Speculation: Fire Rob Blake Blow it Up Offseason Thread (update: Robitaille and Blake stay)

[The Butcher]

 

[kilowatt]

This is so crazy to me. We sent Kaliyev to the shadow realm and Fiala to the Lewis realm and then couldn't score any f***ing goals. Especially when you consider that 2 of the 13 goals we scored over the 5 game series were in garbage time of game one.

Line Combinations - Frozen Tools

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Oh, Kaliyev played pretty well when paired with Danault and Moore? Shocker. He looked like shit when paired with Lewis and Lizotte? I wonder why that could be.

 

[BigBrown]

Rosen has some more choice comments if you read the thread. Here's the article he's referencing:

Duhatschek notebook: The L.A. Kings' awkward place with Pierre-Luc Dubois, and draft lottery luck

L.A. has a simple, but expensive, solution to its Dubois problem — admit they made a grievous error and pay the man to go away.

theathletic.com

So it confirms what's been said around here lately, that Luc, Brisson and Bergevin have their claws in this team. Blake should not suffer the consequences alone.

 

[Herby]

Maybe the Kings should hire KJP when she is done at the White House.

No need to add that expense, they have "Kings of the Podcast" to do that.

Speaking of which, it looks like Pravda turned off comments on the stuff they posted today.

To possibly add something to Herby's point about it being both scouting and development. You really just have to look back about 4-5 years later to see how bad the Kings have done at both.

The Kings at one point had almost the consensus top prospect pool in the league, but almost zero players that were a good fit for the type of hockey the Kings wanted to play.

The few of those highly thought of prospects that did make it to the NHL (Bjornfot, JAD, Petersen, Vilardi, Kaliev, Durzi) have arguably all never looked better than they did as rookies.

The Kings just took all this talent and wasted it, turning these guys into just another guy players.

The scouting never identified players to fit the Kings and refused to develop the talent the prospects did have. It's just a huge waste.

It's all those things.

They simply made the wrong pick countless times, no development philosophy was going to change that. The Alex Turcotte pick in the Top 5 is a disaster for a team that ended a rebuild early. People mention Thomas Hickey and how that pick didn't matter, but forget that Hickey was part of a rebuild that featured three Hall of Fame players, it's easier to whiff on a Top 5 pick when you can go forward with Kopitar, Doughty and Quick. Had this rebuild been continued for 3 more years and you have Fantilli, Gauthier, Byfield, Faber, a Top-10 pick this year, Anderson and Vilardi things are different, and you can write off Turcotte and Bjornfot as this eras Hickey and Teubert. But that didn't happen, Rob Blake's reaction to his poor drafting was to end the rebuild and bring in older veterans rather than try and keep adding the pieces needed, despite the fact that his strategy has never worked. So when you only end up three star caliber picks picks you really make it where you have to hit on all of them, which they didn't.

But certainly it's not all evaluation, and even if most of it was evaluation there is still no excuse for the development failures. The teenagers in the AHL strategy completely blew up in their faces. Bjornfot flopped and is gone, Kaliyev is about to be gone, Turcotte is one of the worst Top 5 picks in recent memory, Kupari turned into the Finnish Nick Shore, Byfield was a #2 OA pick who just now in his 4th season cracked 20 goals and 50 points. All these players were in the AHL before age 20, and the only one who should have been was Kaliyev. What is both ironic and sad about it is that Blake and Robitaille never played in the AHL, yet insist on rushing players from successful development situations and make it where everyone coming up has to pay their dues in the AHL (Only the McDavid's of the world don't need AHL time). Maybe one day one of the state-controlled media might bring this up to them and we can get some answers, but probably not.

 

[All The Kings Men]

I don't care enough to get as upset

Said the most upset sounding person I've ever encountered on the internet

 

[All The Kings Men]

Rosen has some more choice comments if you read the thread.

For some tiny additional context...

I believe Eric Duhatschek, author of the piece, is married to Lisa Dillman.

Make of that what you will.

 

[KINGS17]

Regarding the 8 year Kopitar extension being signed by Lombardi, this is a story that was never really discussed. There were rumblings at the time that Lombardi had issues with that extension and that the work was done whether he was in agreement or not. Of all the issues that would be the most interesting in that potential Lombardi book, the one I would most like to see clarified would be the rumor that HE wanted to rebuild in 2015 and was supplanted by status quo management. Could be BS, would love to hear his take on that.

I think you read the tea leaves well enough to have a pretty good idea of what happened in that case.

 

[Kurrilino]

Don't count on it, the Kings are a black hole team (by design, which is apparent now). Too good to tank, but not nearly good enough to win. Management sees just getting into the playoffs as the plan working.

Exactly... we better brace to be the Flames 2.0

 

[KINGS17]

Rosen has some more choice comments if you read the thread. Here's the article he's referencing:

Duhatschek notebook: The L.A. Kings' awkward place with Pierre-Luc Dubois, and draft lottery luck

L.A. has a simple, but expensive, solution to its Dubois problem — admit they made a grievous error and pay the man to go away.

theathletic.com

So it confirms what's been said around here lately, that Luc, Brisson and Bergevin have their claws in this team. Blake should not suffer the consequences alone.

Robitaille must be fired. Gone. I don't want to see him around the Kings in any capacity going forward.

 

[GoldenBearHockey]

Said the most upset sounding person I've ever encountered on the internet

LOL results of work mostly, I get to deal with a bunch of f***tards and morons on a daily basis, it bleeds into here I guess, but I don't get upset with management, sometimes they f*** up, sometimes they don't, it's amusing at best to see everyone flip a lid like it's not pro sports

 

[All The Kings Men]

it's amusing at best to see everyone flip a lid like it's not pro sports

 

[tny760]

Said the most upset sounding person I've ever encountered on the internet

 

[RayMartyniukTotems]

The idea that the Kings should absorb Dubois' contract buyout for the next 14 years is crazy...2.85 Million in dead Cap for 14 years...might as well start the rebuild all over again and buy out everyone...it makes about that much sense to me

 

[Kingspiracy]

The idea that the Kings should absorb Dubois' contract buyout for the next 14 years is crazy...2.85 Million in dead Cap for 14 years...might as well start the rebuild all over again and buy out everyone...it makes about that much sense to me

better than trying to "compete" with 8.5mill in deadweight lazy ass play for the next 7 years

 

[johnjm22]

Had this rebuild been continued for 3 more years and you have Fantilli, Gauthier, Byfield, Faber, a Top-10 pick this year, Anderson and Vilardi things are different, and you can write off Turcotte and Bjornfot as this eras Hickey and Teubert. But that didn't happen,

What sucks is that we were so damn close. I think two more tank years and we would have been setup nicely.

Imagine...

2023: Fantilli
2022: Cooley
2021: Clarke
2020: Byfield, Faber, Laf
2019: Turcotte, Kaliyev, Spence
2018: Thomas?
2017: Vilardi, Anderson


I do think there's some hypocrisy going on around this board though (not directed at you). A lot of people had run out of patience with the rebuild after the 20-21 season and were slamming management for losing. Even when Blake was doing the right thing he was getting criticized for it.

I love Danault, but that signing took us out of the rebuild. It was the type of move that makes your team better NOW, but probably hurts you in the long run.

 

[Lt Dan]

Said the most upset sounding person I've ever encountered on the internet

Axl must not PM you

 

[kingsfan28]

Maybe we should offer Brisson the GM job. Cut out the middle man.

No commissions for being a GM.

 

[King'sPawn]

Hoven's opinion article: OPINION: Rob Blake Will Return as Kings GM Next Season

Tl;dr version: more likely than not Blake will stay. Also thinks Hiller has a good chance to stay.

 

[kingsfan28]

Regarding the 8 year Kopitar extension being signed by Lombardi, this is a story that was never really discussed. There were rumblings at the time that Lombardi had issues with that extension and that the work was done whether he was in agreement or not. Of all the issues that would be the most interesting in that potential Lombardi book, the one I would most like to see clarified would be the rumor that HE wanted to rebuild in 2015 and was supplanted by status quo management. Could be BS, would love to hear his take on that.

Wanna guess who his agent was?

 

[All The Kings Men]

"We have a long way to go before training camp, but we’re proposing something similar to this:

Dubois – Byfield – Fiala
UFA – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Laferriere
Lewis – Thomas – Turcotte"






lol ok

 

[bland]

Axl must not PM you

Jesse isn't talking about Axl?

 

[kingsboy11]

Hoven's opinion article: OPINION: Rob Blake Will Return as Kings GM Next Season

Tl;dr version: more likely than not Blake will stay. Also thinks Hiller has a good chance to stay.

Hoven should've probably waited a few more days for this article because everything is still fresh. This is a yikes

 

[fsanford]

The idea that the Kings should absorb Dubois' contract buyout for the next 14 years is crazy...2.85 Million in dead Cap for 14 years...might as well start the rebuild all over again and buy out everyone...it makes about that much sense to me

Isn't it a bigger cost millstone to keep him?

 

[DoktorJeep]

Hoven's opinion article: OPINION: Rob Blake Will Return as Kings GM Next Season

Tl;dr version: more likely than not Blake will stay. Also thinks Hiller has a good chance to stay.

This is some high test gaslighting.

Mayor McCheese says that fans have less patience for Blake than Lombardi.

What a joke. Fans aren’t the one who asked to end the rebuild early. That was Blake and Kopitar and Doughty.

 

[AbsentMojo]

Hoven's opinion article: OPINION: Rob Blake Will Return as Kings GM Next Season

Tl;dr version: more likely than not Blake will stay. Also thinks Hiller has a good chance to stay.

Even more concise synopsis: LAK org is pathetic