So then, what should Blake be blamed for then? And what does he deserve credit for?
He has to get credit for closing the deals, which I give him. The issue is "He's totally different and goes after different players" which is hard to back up since it is the same scouting staff.
I said it before the season starts, but Blake is in a position where most would excuse another bad year and say Blake was hamstrung by DL's mistakes. If they have a good season, he would get credit that is not necessarily warranted unless that good season was on the shoulders of new players he brought in, kind of like how it sometimes gets lost that DL inherited Kopitar/Brown/Quick.
Blake hasn't put his stamp on this team at all. It is still Dean's team pretty much: it's just not Sutter's team anymore. That's the big difference.
That shit November? That was still Dean's team too, the problem was that it looked like Sutter's 2016 team as well.
Blake gets credit for realizing there was no real quick fix and that it was on the players to play up to their contracts and potential. He retained a "player's coach" who has been through all the battles with the core of this team and is a coach that Doughty loves. Credit goes mainly to the scouts for being as high on Iafallo but Blake is the one that closed the deal so he gets credit as well. For me, his best personnel move that is all him is fixing his Cam signing by shoring up the bottom six with Jokinen. I like that he saw an area of need on this team and moved to fix it even though it meant trading a guy he just signed as an UFA.
All that being said, the grade is incomplete and I said that prior to the season. The rubber is going to hit the road for Blake this off-season and with the Doughty situation. I didn't think the trade deadline would matter, but it looks like the rubber might be hitting the road a bit earlier than I expected. But yeah, so far so good. I'm on board with that.