I thought he's been terrible long before that.
I remember about fourish years ago everyone raved about how insane their prospect pool was when in reality it was anything but.
They just kept everyone away from the big club so the hype stayed but as soon as most of them made the show, they were shown to be at best overrated but mostly they were just busts. Even worse was the dmen who hit are almost all not even with the team anymore.
Brandt is a fine player but way overrated imo and Byfield I was never a huge fan of and personally I thought was just a big kid that dominated because of that.
He's obviously a good player but has not lives up to being a #2 overall pick yet some kings fans have the nerve to say he's more valuable than Quinn Hughes which is just silly.
Nothing directed at you personally, but this comment typifies so many of the myths about prospects and team building that predominate here on HF.
The most central myth:
Having one of the very best prospect pools (actual or perceived) is mostly what determines future success.
The Kings really did have one of the very best, even with hindsight:
Vilardi, Mikey Anderson, Turcotte, Faber, Byfield, Clarke, Kupari, Laferriere, Kaliyev, Spence, etc...
Go back and compare that to other team's lists circa 2021.
It certainly doesn't help that Blake traded away two of the best. But that gets at another myth, that we can really know beforehand which if these guys are going to be stars and which won't be.
And if you think that the book is written on the 22 year olds in Clarke and Byfield, then that's another myth in play. Have a look at the primes for scorers these days. Guys aren't hitting until 24. There's very few U24 players among the top scorers. You can count on one hand the number of U23 impact players in the NHL.
It seems like there are a lot of HF Kings fans clamoring for another rebuild as if
doing it right this time would lead to predictable success or lead to success some time before 2030, and neither is the case. If you blow up the Kings you could easily end up with a much worse team or a team that doesn't ripen until some point in the 2030s. The Blake rebuild was a failure in terms of building a contender but it was a success compared to most rebuilds.
