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

[VILARGOD]

oh god damn that is so funny

It's incredible

 

[KingsOfCali25]

To break the nausea induced by the LAK front office decisions.. i submit this interesting question (Edit: we should do one of these w LAK players and execs)

View attachment 891710

8, 3, 12

 

[Johnny Utah]

I am going to try to put a positive spin on the summer.

As a fan since 1992 and season ticket holder for just under a decade, it's been rough since the last Cup. Especially as a fan of the "rough stuff," the Kings have been pretty soft since Lombardi/Sutter left. We did that one year of Kurtis MacDermid and Brendan Lemieux under Blake and TM, but that didn't last long as MacD was picked up by Seattle in the expansion draft the summer after Blake traded for Lemieux.

The Kings were paying PLD 8.5 million to play on the 4th line and with his size do nothing that a 4th liner should do. We also had an undersized yet hard working Lizotte and oft injured and inconsistent Grundstrom. The 4th line hasn't been good since Lemieux-Lizotte-Kayilev.

Now we have Jeannot and Foegele making a combined 6 million dollars - still 2.5 million short of PLD. They know their roles. LA is a place players like this shine - goal scorers usually don't match their point totals here that they had elsewhere, but role players or players who underachieved end up breaking thru here like Danault, Moore, and Lemieux.

The Kings will finally not get pushed around - two seasons ago when Lemieux was in and out the line-up with injuries and personal issues the Kings were bullied more than I have ever seen since Andy Murray said the power play was our "enforcer." They had to resort to trading for MacEwen, who was tooled in his first fight by Hague and barely did anything after that except challenge Evander Kane in the one playoff game he played.

Now, looking toward this season the Kings have a full year of a new coach and plan on FINALLY playing the youth in Turcotte, Thomas and Clarke. Of course they need to surround them with tough players to protect them. Edmundson is overpaid, no doubt, but he just turned 31. Most the players who received big contracts Monday were 33-35 years old. He will be 35 by the time his contract is over. He didn't cost anything except money and even adding all the additions together of Edmundson, Jeannot and Foegle, it adds up just over what PLD was making.

Also, FINALLY the Kings kept their 1st round and drafted a solid player in Greentree and also netted a steal in the 2nd round in Carter George. The goaltending pipeline went from Portillo and no one else to Portillo, George, and Slukynsky. I like also how the age groups are spread out a bit - Portillo will turn 24 soon, Hampton just turned 19 and George just turned 18. So when Portillo takes over the other kids are just turning pro.

The defense (especially the right side) was gutted with the losses to Roy, Durzi, and Walker and graduation of Spence to the show, but now with Mania, Dvorak, and Woolley - there is some hope. Kirsanov might finally make the jump over to the US and Booth are making the jump to pro. Jack Sparkes is marinating in college, he could end up being a Chara type D.

I am going into the summer with a good attitude and can't wait until September.

 

[Steve Zissou]

View attachment 891714

This is absolutely savage.

 

[Statto]

I am going to try to put a positive spin on the summer.

As a fan since 1992 and season ticket holder for just under a decade, it's been rough since the last Cup. Especially as a fan of the "rough stuff," the Kings have been pretty soft since Lombardi/Sutter left. We did that one year of Kurtis MacDermid and Brendan Lemieux under Blake and TM, but that didn't last long as MacD was picked up by Seattle in the expansion draft the summer after Blake traded for Lemieux.

The Kings were paying PLD 8.5 million to play on the 4th line and with his size do nothing that a 4th liner should do. We also had an undersized yet hard working Lizotte and oft injured and inconsistent Grundstrom. The 4th line hasn't been good since Lemieux-Lizotte-Kayilev.

Now we have Jeannot and Foegele making a combined 6 million dollars - still 2.5 million short of PLD. They know their roles. LA is a place players like this shine - goal scorers usually don't match their point totals here that they had elsewhere, but role players or players who underachieved end up breaking thru here like Danault, Moore, and Lemieux.

The Kings will finally not get pushed around - two seasons ago when Lemieux was in and out the line-up with injuries and personal issues the Kings were bullied more than I have ever seen since Andy Murray said the power play was our "enforcer." They had to resort to trading for MacEwen, who was tooled in his first fight by Hague and barely did anything after that except challenge Evander Kane in the one playoff game he played.

Now, looking toward this season the Kings have a full year of a new coach and plan on FINALLY playing the youth in Turcotte, Thomas and Clarke. Of course they need to surround them with tough players to protect them. Edmundson is overpaid, no doubt, but he just turned 31. Most the players who received big contracts Monday were 33-35 years old. He will be 35 by the time his contract is over. He didn't cost anything except money and even adding all the additions together of Edmundson, Jeannot and Foegle, it adds up just over what PLD was making.

Also, FINALLY the Kings kept their 1st round and drafted a solid player in Greentree and also netted a steal in the 2nd round in Carter George. The goaltending pipeline went from Portillo and no one else to Portillo, George, and Slukynsky. I like also how the age groups are spread out a bit - Portillo will turn 24 soon, Hampton just turned 19 and George just turned 18. So when Portillo takes over the other kids are just turning pro.

The defense (especially the right side) was gutted with the losses to Roy, Durzi, and Walker and graduation of Spence to the show, but now with Mania, Dvorak, and Woolley - there is some hope. Kirsanov might finally make the jump over to the US and Salin and Booth are making the jump to pro. Jack Sparkes is marinating in college, he could end up being a Chara type D.

I am going into the summer with a good attitude and can't wait until September.

I agree. I posted in the Edmundson thread that I actually think the roster balance is better. My concern is that it’s too late and would be better if 8/11 were younger. In other words the right approach but a few years late.

I agree that the prospect pool has evolved and if some those late round guys continue their progress then Yannetti will look like a genius. The goalie pipeline is now pretty exciting, like you I think George is a steal. I’ve watched more stuff since draft day and really like him.

 

[theMajor]

the big question is what system is Hiller going to run next season? is he going to be a stubborn old goose ala TMac or get funky and let the players get creative? if its any variation of the 1-3-1 i'll have a hard time watching games

 

[SettlementRichie10]

the big question is what system is Hiller going to run next season? is he going to be a stubborn old goose ala TMac or get funky and let the players get creative? if its any variation of the 1-3-1 i'll have a hard time watching games

The players aren’t good enough to get creative. Maybe if Kopitar and Doughty were a decade younger we could let them loose, but there’s a reason these coaches lean toward safe 1-3-1 style systems. The top players aren’t good enough to do anything else.

 

[No Name The Nameless]

the big question is what system is Hiller going to run next season? is he going to be a stubborn old goose ala TMac or get funky and let the players get creative? if its any variation of the 1-3-1 i'll have a hard time watching games

The roster sucks. Kings are going to have to wall hack and cheat code their way to wins.

 

[King'sPawn]

Interesting remarks from Hiller on the latest KotP re: Kaliyev.

He said that with Kaliyev, teams used the diamond a lot more this past season, which nullifies the one-timer shot. Also talked about how having a right-hand shot changes the dynamic on the power play, too.

As far as the season, it led to Kaliyev getting frustrated and losing confidence. That, in turn, left coaches lacking confidence.

Still looking forward to him getting a fresh start next season (no, that doesn't mean a fresh start on another team).

As far as lacking confidence in Kaliyev, seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. This just looks more like the Kings have struggles with managing the emotional aspect of the game.

 

[Statto]

Interesting remarks from Hiller on the latest KotP re: Kaliyev.

He said that with Kaliyev, teams used the diamond a lot more this past season, which nullifies the one-timer shot. Also talked about how having a right-hand shot changes the dynamic on the power play, too.

As far as the season, it led to Kaliyev getting frustrated and losing confidence. That, in turn, left coaches lacking confidence.

Still looking forward to him getting a fresh start next season (no, that doesn't mean a fresh start on another team).

As far as lacking confidence in Kaliyev, seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. This just looks more like the Kings have struggles with managing the emotional aspect of the game.

Completely agree with the confidence part. The issue for me is that it then seemed to bleed into the rest of the process. His defensive work, board work etc which also suffered. We can argue he’s been misused but he still needs to follow the process which he stopped doing. I know PLD wasn’t either.

So hopefully there can be a reset and there was no big falling out along the way. IF (big if) they unlock his potential then it’s a very different narrative.

 

[funky]

We need scorers. Looking at the bank account and looking at who is left in free agency, barring a trade both Kaliyev and Fagemo are looking like sexier options.

Run them out there in scoring opportunities. Protect Fagemo with Kopitar and Kempe and Kaliyev with Danault and Moore and just let them play.

Even if one of the two takes the next step it’s a win.

 

[Statto]

We need scorers. Looking at the bank account and looking at who is left in free agency, barring a trade both Kaliyev and Fagemo are looking like sexier options.

Run them out there in scoring opportunities. Protect Fagemo with Kopitar and Kempe and Kaliyev with Danault and Moore and just let them play.

Even if one of the two takes the next step it’s a win.

I agree with the options but it will be Kaliyev or Fagemo, there’s no room.

 

[CarlSneep]

Fun tool from the "By The Numbers" board

basically re; drafting LA is awesome, Lombardi is awesome, and Blake sucks a bag of dicks. It's obviously not perfect but it jives with many other evaluation tools whether they go by GP, points, or other adjusted criteria PLUS more importantly it fits my confirmation bias so suck it

Grading each NHL team's draft performance

I've created a tool that, building on a some previous work (see Acknowledgements below), allows us to score each NHL team's draft performance. Basically, for each NHL draft pick 1 through 200ish we can look at the average number of NHL games played by each pick. Schuckers notices that there's...

forums.hfboards.com

View attachment 891687


View attachment 891688

Kinda speaks to Futa’s importance too

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I am going to try to put a positive spin on the summer.

As a fan since 1992 and season ticket holder for just under a decade, it's been rough since the last Cup. Especially as a fan of the "rough stuff," the Kings have been pretty soft since Lombardi/Sutter left. We did that one year of Kurtis MacDermid and Brendan Lemieux under Blake and TM, but that didn't last long as MacD was picked up by Seattle in the expansion draft the summer after Blake traded for Lemieux.

The Kings were paying PLD 8.5 million to play on the 4th line and with his size do nothing that a 4th liner should do. We also had an undersized yet hard working Lizotte and oft injured and inconsistent Grundstrom. The 4th line hasn't been good since Lemieux-Lizotte-Kayilev.

Now we have Jeannot and Foegele making a combined 6 million dollars - still 2.5 million short of PLD. They know their roles. LA is a place players like this shine - goal scorers usually don't match their point totals here that they had elsewhere, but role players or players who underachieved end up breaking thru here like Danault, Moore, and Lemieux.

The Kings will finally not get pushed around - two seasons ago when Lemieux was in and out the line-up with injuries and personal issues the Kings were bullied more than I have ever seen since Andy Murray said the power play was our "enforcer." They had to resort to trading for MacEwen, who was tooled in his first fight by Hague and barely did anything after that except challenge Evander Kane in the one playoff game he played.

Now, looking toward this season the Kings have a full year of a new coach and plan on FINALLY playing the youth in Turcotte, Thomas and Clarke. Of course they need to surround them with tough players to protect them. Edmundson is overpaid, no doubt, but he just turned 31. Most the players who received big contracts Monday were 33-35 years old. He will be 35 by the time his contract is over. He didn't cost anything except money and even adding all the additions together of Edmundson, Jeannot and Foegle, it adds up just over what PLD was making.

Also, FINALLY the Kings kept their 1st round and drafted a solid player in Greentree and also netted a steal in the 2nd round in Carter George. The goaltending pipeline went from Portillo and no one else to Portillo, George, and Slukynsky. I like also how the age groups are spread out a bit - Portillo will turn 24 soon, Hampton just turned 19 and George just turned 18. So when Portillo takes over the other kids are just turning pro.

The defense (especially the right side) was gutted with the losses to Roy, Durzi, and Walker and graduation of Spence to the show, but now with Mania, Dvorak, and Woolley - there is some hope. Kirsanov might finally make the jump over to the US and Booth are making the jump to pro. Jack Sparkes is marinating in college, he could end up being a Chara type D.

I am going into the summer with a good attitude and can't wait until September.

I appreciate you but I will believe ANY of this when I see it and recent history tells us to expect none of it. I can't share your attitude until I see literally even one of these things as possible.

Jeannot and Foegele know their roles? history tells me they're gonna get overplayed into the top 6 and not do what you think.

Not get pushed around? I'll believe that when I see it. Not sure I can handle another year of Laf having more fights than other roster regulars.

FINALLY playing the youth? hahahahahahahahahaha

Kept their 1st rounder? I'm not as confident as you that this sticks. Edit: oh I see you meant THIS year, okay yeah I like their draft.

There is no help coming this year on defense, the d-core is arguably worse with drew a year older and spence and clarke unallowed to carve out roles, we have an ok top pairing and then 4 glass and outs to get caved in.

 

[tny760]

Interesting remarks from Hiller on the latest KotP re: Kaliyev.

He said that with Kaliyev, teams used the diamond a lot more this past season, which nullifies the one-timer shot. Also talked about how having a right-hand shot changes the dynamic on the power play, too.

As far as the season, it led to Kaliyev getting frustrated and losing confidence. That, in turn, left coaches lacking confidence.

Still looking forward to him getting a fresh start next season (no, that doesn't mean a fresh start on another team).

As far as lacking confidence in Kaliyev, seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. This just looks more like the Kings have struggles with managing the emotional aspect of the game.

that's probably exactly what it is but holy f*** i can't stand this PURE x's and o's approach to the game. like oh shit they set up in a diamond can't give PP2 even a sniff of ice any more! game over! it's like they've got a plan A but the moment anything goes wrong it's just f***in abandon ship, can't be saved

probably trickles down to the players honestly, if they're never prepared for someone taking a run or crossing the line somehow, they're rudderless from that point forward

 

[CarlSneep]

I mean the first unit ran into the same thing and they just started giving Fiala the shot instead, it’s not like they benched Kempe

 

[KingPuckChoo]

If you enjoy torturing yourself, or you're one of those still in denial, this video sums up the Blake/Bergevin era quite well.

When Leafs analysts poke fun at the Kings you're a special kind of team.

 

[kovacro]

Would of rather signed Nate Schmidt for peanuts than Edmundson.

 

[KopitarGOAT420]

If you enjoy torturing yourself, or you're one of those still in denial, this video sums up the Blake/Bergevin era quite well.

When Leafs analysts poke fun at the Kings you're a special kind of team.

Good clip. It's crazy how quickly they come to the realization that it essentially all went wrong when the Kings hired Bergevin

 

[FSL KINGS]

I'd like to apologize for this post in advance. It may be worse than my recent post in the other thread.

Just glancing at Cap Friendly (RIP 7/6). This year is probably a bubble year, if the King's are lucky.
Gavrikov has 1 year left. Does he want to stay on a team heading for a rebuild or see if a contender has a spot open?

Then players with 2 years (1 year left after burning next season with truculence)
Kopitar, 2 more years to age, probably still 1C.
Kempe, this one hurts. He's a huge part of the team & @ 5.5 one of the best value contracts in the league after putting 40 up & his zone entries on the PP. Not to mention his hair. Like Roy, he's going to get market value in 2 seasons & the cap advantage will be gone.

3 years out
Doughty, King's won't be on the hook for 11M anymore.
Danault, this is another big value contract.

This retool is going to burn off a couple of the best contracts the King's have & unless they're making a strong push for the playoffs, the King's should start dealing them.

There should be a new GM before the next rebuild.

 

[King'sPawn]

If you enjoy torturing yourself, or you're one of those still in denial, this video sums up the Blake/Bergevin era quite well.

When Leafs analysts poke fun at the Kings you're a special kind of team.

Hope more media piles on.

 

[No Name The Nameless]

Interesting remarks from Hiller on the latest KotP re: Kaliyev.

He said that with Kaliyev, teams used the diamond a lot more this past season, which nullifies the one-timer shot. Also talked about how having a right-hand shot changes the dynamic on the power play, too.

As far as the season, it led to Kaliyev getting frustrated and losing confidence. That, in turn, left coaches lacking confidence.

Still looking forward to him getting a fresh start next season (no, that doesn't mean a fresh start on another team).

As far as lacking confidence in Kaliyev, seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. This just looks more like the Kings have struggles with managing the emotional aspect of the game.

This checks out. I appreciate you sharing that. I’m not a hockey guy, but it feels good to read a coach quote that I agree with.

 

[FrozenKing18]

Interesting remarks from Hiller on the latest KotP re: Kaliyev.

He said that with Kaliyev, teams used the diamond a lot more this past season, which nullifies the one-timer shot. Also talked about how having a right-hand shot changes the dynamic on the power play, too.

As far as the season, it led to Kaliyev getting frustrated and losing confidence. That, in turn, left coaches lacking confidence.

Still looking forward to him getting a fresh start next season (no, that doesn't mean a fresh start on another team).

As far as lacking confidence in Kaliyev, seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. This just looks more like the Kings have struggles with managing the emotional aspect of the game.

Then this goes on the coaches AND players. So if the one timer is nullified, then what's the alternate route? Find space? find a n opening? look for a wrister. Like @tny760 said, these guys just abandons ship when it doesn't go their way. Shit is frustrating.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Then this goes on the coaches AND players. So if the one timer is nullified, then what's the alternate route? Find space? find a n opening? look for a wrister. Like @tny760 said, these guys just abandons ship when it doesn't go their way. Shit is frustrating.

Oh that's easy

After 1st unit burns 1:40 of PP time, start Kaliyev in the other end as far away from the ozone as possible with arguably the worst dman in the NHL and then wonder why he didnt' score with 20s of PP time, bench, repeat

 

[Fripp]

This is an absolute f***ing nightmare. The only way I can rationalize the roster moves is that Bluc have accepted that the team is garbage and they've depleted the assets, and are entering rebuild mode. Again.