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

[GoldenBearHockey]

Spence 5 years in system
Kaliyev never plays and is a high end talent that is gone.

Lafferrire 4 years from draft date though his was college.

Like I said in post Kings like to ferment guys. 4 to 5 years and with first round guys it should not be that way. You hope they have a regular role within a year of their draft.

The Kings process is one of sit on guys that is not even up debate. It's what they do regardless.

If Brock Faber was still.on the Kings he would have spent most of this past season at Ontario.

Maybe math is wrong, I'm seeing Spence as his 3rd year, you must be counting from when he was drafted and played another 2 years in juniors? How is that in the system?

Kaliyev was given every chance to play and can't hack it....

Laferriere, tell me how many years in the AHL did he play?

I mean, sure if you want to count from the DAY they were drafted as 17-8 year olds and count that as fermenting....sure....it's not reality...but sure.

 

[Moses Doughty]

Look, i get what you are saying but this is a grown man making 8.5m, its time for him to take responsibility and give a crap and help fix the situation. That goes for Doughty and Kopi too. If these guys cant show as much passion on the ice that i show in my post (lol) then get rid of all of them. They need a willie mitchell / justin williams in the worst way.

I agree with your main part, but it screams Carter to me where he has to be carried in the room to let him show on the ice. Drew def has the passion, he just isn't that type of leader when it's just him/Phil (I don't doubt Kopi's leadership but it's a very different type from Brown). The inability to bring in a Willie/Williams like you mentioned is killer.

 

[Fat Elvis]

They need a change at the top. Time for Luc and Blake to get their walking papers. Their philosophy hasn't and isn't working. They've had more than enough time to put their stamp on this team and now it's time to move on because this team isn't going to win anything.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

It's 2024, trying to say 2019/2020 draftees that are now 22 and 23 year olds in their 4th and 5th pro seasons works in your favor that the Kings don't slow play the kids is absolutely hilarious. Hell, Roy's first full season was as a 24/25 year old, what are we even doing here?

Roy spent 2 years in the AHL...not 4-5,
Spence spent 2 years in the AHL..not 4-5
Laf never spent time in the AHL (4 games)
Kaliyev 1 year in the AHL, not 4-5
Lizotte - never spent time in the AHL
Andersson - 1 year in the AHL, not 4-5

Look at who has spent time there

Thomas - Injuries
Turcotte - Injuries
Vilardi - Injuries,

This narrative of slow play the kids is not based in reality.

 

[fsanford]

Roy spent 2 years in the AHL...not 4-5,
Spence spent 2 years in the AHL..not 4-5
Laf never spent time in the AHL (4 games)
Kaliyev 1 year in the AHL, not 4-5
Lizotte - never spent time in the AHL
Andersson - 1 year in the AHL, not 4-5

Look at who has spent time there

Thomas - Injuries
Turcotte - Injuries
Vilardi - Injuries,

This narrative of slow play the kids is not based in reality.

This says otherwise


And as Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti pointed out on a recent episode of All the Kings Men, that’s always been the case.

“We’re a slow-burn organization, we have been for 15 years,” said Yannetti. “The development process is a longer-term one.”


The facts are the Kings are slow to bring guys up, even the organization admits it.

They also admit rookies are placed in lower lines regardless of draft position or skill set.


I also read an article a couple of years ago and it talked about how the Kings take almost 2 years longer than the league average to promote guys based on draft rounds. . Will try to dig it up.




.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

This says otherwise


And as Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti pointed out on a recent episode of All the Kings Men, that’s always been the case.

“We’re a slow-burn organization, we have been for 15 years,” said Yannetti. “The development process is a longer-term one.”





.

And yet.....the ACTIONS speak LOUDER than the words.....amazing how that's such a cliched saying,

I bet you if you ask Yanetti about Kaliyev, he will tell you he's special kid who has tremendous talent, and just has to put it together.....

But just making sure, THIS you believe him on.....but others you don't? Get to pick and choose?

 

[AzKing]

And yet.....the ACTIONS speak LOUDER than the words.....amazing how that's such a cliched saying,

I bet you if you ask Yanetti about Kaliyev, he will tell you he's special kid who has tremendous talent, and just has to put it together.....

But just making sure, THIS you believe him on.....but others you don't? Get to pick and choose?

This is true. Statistics don't lie.

That said, I'm with others in that this team needs a change at the top because Blake is incapable of building something sustainable unless the term "Mediocre" is being used for sustainable.

 

[bland]

I agree with your main part, but it screams Carter to me where he has to be carried in the room to let him show on the ice. Drew def has the passion, he just isn't that type of leader when it's just him/Phil (I don't doubt Kopi's leadership but it's a very different type from Brown). The inability to bring in a Willie/Williams like you mentioned is killer.

The only reason Brown is remembered as a "leader" is because he was fortunate enough to be wearing the C when actual, real on-ice leadership were brought in to cover for the lack of leadership in the drafted core players.

Brown's teams showed the same lack of character as Kopitar's teams before Richards/Mitchell/Sutter and reverted right back to that level after they left.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

This is true. Statistics don't lie.

That said, I'm with others in that this team needs a change at the top because Blake is incapable of building something sustainable unless the term "Mediocre" is being used for sustainable.

I think that's a whole diferent argument there, I'm just saying when you base opinion upon opinion passed as fact, it's not good,

They are basing everything off a narrative that simply is not true.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Rob Blake sitting on his hands at the deadline shows how much confidence he had in this group to accomplish anything in the playoffs. He knows this is a team of pretenders, and the lack of movement is a telltale sign of that.

 

[fsanford]

And yet.....the ACTIONS speak LOUDER than the words.....amazing how that's such a cliched saying,

I bet you if you ask Yanetti about Kaliyev, he will tell you he's special kid who has tremendous talent, and just has to put it together.....

But just making sure, THIS you believe him on.....but others you don't? Get to pick and choose

Either they do or they don't. It's not gray. They say they do slow play, you are choosing to the position what he is saying is not true.
The organizational philosophy can have exception, but the foundation is to slow play guys. Kings admit this


Also at some point with cap challenges you are force you to play some cheaper guys. Unless you pull a Knights

anyway good discussion

 

[Schrute farms]

Welcome to Hfboards where you should trade everyone and blow it up for prospects and picks which you can then complain about being busts that also should be traded.

Guess not

 

[funky]

Someone should tell John Wick that BLUC and co killed his dog.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Either they do or they don't. It's not gray. They say they do slow play, you are choosing to the position what he is saying is not true.
The organizational philosophy can have exception, but the foundation is to slow play guys. Kings admit this


Also at some point with cap challenges you are force you to play some cheaper guys. Unless you pull a Knights

anyway good discussion

I'm saying I could give a f*** what they say, they also said Tmac's job was safe, how'd that work out? They also said they were a contender, how did that work out?

I am saying what they say and what they DO are completely different.....show me one instance of a player being "slow played" without any kind of injury concerns etc. MAYBE you have Fagemo.....but is that being slow played, or is that just not being good enough?

 

[Schrute farms]

Blake to boss this summer: We are so close. If you switch McDavid and Drae then we win this series and advance. Plus, we had our #1 goalie go down at beginning of season. If that doesn't happen, things are much different.

 

[chris kontos]

unfortunately i think the level of change thats required cant be done and have a viable nhl franchise.
one thing that i think could be done would be to put dubois on waivers. and when no other team claims that asinine contract send him to rot in the ahl.

 

[Statto]

unfortunately i think the level of change thats required cant be done and have a viable nhl franchise.
one thing that i think could be done would be to put dubois on waivers. and when no other team claims that asinine contract send him to rot in the ahl.

You can’t… NMC.

 

[chris kontos]

You can’t… NMC.

I have some other lets say more creative ideas but im not gonna commit them to print. And also team management apparently has a low involvement and interest level overall so why should i or anybody else give a shit?

 

[KINGS17]

Q: What do you think of Robitaille and Blake's execution as Kings executives?

A: I'm in favor of it.

 

[chris kontos]

Q: What do you think of Robitaille and Blake's execution as Kings executives?

A: I'm in favor of it.

Head coach john mckay quote

 

[Mattias]

Rob Blake sitting on his hands at the deadline shows how much confidence he had in this group to accomplish anything in the playoffs. He knows this is a team of pretenders, and the lack of movement is a telltale sign of that.

Not to pushback too hard on that but maybe his hands were tied after the recent depletion of assets? We have up a haul of cap + valuables for PLD. We did not have mid-range picks to give away. Smoke was out there Blake tried to go for Ullmark/Markstrom but they did not want to come here.

Maybe management said 'buckle up, buckaroo, no asset spending for you'?

 

[Herby]

Welcome to Hfboards where you should trade everyone and blow it up for prospects and picks which you can then complain about being busts that also should be traded.

So you think this way is better? You think 7 years in with no playoff results, no legit star players, no #1 goalie, up against the cap, big contracts tied to multiple players well into their 30's with no upside for improvement?

Do you see the type of rosters that the contenders in the league have, and the types of players they have vs. what the Kings have?

"Blowing it up" implies there was/is something decent being blown up, there isn't. Fans are rightfully complaining because instead of doing a proper rebuild that almost every other cup winner the last 20 years has done, we decided to cut corners and take a one-way ticket to the return to the turn of the century black-hole. You are claiming people want to "blow up" a black hole team, when all people wanted was to keep building the right way.

What is wrong with staying in rebuild mode until you have accumulated enough young talent to take the next step? Other teams, including the Kings have done this, why it is seen as some kind of impossible thing? Some of you act like this would have taken years, it wouldn't have. Had Blake not bent the knee to the whining of a 30+ player with his best years behind him the Kings would be in a great position to be contending within a year or two.

Top 1-8 in 2023
Top 1-8 in 2022
Byfield
Faber
Clarke

 

[Schrute farms]

Not to pushback too hard on that but maybe his hands were tied after the recent depletion of assets? We have up a haul of cap + valuables for PLD. We did not have mid-range picks to give away. Smoke was out there Blake tried to go for Ullmark/Markstrom but they did not want to come here.

Maybe management said 'buckle up, buckaroo, no asset spending for you'?

Sure. But who was the culprit of that depletion? Yes -- GM Rob Blake. So if his hands were tied, he was the one that actually tied them himself. It's like blaming the car for the DUI.

 

[tigermask48]

unfortunately i think the level of change thats required cant be done and have a viable nhl franchise.

I brought this up a while back, but I really do see this getting alot worse before it improves, and we need to start preparing ourselves.

That initial statement out of the way, I think this off-season is the one that determines the direction of this franchise.
Plenty of tough decisions to be made by the organization as a whole and it feels like one bad call leads to bigger problems in the future.

 

[Herby]

This says otherwise


And as Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti pointed out on a recent episode of All the Kings Men, that’s always been the case.

“We’re a slow-burn organization, we have been for 15 years,” said Yannetti. “The development process is a longer-term one.”


The facts are the Kings are slow to bring guys up, even the organization admits it.

They also admit rookies are placed in lower lines regardless of draft position or skill set.


I also read an article a couple of years ago and it talked about how the Kings take almost 2 years longer than the league average to promote guys based on draft rounds. . Will try to dig it up.




.

Dig up the facts, but even then you will be challenged. It took GBH years to even admit that the Kings use their AHL affiliate more than anyone else, after denying it and saying it was made-up, he changed his tone to "Prospect development isn't linear" to continue carrying the water.

And yes, another quote by the known liar Yannetti. When he went on the podcast tour and was allowed to just blatantly lie unchecked, to the entire fanbase, like some of us weren't around 15 years ago to realize he was full of shit.

I wonder what he would say if he were in a market where media members actually asked follow-up questions or challenged his lies in any way at all.

So Mark, you are saying that the team has always slow-played players and that contributed to two cup winners, but what about...

Anze Kopitar NHL debut 19 (0 AHL games)
Drew Doughty NHL debut 18 (0 AHL games)
Wayne Simmonds NHL debut 20 (0 AHL games)
Jack Johnson NHL debut 20 (0 AHL games)
Oscar Moller NHL debut 19 (0 AHL games)
Kyle Clifford NHL debut 19 (0 AHL games)