How did the Kings go from having one of the deepest RHD depth in the league to where they can't even really stomach Doughty getting injured?

[King In The North]

Kings are one example of ending the rebuild way too early.

 

[Statto]

Akil Thomas --> 51OA in 2018, journey is still pending but likely a bust for the kings

3 shoulder surgeries are mainly the issue here, not his talent/attitude or anything like that.

He looked good in his first call up last season. Weirdly hasn’t had a game this year but he’s on the roster. I guess they see Lewis as the future instead.

 

[barkovcanfinnish]

LA needs Rob Blake removed yesterday.

 

[SimpleJack]

On top of everything else they actually got incredibly fortunate to have both Kopitar and Doughty remain this productive and relevant(still a legit 1C and top pairing D respectively) this late into their careers….and that should have been an added bonus on top of all that young talent.

Right now they should be boasting a top 3D of Faber/Durzi/Doughty + Vilardi/Byfield/Kempe/Kopitar up front + more.

Instead they’re looking at a mess on D and Fiala(who doesn’t move the needle) + a pointless/wasted year of the endlessly inept PLD.

An utter catastrophe. GM should have been fired yesterday. Why are they waiting?

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

LA ain’t done rebuilding, they gotta go back and finish that rebuild.

Ok, but Blake is building the Kings like my crackhead neighbor is building a deck/playset/boat. It’s a lot going on, and none of it is good.

 

[hamzarocks]

Actually, it was Faber + 1st(19th overall). MN used the pick on Ohgren, who is playing on the team right now, albeit in a bottom six capacity.

Yikes didnt remember that it was the 19th OA pick as well

Blake tried accelerating the rebuild and it just failed big time

3 shoulder surgeries are mainly the issue here, not his talent/attitude or anything like that.

He looked good in his first call up last season. Weirdly hasn’t had a game this year but he’s on the roster. I guess they see Lewis as the future instead.

He is a good player but injury issues have hurt his stock

Similar to turcotte who has injury issues (though unlikely he was a 5th OA level player even if healthy)

 

[Crazy8oooo]

I've never understood this criticism of Doughty. Are players supposed to just accept being on a shitty team and not give any effort because the GM wants to accumulate draft picks? It made me appreciate him more, that despite his accomplishments he still wanted to compete. It's not on Doughty to guide the rebuild, Blake is the one managing the team.

Criticism? Where did I criticize anyone? It was a simple question.

 

[crassbonanza]

Criticism? Where did I criticize anyone? It was a simple question.

There are a decent amount of people upset because they think he ended the rebuild with those comments. I think the reality is that Blake/Luc had their hostile takeover with promises of being a competitor and 5 years later the team had accomplished nothing. The timing just coincided with a player making comments about being frustrated with losing.

 

[Osprey]

Dean Lombardi in his 6th year as Kings GM:

Rob Blake in his 8th year as Kings GM:

 

[Crazy8oooo]

There are a decent amount of people upset because they think he ended the rebuild with those comments. I think the reality is that Blake/Luc had their hostile takeover with promises of being a competitor and 5 years later the team had accomplished nothing. The timing just coincided with a player making comments about being frustrated with losing.

I can see where people might be upset at his comments. When you have your star player making such comments and those comments are out there publicly, it adds pressure on management to do something, otherwise you risk hostility in the locker room. Maybe the timeline is just a coincidence as you say, but his comments likely added pressure to the situation as well. And to be clear, this isn’t/wasn’t meant to criticize Doughty but more so to point out that he could be a contributing factor for all the subsequent moves in an attempt to compete.

 

[MoneyManny]

Marc Bergevin. That man is worse than a Trojan horse for a hockey franchise.

 

[chris kontos]

Rob Blake drives a Prius at 40 mph in the fast lane

on his phone smoking a joint