JFTC:Brutal Recap of Last Season

[KINGS17]

On one hand, I totally agree with the boldfaced as that was my comment all year last year.

On the other...



I have a hard time blaming Blake at this point based on a few things. He's shown he's quick to act on his mistakes. Yes, he makes them in the first place--but turned cammalleri into jokinen but he has no problem with sunk cost fallacy imo.

He reacted completely appropriately to the organizational about-face that was last season. 2018-2019 is the season that gave him FULL permission to do what needed to be done.

I think it's appropriate to FULLY judge him for what happens from this season on, as it's now the stamp on his team. Full season with his hires, players to some degree etc, after trying to correct for the disaster he left behind, arguably the biggest scorched-earth wasteland in the NHL for any GM to walk into.

I think he's proven to be reactive, thoughtful, and open-minded as evidenced in the organization's draft picks (Europe and skill allllll ooooover) and college signings. I think he's proven to be at least aware of the cultural issues and has sought to address them from the ground up--Turcotte and Bjornfot--as well as from the management down--McLellan and co. I have no doubt malcontents this year will be jettisoned. But I'm also thinking the reason some guys are around is to recoup value so they aren't traded at rock bottom value.

I DONT think he's proven to have much of a long-term vision though...yet.

A far cry from what many here thought when Blake took over and Stevens replaced Sutter. The core of Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick was said to be excellent.

If and it would be a huge IF, Blake could trade Kovalchuk next season, even if he has to eat half the cap hit, his stock would rise in my eyes.

 

[The Tikkanen]

Agree with this article very much. I will never love Luc and Blake. It just is what it is.

This franchise is in dire straits. Putting together a couple nice prospects is good, but ultimately a small part of the process.

This team has no direction, no identity, and no culture. Bad contracts everywhere. No one wants to be traded here. No one wants to sign here. Went from hero to zero in less than half a decade. Astounding.

And the lowest point is yet to come. Just wait until the Kings CBO Kopitar in 22/23.

The Kings have a clear cut identity-they are former Cup champions who now come to the rink wearing a papoose on the front and back.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

A far cry from what many here thought when Blake took over and Stevens replaced Sutter. The core of Kopitar, Doughty, and Quick was said to be excellent.

If and it would be a huge IF, Blake could trade Kovalchuk next season, even if he has to eat half the cap hit, his stock would rise in my eyes.

Which they were. Kopitar had a Hart caliber season, Doughty a Norris caliber one, and Quick an upper-echelon if not Vezina finalist one. That first year, the depth betrayed them, and the lack of recent high-end picks came back to roost. It would have been folly to not try to parlay that into more success, taking that core and the best defensive team in the NHL and adding scoring (Kovalchuk) without giving up further assets.

This last year they all failed themselves and the organization as a whole was the f***ing amusement park of the NHL. No one could have seen that obscene level of top-to-bottom failure coming, and while this article and most everyone else seems to agree that it took waaayyy too long to address it publicly in-season, in the end, Blake has done the right thing and articulated a re-course, which has thus far ended in a phenomenal 10-selection draft and a retool/rebuild/enter-your-synonym-here.

That's why I say what happens here on out is on Blake, not DL. We already know this upcoming season is going to be tough.

 

[LAKings88]

I don’t think last year’s team was the norm. I do think it’s been talked about ad nauseam but Willy was bad. It started before him tho and I do think the players lacked that previous drive and culture has changed. They need to shape up or get out. At some point Blake will need to add by subtracting even if the value isn’t there.

Sutter had to go sadly. Many were calling for an infusion of youth but Sutter didn’t want to play it. DL called up Weal and Sutter wouldn’t play him even with his parents in town. That youth wasn’t elite in the system. Probably a factor in Sutter’s decisions. I mean Jordan Weal was our hope.

Kovy is unconventional. Not great defensively but that’s not what he was signed for. Something doesn’t ad up. I wonder what the team really thinks of him honestly.

I’m not sold on Blake. Questionable signings. Trades haven’t been astounding. Seems like one step forward and a half a step back. Next year is a wash. Need to trade Carter (who could still hold a power chip with retirement no matter what is said publicly), Quick, and Lewis. Playoffs or not. 20-21 will be the beginning of a new era. Really need a top five pick too. Fook the black hole.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'm expecting this season to be a lot like the post-Gretzky Kings in 1996-97, a lot of older guys mixed in with players still trying to establish themselves in the NHL. My prediction... pain.

That said, is there any Kings fan out there who expected this team to be aggressive this summer in terms of making additions or upgrades? Sure, many of us wanted a lot of dead weight gone, but you can't force other teams to take on your garbage.

I guess one way to get out of bad contracts is to plant drugs in their equipment bags, but Rob Blake doesn't have the gusto to pull that off.

 

[King'sPawn]

What a horrible article which takes away from valid criticisms of the Bluc regime.

 

[KINGS17]

My real concern with Blake, and mostly Robitaille, is that they will see a glimmer of hope and think it is light at the end of the tunnel with this core still good enough to contend. I hope Blake is smarter than that and lets nature take its course. With any luck Doughty will return to form and request a trade somewhere down the line to further restock the cupboard.

Youth and depth is the way to victory in the NHL.

 

[BigKing]

I'm not the biggest fan of Luc in the front office, but whining about Blake right now is silly. At this point, 2 years into DLs reign, the team sucked, he signed some bridge guys, traded for assets, and just drafted Doughty. Blake's following a similar pattern, except he's burdened with crap that was done to extend the window.

The Kovy signing was junk. Outside of that any complaining is seriously premature.

One thing Blake isn't, though, is incompetent. League wide people talk about how detailed and sharp he is, and he's a quick learner.

It took DL 6 years to win and that's coming into a better situation. Blake at least deserves a shot. This is whiny stuff as bad as when Lubo was traded. I remember the backstabber comments and how players wouldn't want to come here, etc. We would laugh at those comments now.

They deserve a little patience.

But DL sucked on purpose and Blake apparently thought he had a contender on his hands, delaying the rebuild/retool and making it even more difficult to move the older guys with term. He made a major miscalculation and deserves every bit of criticism over it but, at the same time, he gets tentative credit for hitting the eject button with the Muzzin trade and moving to acquire more picks and futures. I'm cautiously optimistic.

He's kept his draft picks, which is fantastic and basically a no-brainer with how the prospect pool looked. Of course, his 1st ever pick needs a new back so that is looking rough but hopefully that new back comes in any day now.

The main issue--and what should be gleaned from this article after looking past all of the FA garbage--is that the only real plan was to keep top picks and prospects. This plan was seemingly thrown out the window when they tried to trade for Patches because Management got a whiff of the playoffs again and decided they were just a winger away from being competitive. Then they are proven to be so very wrong and it's like "we knew this was happening but it just came a season and a half early, but we signed a 35 year old to a contract that goes past this supposed timeline".

I'm not going to get on Blake for being a liar or anything, but Luc is pure salesman. Might as well have Timmy L back as the mouthpiece. What I will say for Blake is that he was extremely wrong about where this team was and that is on him and not his predecessor. It isn't just a "whoopsie" but rather thinking you are a true contender and then putting up the franchise's 3rd worst season since the inception of the OTL per win percentage. I'd argue it is actually the worst one since this team had a lot more dollars going out the door than the two Crawford seasons. He has also been at the helm while this supposed entitlement thing took over the franchise.

The stink of last season is all over him but I agree that he appears to be taking the steps to right the ship. The draft picks look good but high picks generally do shortly after the draft. I'm excited about the prospect pool but nothing is for certain. What I'm really interested to see out of Blake is some deft moves when it comes to the actual roster once this team looks like it is ready to compete again. That will be interesting since anybody can hold draft picks and trade a Top 4 d-man on a good contract for your 1st rounder and a prospect (s) move. In the meantime, I just want to see his coaching hire not let these bitches get away with the lack of effort that defined last season. Moving forward, T-Mac is going to be the first thing to judge Blake on.

Blake has been a disaster at the NHL level so far but I'm looking at it in segments. He completely botched the first segment which was "this team is a contender". The second segment is what we are currently in and so far, so good. This season will be a success if they can acquire more draft capital at-or-near the TDL for expirings and, like K17 mentioned, moving Kovalchuk. Not a slight against him at all, but he can't be happy playing out the string here and, if he is, then we shouldn't want him anywhere near this team.

 

[tomd]

I'm expecting this season to be a lot like the post-Gretzky Kings in 1996-97, a lot of older guys mixed in with players still trying to establish themselves in the NHL. My prediction... pain.

That said, is there any Kings fan out there who expected this team to be aggressive this summer in terms of making additions or upgrades? Sure, many of us wanted a lot of dead weight gone, but you can't force other teams to take on your garbage.

I guess one way to get out of bad contracts is to plant drugs in their equipment bags, but Rob Blake doesn't have the gusto to pull that off.

The 19-20 version of the Kings has WAY more talent on it than the 96-97 version. Whether they have any desire, heart, or passion is another story. We'll find out soon enough.

 

[kingsboy11]

I thought this article was awful and sounded like someone on HF wrote it. The only thing I could possibly agree on was the Kovalchuk soap opera that we all sat through this year. I always thought right from the beginning the plan was to try to compete without giving up futures to see if our big guns had anything left. First season was exactly that. It ended on a whimper, but overall Kopitar, Doughty and Brown all had tremendous seasons. The team went out and signed Kovalchuk because they knew they shouldn't give up future assets for a Pacioretty or the like to try to increase scoring. This season went to hell and they shipped off Muzzin for 3 young assets in 1 fell swoop. It obviously hasn't been smooth sailing for Blake/Luc, but I am very pleased with the last 3 drafts and the Muzzin trade. I think from here on out we will start to see how this team will shape itself and especially under a competent coach in McLellan.

I honestly think having a coach that the players can respect and a coach where he';ll hold the team accountable will do wonders. I'm not saying we'll be a playoff team, but it'll hopefully be the start of earning respectability again.

 

[KINGS17]

The author of the article's thoughts turning to signing UFAs was obviously flawed, but he nailed the entitled snake oil salesman part.

 

[kilowatt]

I really feel like there’s a lot of revisionist history going on here. It sounds like some of you are arguing that we should have traded guys at the 2014 deadline. But we still had a strong team then.

Here’s how I see it. We had our crazy three year run from 2012-2014. 2015 was a loss because of the Voynov situation, and 2016 was our best regular season since 1974-75 at 102 points. 2017, Quick missed most of the season and things came to a head and Lombardi and Sutter are fired.

Okay, 2018, Stevens is behind the bench and the Kings get off to their best start ever. They’re in first or second most of the year, but injuries impact the team. Carter’s been out all year, lots of forwards missed time, and even then, we finished in the first wildcard spot, two points behind the Sharks and three points behind the Ducks (who rode a five-game winning streak and went 8-1-1 in their last ten games to push us down into the wildcard spot). We get swept, which wasn’t ideal, but we only let in seven goals in the whole series. Bad news is, we only scored four. Okay, our defense and goaltending are clearly still one of the top in the league and Kopitar and Brown just had some of their best years ever. Do we just fold while Kopitar and Brown are crushing it? Of course not. We bring in Kovalchuk, we hope Carter gets better, and we bring in a couple depth pieces.

Did it work? No. But some of you guys act like a complete tear down of the roster was the ONLY POSSIBLE CHOICE since 2013. Get real. We had a really good team for a lot of years. If we’d won another cup in the past five years, we’d be saying “trading those firsts were totally worth it”. They gambled, they lost, but it was worth the shot.

Now that Blake has added draft picks, drafted well, and has publicly stated that the team will be getting younger, you have no faith? Why? They admitted they were wrong this past offseason. They traded Muzzin, Thompson, and Fantenberg for futures. They bought out Phaneuf.

Carter, Kovalchuk, and Quick are still on the team because their value is low and no teams want them. If TMac can get these guys back on track this season, they’ll be worth something at the deadline. If not, no one wants them anyways and we’re stuck with them until the contracts are short enough to buy out.

They already stated the plan is to be competitive once Seattle joins the league. The next two years won’t be great, but if we can squeeze out assets for our older players and keep drafting and developing well, then we’re going to be in a really good spot in a couple years.

 

[kilowatt]

Which they were. Kopitar had a Hart caliber season, Doughty a Norris caliber one, and Quick an upper-echelon if not Vezina finalist one. That first year, the depth betrayed them, and the lack of recent high-end picks came back to roost. It would have been folly to not try to parlay that into more success, taking that core and the best defensive team in the NHL and adding scoring (Kovalchuk) without giving up further assets.

This last year they all failed themselves and the organization as a whole was the ****ing amusement park of the NHL. No one could have seen that obscene level of top-to-bottom failure coming, and while this article and most everyone else seems to agree that it took waaayyy too long to address it publicly in-season, in the end, Blake has done the right thing and articulated a re-course, which has thus far ended in a phenomenal 10-selection draft and a retool/rebuild/enter-your-synonym-here.

That's why I say what happens here on out is on Blake, not DL. We already know this upcoming season is going to be tough.

The only reasonable voice in a sea of insanity. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

 

[The Tikkanen]

The author of the article's thoughts turning to signing UFAs was obviously flawed, but he nailed the entitled snake oil salesman part.

King fans are used to the snake oil salesman part though. From TL to DT dumpster diving and trying to convince the fans players like Trent Klatt, Erik Rasmussen and Steve Heinze are all good enough to play in the top 6. It got so bad with Klatt I almost had to sep up an Outsiders-like rumble featuring the Pro-Klatt's versus the Con-Klatt's. King fans should know by now this is business and Luc is trying to sell tickets. If you're in line right now trying to buy season tickets in the hopes you can turn a massive profit not reported to the IRS of course you deserve to lose your butt and sit on the 405 freeway in traffic to see a losing team all season long.

 

[crassbonanza]

I’m not sold on Blake. Questionable signings. Trades haven’t been astounding.

Signings:
Iafallo - 2 year, 1.85M
Fantenberg - 1 year, 925K
Pearson - 4 year, 15M
Toffoli - 3 year, 13M
Andy Andy - 2 year, 1.335M
Folin - 1 year, 850K
Petersen - 2 years, 1.85M
Kuemper - 1 year, 650K
Squid - 1 year, 1M
Campbell - 2 year, 1.35M
Dewey - 8 years, 88M
Kovy - 3 years, 18.75M
Frk - 1 year, 700K
Ryan - 1 year, 725K

Those signings don't seem that questionable, at least not enough to discredit him from his good ones(Petersen, Iafallo, Fantenberg, Campbell). Kovalchuk's contract won't affect the team in any negative manner and was a good risk to offer a team coming off of a Jennings trophy. Dewey is your cornerstone defenseman, he was getting re-signed and he is making less than EK who is his closest peer.

Trades:
Bishop - 4th round draft pick
7th round pick - Imama
Squid - Jokinen
5th round pick - Mitchell
Gaborik, Shore - Thompson, Phaneuf
Kuemper - Reider
Pearson - Hags
Muzzin - Durzi, Grunny, Bjornfot
Thompson, 5th round pick - 4th round pick
Hags - 3rd round pick, 6th round pick
Fantenberg - 4th round pick

The Muzzin trade was a huge f***ing win and I don't see how you don't see that as astounding. He was able to acquire 3 future pieces who will likely have an impact on the Kings in a very short time. Otherwise you have minor moves and the Gabbo-Phaneuf bad contract swap.

 

[KINGS17]

King fans are used to the snake oil salesman part though. From TL to DT dumpster diving and trying to convince the fans players like Trent Klatt, Erik Rasmussen and Steve Heinze are all good enough to play in the top 6. It got so bad with Klatt I almost had to sep up an Outsiders-like rumble featuring the Pro-Klatt's versus the Con-Klatt's. King fans should know by now this is business and Luc is trying to sell tickets. If you're in line right now trying to buy season tickets in the hopes you can turn a massive profit not reported to the IRS of course you deserve to lose your butt and sit on the 405 freeway in traffic to see a losing team all season long.

I may spend some time and money in Ontario this coming season, but I will not make the trek to Staples Center.

 

[kings11]

I may spend some time and money in Ontario this coming season, but I will not make the trek to Staples Center.

Not luck here.. the wife is a shorks fan so I’m going twice at least lol.
Ontario games are really fun and the team will be young and talented... and will also hold a huge chunk of our future

 

[Sol]

Buddy, they just had 10 selections in the 2019 draft. How did they get those extra picks, magic?

Everyone graded their draft an A and their prospect pool, which was top 10 before that, is arguably top 5 now.

There are a lot of reasons to dislike Blake and Luc but you are picking the one beautifully grown tree and pissing on it when there are 10 perfectly good fire hydrants right there for the taking.

Bruh did you miss the fact that I said they are doing better now because of drafting and were sucking ass before then?

The article has definitely its flaws. I don't think it's going to effect the Kings Ufa draw because the Kings have never been a target for ufas historically. The whole Hutton shit is weird too.

Obviously it's a brutal article, a bit all over the place.

 

[bland]

You can't take the keeping the draft picks things all that seriously considering it is heavily rumored by reliable sources that Blake was prepared to trade JAD, the Akil Thomas pick and Jake Muzzin for Pacioretty if they could get a 6 x 6 deal signed.

That's no JAD, no Thomas, no Grundstrom, no Durzi and no Bjornfot on the asset list - but yet another retirement contract. That was less than 13 months ago.

Blake's short term plan was a complete failure, so they are selling a long-term plan instead. And yeah, the first part is keeping picks. The second part is developing them, which let's face it, has not been a strong suit of this organization for many seasons. The pickings have been slim for sure, but there hasn't been a single homegrown player one could point to as a pride and joy of the developmental department in ages.

Blake has done the easiest part of rebuilding the asset list. Literally any GM could see keep his picks. Let's see how cleverly he manages the developmental process.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I'm not going to punish Blake for things that didn't happen any more than I'm going to punish DL for trying to sign Drury, Brad Richards, Chara, or whatever FA du jour we were linked to and failing.

Like I said above, there's plenty to be critical of without attacking hypotheticals.

 

[johnjm22]

DL got called a shill many times during his rebuild.

Holding onto picks/prospects and trying to build from within isn't much fun for fans, but it's the right thing to do.

Fans with no patience or understanding of how the process works will whine and criticize management during the rebuilding phase. They'll think everything is a lie; a devious plot. Their criticisms will be over irrelevant minutiae, or be based on their silly unrealistic beliefs of how things work.

"Blake/Robitaille said this or that...they're corporate double-talkers!" "Dean didn't sign Drury! He's sitting on his hands. He's shilling for AEG so they can move the team to Kansas City!" ect. ect. ect.

If you're upset because of something management SAID and can't see the obvious direction we're going in, or can't understand why Carter/ Quick haven't been traded yet, and are upset because the Kings didn't try to sign Panarin, you're an idiot.

 

[KINGS17]

DL got called a shill many times during his rebuild.

Holding onto picks/prospects and trying to build from within isn't much fun for fans, but it's the right thing to do.

Fans with no patience or understanding of how the process works will whine and criticize management during the rebuilding phase. They'll think everything is a lie; a devious plot. Their criticisms will be over irrelevant minutiae, or be based on their silly unrealistic beliefs of how things work.
n
"Blake/Robitaille said this or that...they're corporate double-talkers!" "Dean didn't sign Drury! He's sitting on his hands. He's shilling for AEG so they can move the team to Kansas City!" ect. ect. ect.

If you're upset because of something management SAID and can't see the obvious direction we're going in, or can't understand why Carter/ Quick haven't been traded yet, and are upset because the Kings didn't try to sign Panarin, you're an idiot.

It is easily understood why Blake should not have gone after Panarin, or any other high-profile UFA (not that he would have been successful anyway).

I think there were multiple opportunities to trade Carter and get a very good return. I thought at the time the whole "We're still contenders!", narrative was fool's gold, and I think that assessment has been shown to be correct.

At some point almost every organization with long-term success cuts ties with their stars before their careers are over. For me the best example was the Dodgers in the 1980's. They had multiple players who were the foundation of their success in the late '70s and early '80s, but without their constant reassessment of the roster and what was best for the team's performance; Ron Cey is never a Cub, Steve Garvey is never a Padre, Davey Lopes is never an Oakland A, Don Sutton is never an Angel, etc.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

It is easily understood why Blake should not have gone after Panarin, or any other high-profile UFA (not that he would have been successful anyway).

I think there were multiple opportunities to trade Carter and get a very good return. I thought at the time the whole "We're still contenders!", narrative was fool's gold, and I think that assessment has been shown to be correct.

At some point almost every organization with long-term success cuts ties with their stars before their careers are over. For me the best example was the Dodgers in the 1980's. They had multiple players who were the foundation of their success in the late '70s and early '80s, but without their constant reassessment of the roster and what was best for the team's performance; Ron Cey is never a Cub, Steve Garvey is never a Padre, Davey Lopes is never an Oakland A, Don Sutton is never an Angel, etc.

Steve Garvey was traded at 34. Davey Lopes at 37. Don Sutton at 36. Ron Cey at 35.

Jeff Carter is now Steve Garvey's age.

Where the player and team is at in terms of performance is obviously a factor, but let's not pretend the Dodgers got out far ahead of these guys either and traded them in their late primes or something.

FWIW if he doesn't bounce back this year you were ultimately "right" about Carter but so was the organization based on a different philosophy (i.e. they were ultimately wrong about having another run in them, but based on that premise, how could they ditch a guy who became the first player aside from Kopitar to lead the team in scoring in a decade, an elite 2C?).

 

[KINGS17]

Steve Garvey was traded at 34. Davey Lopes at 37. Don Sutton at 36. Ron Cey at 35.

Jeff Carter is now Steve Garvey's age.

Where the player and team is at in terms of performance is obviously a factor, but let's not pretend the Dodgers got out far ahead of these guys either and traded them in their late primes or something.

FWIW if he doesn't bounce back this year you were ultimately "right" about Carter but so was the organization based on a different philosophy (i.e. they were ultimately wrong about having another run in them, but based on that premise, how could they ditch a guy who became the first player aside from Kopitar to lead the team in scoring in a decade, an elite 2C?).

You can't equate a baseball player's longevity with that of a hockey player. The point is after the Dodgers let Garvey go, he had two more very productive seasons with the Padres, and yet it was the right thing to do for the Dodger organization. Garvey was very much late in his prime as it is measured by yourself and others here.

Cey had two more productive seasons with the Cubs. Sutton went on to pitch into his 40s and won over 100 games (about one-third of his career total) after he left the Dodgers, yet it was the right thing to do for the Dodger organization to see him go when he did.

You all would be screaming if Carter had been traded and had one more good season. Instead the Kings hung onto Carter for too long and now what do they have?

Regarding the organization being right about Carter based on their premise, when an organization operates under a set of false assumptions, it gets burned.

 

[johnjm22]

I think there were multiple opportunities to trade Carter and get a very good return. I thought at the time the whole "We're still contenders!", narrative was fool's gold, and I think that assessment has been shown to be correct.

At some point almost every organization with long-term success cuts ties with their stars before their careers are over. For me the best example was the Dodgers in the 1980's. They had multiple players who were the foundation of their success in the late '70s and early '80s, but without their constant reassessment of the roster and what was best for the team's performance; Ron Cey is never a Cub, Steve Garvey is never a Padre, Davey Lopes is never an Oakland A, Don Sutton is never an Angel, etc.

I'm not disputing that. I think I was advocating for trading Carter before anyone, back when DL was still GM, but people are complaining that Blake didn't move him last season. It's too late for that now.