming Byfield deal gets done long term/big number, etc).

Sorry in advance, liked him as a prospect and haven't followed him much (other that injuries) so I might be way off based here.

 

[KingsOfCali25]

In all honesty, I have not seen Hughes much at all the last two years, but is he looking that underwhelming? Jeebus.

Underwhelming? The dude is like the Colton Tubert pick but for forwards. No offense, no defense to his game.

 

[MonkeysUncle]

Underwhelming? The dude is like the Colton Tubert pick but for forwards. No offense, no defense to his game.

Looks to be a big time whiff, especially with a Lane Hudson or Filip Nordberg with the lack of Ld talent in system and a few centers in system. Cant say Yannetti makes too many of those.

 

[KingsOfCali25]

Looks to be a big time whiff, especially with a Lane Hudson or Filip Nordberg with the lack of Ld talent in system and a few centers in system. Cant say Yannetti makes too many of those.

Definitely a huge miss unless he's a late bloomer. If he turns out like Nick Shore than it's a win for him but will be a loss for LA.

 

[King'sPawn]

A little bit of an aside but maaaaan that Jack Hughes pick is one of the worst 2nd roudners I've ever seen....rivals maybe Chris Gibson by my memory. I'll have to look.

Agreed. I reluctantly accepted it because of the rationale provided. He was smaller but didn't back down from the challenge. I thought, okay, let's give him a shot.

Then the following season, he changed schools. Not exactly a refusing to back down personality.

I had other players I was more excited for. Not sure if they'd be much better off today than Hughes, but it's looking like a terrible pick now.

 

[tny760]

"it's just another offseason now, it is what it is"

atta boy captain!

 

[Sol]

It’s truly amazing how delusional this organization is. How do you call this season an improvement when it’s actually worse than last season? Lol.

I can’t believe I watched the whole vide. Lol how does anyone believe any of this shit? If you watched this video you’d think the Kings lost in 7 games and not nearly swept.

 

[AbsentMojo]

"it's just another offseason now, it is what it is"

atta boy captain!

2 cups, going to the hall.. raked in 100 mil over his career... those words are the sounds of a satisfied man with zero left to prove

 

[Herby]

It’s truly amazing how delusional this organization is. How do you call this season an improvement when it’s actually worse than last season? Lol.

I can’t believe I watched the whole vide. Lol how does anyone believe any of this shit? If you watched this video you’d think the Kings lost in 7 games and not nearly swept.

Get used to it, the organization and Pravda will milk the Oilers success as much as they can, they won't miss this opportunity.

something like...

"This is a very good team Dennis, maybe even better than we thought, had they drawn anybody else in the 1st round we could very easily be previewing a Kings-Panthers final on this pod"

"You know, they call me lucky, but right now we are very unlucky to in the same division as the Oilers you know, we are just very unlucky you know"

 

[Steve Zissou]

4 OA - Hickey (waivers - no assets returned)
5 OA - Turcotte (time is a tickin'... 1 concussion away from hanging it up)
11 OA - Tukonen (traded for Clune... lol)
13 OA - Tuebert (hey at least the trade returned Pennercakes)
22 OA - Bjornfot (waivers - no assets returned)
33 OA - Kaliyev (Blake tanked his value by only playing a handful of games)
41 OA - JAD (waivers - no assets returned)

Which NHL teams have drafted the best and worst since 2007? Ranking 16-1

LA Kings ranked #16.