Confirmed with Link: The koala has been fired!! Todd McLellan fired, Jim Hiller named Interim Head Coach

[Bandit]

this is just a Hail Mary by Blake. Annoying he’s still in charge. If they miraculously win a round in the playoffs I bet he makes it to another season and coach. Gross.

 

[chris kontos]

Put pld in waivers so the rest of the nhl can see what a god awful contract that is, and when no team claims him send him to ontario to ride the bus and stay at super 8

Rob blake is my vote for most gullible gm in kings history

 

[AbsentMojo]

Put pld in waivers so the rest of the nhl can see what a god awful contract that is, and when no team claims him send him to ontario to ride the bus and stay at super 8

Do it and get 1.2m cap relief so they can add youngsters to the roster

 

[DoktorJeep]

Put pld in waivers so the rest of the nhl can see what a god awful contract that is, and when no team claims him send him to ontario to ride the bus and stay at super 8

Ride the bus? Rob has ensured PLD a lifetime of helicopter rides and PJ flights for his existence and the generations that follow.

 

[KINGS17]

Dave Taylor looks much, much better if Allison and Deadmarsh don't die. He actually made some pretty nice moves (Stumpel, Palffy/Smolinski, Allison, Return on Blake in a forced trade) but he butchered the 2003 draft and that sealed his fate.

Gets Gleason, Avery, Kuznetsov and two 1sts in the 2003 draft for Smolinski and Schneider at the trade deadline. Fantastic haul. Has three picks in arguably the greatest draft in history and goes 1 for 3. Brutal. Then he misses on Bergeron and Weber who go one and five picks after Pushkarev in the second round.

Needed to draft better but then he goes and picks Kopitar and Quick on the way out the door. I don't think he was horrible: he's better than Blake for sure.

This is true. I am expecting Allison and Deadmarsh to be back in the lineup by Christmas.

 

[HabsAddict]

From looking like a surefire contender to firing the coach. A bit dramatic but understandable.

I see that PLD has crossed over from the resident whipping boy to Satan on skates!

Good luck.

 

[KINGS17]

Scuderi I think.

Mitchell was a reclamation project having suffered multiple concussions if memory serves.

Scuderi was a Stanley Cup winning "piece"

Mitchell was a calculated risk that paid big dividends.

 

[chris kontos]

.

From looking like a surefire contender to firing the coach. A bit dramatic but understandable.

I see that PLD has crossed over from the resident whipping boy to Satan on skates!

Good luck.

Weak
Like the storied canadians team

 

[Nasti]

NOW the big worry turns to "what Dave Taylor russian roulette trade does Blake make to put a patch on the Titanic"

In a way, thank jeebus Blake backed himself into a corner as far as the cap goes.

 

[tigermask48]

If I were in Blake's position, I'd put PLD on waivers just to show him that he's so awful no team wants him. Re-call him after he passes, and give him 5-10 games to see how he responds. If he still looks like garbage, put him back on waivers and have him sit out the season at home. Don't want that cancer around the AHL team.

 

[Telos]

Mitchell was a calculated risk that paid big dividends.

Dean also didn't hand out long boat anchor deals to players who weren't "the core" for the most part. He only signed 6 deals with UFA players that were 5 years or more in term: Visnovsky, Quick, Brown, Gaborik, Martinez, and Kopitar. The only one of those that are questionable was Gaborik's as that was clearly an overstep repayment for playoff performance which I think he only played out half that deal, but it was at least cost controlled being under $5M per year.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Despite the bullshit that was being spewed after the Dubois trade, this team is not built to win, and is far from achieving that goal.

They're built to be mediocre, and there are only two proven winners on this roster, and those two players no longer have the support that they had from 2012-2014.

 

[bland]

As crazy as it sounds, I would in fact take JAD over PLD. But for the love of God, we don't have anyone better than JAD?

This developmental system has stymied bottom sixers just as much as top talent.

JAD has the potential to be a very good role player for this team, but he should have been here full time two years ago instead of continuously having to find his way.

 

[BigKing]

Who was the biggest on the market UFA acquired by Lombardi? Was it Scuderi or Mitchell?

Pretty sure all the major acquisitions were trade and draft. His biggest miss at UFA was our friend Ilya Kovalchuk. Looks like Dean made the right call there. Too bad Rob wasn’t up to speed on how to slow roll it when his time came.

It’s hard to know where to rank Rob as a GM. He sucks, but in a brand new way compared to his equivalent predecessors. At the end of the day, if you’ve got one great GM and every other single one pretty much sucks, who cares how you rank the failures.

Ironically, Lombardi's biggest on the market UFA signing was none other than Rob f***ing Blake.

 

[DoktorJeep]

I’ve heard Elliot Friedman mention Rob Blake looking forward to surfing going into the break at least 3 times this week. After the last win he said it twice. And today he said he retracts the idea.

What a joke Rob Blake is when the biggest insider is openly talking about his true passion being surfing and not being an NHL GM.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

After the cup wins Kings were def not considered a joke org as they had since pretty much the beginning in '67 - thats my point. It counts for quite a bit when finding talent - coaches, players. True there havent been a lot of obvious results of that - so its not that big of a point.

Blake started with 8, 11 ,32, Carts, Tof, Muzz, Martinez, Pearson all in their prime.. thats a pretty good group to start with.. so I think he is up there any of the GMs you listed there in terms of starting talent.

Sorry, you have people on this board saying that 8,11 should have been TRADED IN 2015....clearly wasn't a consensus.....Blake took over in 2017 and this is hockeydb ages, so keep that in mind, Kopitar 30, Toffoli, 25, Muzzin, 28, Doughty 27, Martinez 30, Carter 32. Pearson 25. Quick 31.. so out of all that, 4 in their prime, one being a secondary to secondary piece (Pearson) 2 solid Dmen, in Muzzin and Doughty and a guy still figuring it out in Toffoli

Yes, a good group....but no more or no less than any other GM....Lombardi had it worse....Taylor had it bad, other than those two....and if you wanna go back to the 70's etc...

 

[Johnny Utah]

I would expect Kayilev to be moved still for a depth forward with grit as Friedman now mentioned 2x.

I would also expect Blake to grab a third goalie.

I don't expect and PRAY that Blake does not trade our 1st round pick.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Ironically, Lombardi's biggest on the market UFA signing was none other than Rob f***ing Blake.

i call that move exhibit one in the crimes of Luc against this organization.

 

[dman3474]

I’ve read a handful of articles on Hiller today and he might surprise. Seems to be a good communicator with his players, uses analytics well, and might be able to change up strategy in game based on him seeing the ice well and having good hockey IQ.

I rather try someone like this than get stuck with a B list coach for however many years.

 

[BigKing]

Sorry, you have people on this board saying that 8,11 should have been TRADED IN 2015....clearly wasn't a consensus.....Blake took over in 2017 and this is hockeydb ages, so keep that in mind, Kopitar 30, Toffoli, 25, Muzzin, 28, Doughty 27, Martinez 30, Carter 32. Pearson 25. Quick 31.. so out of all that, 4 in their prime, one being a secondary to secondary piece (Pearson) 2 solid Dmen, in Muzzin and Doughty and a guy still figuring it out in Toffoli

Yes, a good group....but no more or no less than any other GM....Lombardi had it worse....Taylor had it bad, other than those two....and if you wanna go back to the 70's etc...

Blake was allowed to blow up a team and rebuild it the way he wanted to. Not many GMs arrive with a mandate to win and then are allowed to preside over a tank job rebuild.

He was given a mulligan for his initial mistakes. He did the easy part which was lose and acquire assets. He has since built a max-cap roster that forced a mid-season firing. When this happened to DL, he wasn't capped out and had the assets and cap space to try and fix things. Blake can only hope that the coaching change, which might be more of the same, and Arvidsson can flip the script.

DL also had Voynov/Nolan/King enter the picture in more prominent roles (Voynov) and altogether (Nolan/King). Will be interesting to see if Hiller leans into Clarke, Turcotte etc...to try and change the makeup of the team a bit.

 

[Chazz Reinhold]

I’ve read a handful of articles on Hiller today and he might surprise. Seems to be a good communicator with his players, uses analytics well, and might be able to change up strategy in game based on him seeing the ice well and having good hockey IQ.

I rather try someone like this than get stuck with a B list coach for however many years.

Any links to those? Curious to read.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Blake was allowed to blow up a team and rebuild it the way he wanted to. Not many GMs arrive with a mandate to win and then are allowed to preside over a tank job rebuild.

He was given a mulligan for his initial mistakes. He did the easy part which was lose and acquire assets. He has since built a max-cap roster that forced a mid-season firing. When this happened to DL, he wasn't capped out and had the assets and cap space to try and fix things. Blake can only hope that the coaching change, which might be more of the same, and Arvidsson can flip the script.

DL also had Voynov/Nolan/King enter the picture in more prominent roles (Voynov) and altogether (Nolan/King). Will be interesting to see if Hiller leans into Clarke, Turcotte etc...to try and change the makeup of the team a bit.

I'm not saying Blake is good, is bad, or anything, I'm arguing that out of the 9 GMs, LA has had, we have had one stellar, and the rest shit in their own various ways and for various reasons. I don't know where Blake will end up if you wanna do the work and rank 2-9.....

Blake was allowed to blow up a team and rebuild it the way he wanted to. Not many GMs arrive with a mandate to win and then are allowed to preside over a tank job rebuild.

He was given a mulligan for his initial mistakes. He did the easy part which was lose and acquire assets. He has since built a max-cap roster that forced a mid-season firing. When this happened to DL, he wasn't capped out and had the assets and cap space to try and fix things. Blake can only hope that the coaching change, which might be more of the same, and Arvidsson can flip the script.

DL also had Voynov/Nolan/King enter the picture in more prominent roles (Voynov) and altogether (Nolan/King). Will be interesting to see if Hiller leans into Clarke, Turcotte etc...to try and change the makeup of the team a bit.

Kinda of what I wanna see, really interested to see if he does anything different with Kaliyev, to me that's a big tell if it's the player, or the coach.....everyone wants to put it on the coach, but if Hiller does the exact same thing...then what?

 

[Nasti]

Who was the biggest on the market UFA acquired by Lombardi? Was it Scuderi or Mitchell?

Pretty sure all the major acquisitions were trade and draft. His biggest miss at UFA was our friend Ilya Kovalchuk. Looks like Dean made the right call there. Too bad Rob wasn’t up to speed on how to slow roll it when his time came.

It’s hard to know where to rank Rob as a GM. He sucks, but in a brand new way compared to his equivalent predecessors. At the end of the day, if you’ve got one great GM and every other single one pretty much sucks, who cares how you rank the failures.

Kovalchuk was more of a Lieweke miss. Brad Richards was Dean’s biggest miss but at least he had the other Richards fall into his lap just a few days earlier. The Kings ended up beating both Kovalchuk and Brad Richards in the cup final.

 

[KINGS17]

Blake was allowed to blow up a team and rebuild it the way he wanted to. Not many GMs arrive with a mandate to win and then are allowed to preside over a tank job rebuild.

He was given a mulligan for his initial mistakes. He did the easy part which was lose and acquire assets. He has since built a max-cap roster that forced a mid-season firing. When this happened to DL, he wasn't capped out and had the assets and cap space to try and fix things. Blake can only hope that the coaching change, which might be more of the same, and Arvidsson can flip the script.

DL also had Voynov/Nolan/King enter the picture in more prominent roles (Voynov) and altogether (Nolan/King). Will be interesting to see if Hiller leans into Clarke, Turcotte etc...to try and change the makeup of the team a bit.

Yes, no one ever said Kopitar and Doughty were not talented players back in 2015.

If you are going to do a demo project, and then rebuild, then tear out all of the antiques, sell them for a bunch of assets, and install the new younger assets.

BLuc probably would have hung on to Pavol Demitra (RIP) back in 2006.

 

[DoktorJeep]

Kovalchuk was more of a Lieweke miss. Brad Richards was Dean’s biggest miss but at least he had the other Richards fall into his lap just a few days earlier. The Kings ended up beating both Kovalchuk and Brad Richards in the cup final.

I consider Kovy and Brad Richards as examples of Dean understanding what “managing upwards” means.