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Post-Game Talk: Tough Decisions- LA Kings Off-Season

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HockeyEsoterics said:
So I'm aware of all that... but it STILL makes no sense.

Why would a college coach ADVOCATE for a player committed to play for him be drafted by a team that would ultimately take him away from him as a player?

It explains why Granato might have said "oh yea sure amongst all the names on the list hes the one I'm most familiar with so go ahead and take him"

but it DOESN'T explain why he would say "OMG BLAKEYYYYY YOU GOTTA TAKE THIS KID!!! YOU JUST GOTTA I WONT ACCEPT ANY OTHER REALITY YOU GOTSTA DO IT"

Theres just no incentive for him to do it....

and the second dot which is Jeff Turcotte (another fact many are well familiar with) speaks to famliiarity but not incentive. IF you can show me that the Blakes and the Granatos and Turcottes all run a camp together than I go OHHHH THERE'S the motivation.

Otherwise it's all reverse engineered conspiracy stuff.

Like the people that point out the Lincolns secretary was named Kennedy and Kennedy's secretart was named Lincoln.

Hockey is a small world. You'll always be able to form threads of connectivity if you look.
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While I can't provide the proof you are looking for, I can say from my interactions with Granato I can absolutely see him frothing at the mouth in excitement over a promising player.

I can also see Blake talking to an old teammate, getting caught up in that excitement, and deciding he knows better than his team.

Yes, it is circumstantial, but I don't think it's as far-fetched as it seems.
There are enough connections and info out there to ask the questions.

It's sort of like wondering if the Kings knew about Carter George years ago because the pctures of him at Staples as a young kid are there. The team (I foget who... Yanetti?) has basically said they knew about Dustin Wolf from his time on the Jr Kings. You can connect the dots that someone will catch their eye years before they are draft eligible.
 
tigermask48 said:
While I can't provide the proof you are looking for, I can say from my interactions with Granato I can absolutely see him frothing at the mouth in excitement over a promising player.

I can also see Blake talking to an old teammate, getting caught up in that excitement, and deciding he knows better than his team.

Yes, it is circumstantial, but I don't think it's as far-fetched as it seems.
There are enough connections and info out there to ask the questions.

It's sort of like wondering if the Kings knew about Carter George years ago because the pctures of him at Staples as a young kid are there. The team (I foget who... Yanetti?) has basically said they knew about Dustin Wolf from his time on the Jr Kings. You can connect the dots that someone will catch their eye years before they are draft eligible.
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Oh I don't question that Granato might have been a fan of the kid... and I can easily see how his enthusiasm about the kid may have convinced Blake to take him at *checks notes* the exact spot he was projected to be taken...

I just know how some of the stories like the Turcotte story get... "embellished" by the sources of those stories and without hearing a different version of the story from a secondary source that I trust more then I am not likely to believe it.
 
"Blakey, I tell ya this kid has got his head screwed on straight. Give me a couple of years to fill him out and you'll have a real player on your hands".

Or something to that effect.
 
Making the terrible pick is only part of it, there is also the issue of not not being able to move away from it in a timely manner. Especially with how many young assets the Kings have unloaded since they ended the rebuild.

Look at Carolina with Rantanen, sometimes your plans just don't come to be. The good managers are able to adjust on the fly to something like a player being a terrible fit and not signing, or a top 5 pick being a replacement caliber player and pulling the eject lever while there is still some value.

LA was horrible with that facet of asset management under Blake.
 
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HockeyEsoterics said:
Oh I don't question that Granato might have been a fan of the kid... and I can easily see how his enthusiasm about the kid may have convinced Blake to take him at *checks notes* the exact spot he was projected to be taken...

I just know how some of the stories like the Turcotte story get... "embellished" by the sources of those stories and without hearing a different version of the story from a secondary source that I trust more then I am not likely to believe it.
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That's fair.
bland said:
"Blakey, I tell ya this kid has got his head screwed on straight. Give me a couple of years to fill him out and you'll have a real player on your hands".

Or something to that effect.
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Blake: *Gets him to sign after a single year of college to get his brain scrambled multiple times by AHL scrubs.
 
HockeyEsoterics said:
No Byrma was taken 4th

The assumption held by many was the TURCOTTE would go 4th making Byram available at 5th... but that didn't happen.
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Wasn't the general consensus that the Kings were getting Dach or Cozens (with a lot of folks arguing it was too early for Cozens)?

I remember Byram being heavily linked with Colorado at 4 all along and the wide spread assumption that Turcotte was going to be a Hawk at 3.
 
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bland said:
Wasn't the general consensus that the Kings were getting Dach or Cozens (with a lot of folks arguing it was too early for Cozens)?

I remember Byram being heavily linked with Colorado at 4 all along and the wide spread assumption that Turcotte was going to be a Hawk at 3.
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I don't remember honestly... Alls I really remember was Hughes and Kakko would be 1 and 2, Turcotte would presumably go 3 becausee he was from a Chicago suburb then Colorado would take SOMEONE else at 4 and the Kings would have a choice to make at 5.

Once Dach went at 3 and Byram at 4 I suppose it could have been Cozens (size to replace Carter I think I remember?) but ultimately it was Turcotte.

As has been repeated ad infinitum... it wasn't considered a reach and then when Seider went 6 THAT took up all the oxygen in the room as being the pick that was a stretch....

and frankly despite everybody on this board being in love with Zegras, Boldy, Caufield, York, Knight et al...

I've heard WAY more industry talk over the years about how the USNTDP produces entitled showboats than I've heard positives about that draft class.

I don't PARTICULARLY believe or not believe any of that either but... it's out there.
 
HockeyEsoterics said:
I don't remember honestly... Alls I really remember was Hughes and Kakko would be 1 and 2, Turcotte would presumably go 3 becausee he was from a Chicago suburb then Colorado would take SOMEONE else at 4 and the Kings would have a choice to make at 5.

Once Dach went at 3 and Byram at 4 I suppose it could have been Cozens (size to replace Carter I think I remember?) but ultimately it was Turcotte.

As has been repeated ad infinitum... it wasn't considered a reach and then when Seider went 6 THAT took up all the oxygen in the room as being the pick that was a stretch....

and frankly despite everybody on this board being in love with Zegras, Boldy, Caufield, York, Knight et al...

I've heard WAY more industry talk over the years about how the USNTDP produces entitled showboats than I've heard positives about that draft class.

I don't PARTICULARLY believe or not believe any of that either but... it's out there.
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Yeah, that 2019 class in particular had a lot of guys who have merged into the questionable character lane. Sort of a golden era that turned everybody's neck green.

I think its an unfortunate combination of generational misunderstandings, misguided trust in underdeveloped analytical tools, and the effect of rule changes to increase offense and its trickle down on youth leagues starting to mature into draft eligibles.

Essentially, kids today ain't shit unless they were born that way.
 
It would make sense to me if the scouts had Turcotte and Zegras in the same tier. Maybe Zegras slightly ahead of Turcotte within that tier. Blake then made the call, some of that may or may not have been influenced by a glowing review by Granato. If the scouts had them far apart in their rankings I seriously doubt Blake would overrule them.

Obviously I'm just speculating wildly.

In the end it doesn't matter who made the pick. Bad picks happen. Would things really have been that different had they chosen Zegras instead?
 
Herby said:
Making the terrible pick is only part of it, there is also the issue of not not being able to move away from it in a timely manner. Especially with how many young assets the Kings have unloaded since they ended the rebuild.

Look at Carolina with Rantanen, sometimes your plans just don't come to be. The good managers are able to adjust on the fly to something like a player being a terrible fit and not signing, or a top 5 pick being a replacement caliber player and pulling the eject lever while there is still some value.

LA was horrible with that facet of asset management under Blake.
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LA was horrible with all facets of asset management under Blake.

He went on an all-time run of horrendous expenditure of assets for little to no return.
 
Trash Panda said:
LA was horrible with all facets of asset management under Blake.

He went on an all-time run of horrendous expenditure of assets for little to no return.
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One thing Blake got right was quitting.
:skeptic:
If only Luc could take a hint.
& Yannetti


Edit: Holland hasn't gotten anything done yet, but silly season is well underway.
 
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