Pretty sure the players knew because they asked for the firings. Pure guess, but I bet it was Doughty who made the call.
Blake has done nothing but quadruple down on this player core. As a Kings fan, I hope he’s right. I don’t think he’s done making changes and that a trade is coming shortly, regardless of how the team plays next week.
Funny enough, I kind of hope they magically start to turn around their defensive woes. With games against ANA, MIN and CGY this week, they have an opportunity to make a statement.
The core issue from which all problems fester is the poor depth on defense. I’d argue that after Doughty, the Kings don’t have a top 60 NHL defensemen on the roster.
Phaneuf is a 5-6 at best, and shouldn’t play more than 60 games. Muzzin is a fine #3, but can’t be counted on for 20 minutes of TOI. Martinez, Forbort, and Fantenberg all fall in the 4-7 range and are well north of 25 yo.
It’s been 3 years since the jailbird was ejected, so a fix for a #2 defenseman is way overdue and killing this franchise on and off the ice.
Maybe I’m wearing purple tinted glasses, but I don’t think the Kings need a $5M+ guy to plug the hole. You have to think that the only chips to move are Pearson and Kempe, who combined make under $5M. With no cap room, not a lot of options out there, so it’ll be interesting to see what move Blake makes.