GDT: 2022-23 season game 53 LA Kings vs Carolina Hurricanes @4:00pm 1/31/23

[bland]

The Kings didn't take any action that indicated they had conviction in that team being a contender.

As soon as Blake took over, the Kings stopped trading futures.

Actions speak louder than words.

You are incredibly naive.

Gaborik, putting off season-ending back surgery and the rest of his deal on LTIR, was traded for Dion Phanuef - on a roster that already featured Muzzin, Martinez, Forbort and Fantenberg as LHD and was clearly at the end of his career and derided by Sens fans and media, ended being bought out and affecting the cap space for a few years. Awful deal.

Blake attempted to deal Muzzin, JAD and the Akil Thomas pick for Pacioretty and gave him hours to agree to an extension. Pacioretty refused and fired his agent. Awful deal avoided.

Blake signed a player in his 30s who hadn't played NHL hockey for years to a three year deal - a player more interested in himself than his team. Kovalchuk was such a disaster that they wouldn't even allow him to train with the team or go on road trips - before paying big to get out of that deal. Awful, awful decision making.

There were NO kids to trade at that point. No assets, no moves to be made. Just Anderson-Dolan and Kempe. That's it. Blake had ZERO intention of rebuilding and brought in a series of disposable vets in Scherbak, Cammalleri, Hagelin, Thompson, Leipsic, Laich, and Jokinen.

It wasn't until his plan to contend failed miserably that he changed directions.

 

[BigKing]

You are incredibly naive.

Gaborik, putting off season-ending back surgery and the rest of his deal on LTIR, was traded for Dion Phanuef - on a roster that already featured Muzzin, Martinez, Forbort and Fantenberg as LHD and was clearly at the end of his career and derided by Sens fans and media, ended being bought out and affecting the cap space for a few years. Awful deal.

Blake attempted to deal Muzzin, JAD and the Akil Thomas pick for Pacioretty and gave him hours to agree to an extension. Pacioretty refused and fired his agent. Awful deal avoided.

Blake signed a player in his 30s who hadn't played NHL hockey for years to a three year deal - a player more interested in himself than his team. Kovalchuk was such a disaster that they wouldn't even allow him to train with the team or go on road trips - before paying big to get out of that deal. Awful, awful decision making.

There were NO kids to trade at that point. No assets, no moves to be made. Just Anderson-Dolan and Kempe. That's it. Blake had ZERO intention of rebuilding and brought in a series of disposable vets in Scherbak, Cammalleri, Hagelin, Thompson, Leipsic, Laich, and Jokinen.

It wasn't until his plan to contend failed miserably that he changed directions.

Yep. Blake took over with the idea that the existing roster would improve merely by removing Sutter so the boys could have fun at the rink again. He came in an kept everyone, including his coaching hire.

2018 was a mirage (tons of comebacks, back-up goalies lose like one game all year, Kopitar has an outlier season) and Blake fully bought in to it. The Kupari pick was going out the door for Patches because all the team needed was scoring. Vilardi just torched the OHL so they are banking on him being on the NHL roster for the 2019 season...Blake's thinking he hit a home run with Gabe so it is okay to once again trade picks. When that move failed, he goes to desperation Plan B which was Kovalchuk.

If you are giving that guy that contract, you are not even remotely thinking about a rebuild. Big Doughty extension happened at the same time as well. It wasn't until it all fell apart in 2019 that they changed course. We can't discount Vilardi's ongoing injury issue during that season also pushing the decision to fully tank: his homerun pick was potentially lost, the team was garbage on the ice and he just committed big dollars and cap space to Kovalchuk and Doughty while also having Dion's number on the books instead of the LTIR Gaborik wound up being. They looked at the possibilities and correctly decided that they needed swings at blue chip prospects and production from ELCs.

 

[Maynard]

Blake attempted to deal Muzzin, JAD and the Akil Thomas pick for Pacioretty and gave him hours to agree to an extension. Pacioretty refused and fired his agent. Awful deal avoided.

I’ve seen this supposed Pacioretty trade mentioned several times but I thought it was a rumor or some BS from Mayor McCheesedick that got some traction. Had no idea the specific trade pieces were reported. Not trying to start any shit, but how do you know this happened at all, much less the specific pieces (Muzzin, KAD, etc)? Just curious if I missed an article somewhere because this rumor always seemed weird to me.

 

[King'sPawn]

You are incredibly naive.

Gaborik, putting off season-ending back surgery and the rest of his deal on LTIR, was traded for Dion Phanuef - on a roster that already featured Muzzin, Martinez, Forbort and Fantenberg as LHD and was clearly at the end of his career and derided by Sens fans and media, ended being bought out and affecting the cap space for a few years. Awful deal.

Blake attempted to deal Muzzin, JAD and the Akil Thomas pick for Pacioretty and gave him hours to agree to an extension. Pacioretty refused and fired his agent. Awful deal avoided.

Blake signed a player in his 30s who hadn't played NHL hockey for years to a three year deal - a player more interested in himself than his team. Kovalchuk was such a disaster that they wouldn't even allow him to train with the team or go on road trips - before paying big to get out of that deal. Awful, awful decision making.

There were NO kids to trade at that point. No assets, no moves to be made. Just Anderson-Dolan and Kempe. That's it. Blake had ZERO intention of rebuilding and brought in a series of disposable vets in Scherbak, Cammalleri, Hagelin, Thompson, Leipsic, Laich, and Jokinen.

It wasn't until his plan to contend failed miserably that he changed directions.

Yep. Blake took over with the idea that the existing roster would improve merely by removing Sutter so the boys could have fun at the rink again. He came in an kept everyone, including his coaching hire.

2018 was a mirage (tons of comebacks, back-up goalies lose like one game all year, Kopitar has an outlier season) and Blake fully bought in to it. The Kupari pick was going out the door for Patches because all the team needed was scoring. Vilardi just torched the OHL so they are banking on him being on the NHL roster for the 2019 season...Blake's thinking he hit a home run with Gabe so it is okay to once again trade picks. When that move failed, he goes to desperation Plan B which was Kovalchuk.

If you are giving that guy that contract, you are not even remotely thinking about a rebuild. Big Doughty extension happened at the same time as well. It wasn't until it all fell apart in 2019 that they changed course. We can't discount Vilardi's ongoing injury issue during that season also pushing the decision to fully tank: his homerun pick was potentially lost, the team was garbage on the ice and he just committed big dollars and cap space to Kovalchuk and Doughty while also having Dion's number on the books instead of the LTIR Gaborik wound up being. They looked at the possibilities and correctly decided that they needed swings at blue chip prospects and production from ELCs.

Hell, Blake traded Pearson for Carl Hagelin in November of 2018. It wasn't until December 2018 or January of 2019 that he would actually start making trades for the future.

Saying he was rebuilding just because he held onto draft picks is living an incredibly narrow view.

And I'm not even judging him for standing pat. But I'm not going to say he was rebuilding either.

 

[King'sPawn]

I’ve seen this supposed Pacioretty trade mentioned several times but I thought it was a rumor or some BS from Mayor McCheesedick that got some traction. Had no idea the specific trade pieces were reported. Not trying to start any shit, but how do you know this happened at all, much less the specific pieces (Muzzin, KAD, etc)? Just curious if I missed an article somewhere because this rumor always seemed weird to me.

It doesn't mention the specific pieces, but the trade did happen.

Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty rejected trade to Kings, source says

"The deal was done," said a source familiar of the negotiations. "But the trade was conditional on Max signing a long-term deal with L.A."

montrealgazette.com

 

[DoktorJeep]

I’ve seen this supposed Pacioretty trade mentioned several times but I thought it was a rumor or some BS from Mayor McCheesedick that got some traction. Had no idea the specific trade pieces were reported. Not trying to start any shit, but how do you know this happened at all, much less the specific pieces (Muzzin, KAD, etc)? Just curious if I missed an article somewhere because this rumor always seemed weird to me.

The pieces are mayors manor level rumors but the trade and rejected contract were speculated by Bobby Mack.

Draft day deal to send Pacioretty to Kings fell through - TSN.ca

The rumour mill was abuzz with speculation that Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty would be traded last weekend, but no such move materialized. TSN Hockey Insider Bob McKenzie shed some light Monday on a whirlwind weekend that included the winger switching agents after a near trade to L.A.

www.tsn.ca

If you believe the article, Blake offered a long term deal to Patches, which was rejected along with the player agent being fired. Similar to Faber’s reaction to a contract but from an actual NHL player.

On the other end was Marc Bergevin, who has been on the Kings payroll for around a year.

Soon thereafter Vegas trades for and inks Max and Blake’s big move after getting swept by an expansion team is bending over to give Kovalchuk $18M on the first days of the UFA window.

Somehow, out of all of this, an actual cup contributing hockey executive, Jeff Gorton, inherits a top center for his rebuilding team. And the greedy and dumb GMs are left holding a bag of excuses. Fortune favors the bright is the lesson here.

 

[All The Kings Men]

So all that is fine and good

BUT

What Blake DIDN'T do was trade draft picks to bolster that lineup that @bland and others are so convinced he was committed to contending with come hell or high water.

This is yet another case of "both things can be true" and "just because one person is wrong doesn't mean the other person is right"


The Kings absolutely DID shift their priorities and approach to prospects and picks after April of 2017 but YES they were also trying to contend AS BEST THEY COULD with the pieces they already had.

What they WEREN'T doing was trading their first round picks in 2017, 2018, 2019 in order to do it.



AS FOR THE MUCH RUMORED PACIORETTY TRADE

WIthout getting into semi-reliable speculation I would urge people to focus MORE on the detail that Pacioretty FIRED HIS AGENT than any other detail in the story.

 

[DoktorJeep]

So all that is fine and good

BUT

What Blake DIDN'T do was trade draft picks to bolster that lineup that @bland and others are so convinced he was committed to contending with come hell or high water.

This is yet another case of "both things can be true" and "just because one person is wrong doesn't mean the other person is right"


The Kings absolutely DID shift their priorities and approach to prospects and picks after April of 2017 but YES they were also trying to contend AS BEST THEY COULD with the pieces they already had.

What they WEREN'T doing was trading their first round picks in 2017, 2018, 2019 in order to do it.



AS FOR THE MUCH RUMORED PACIORETTY TRADE

WIthout getting into semi-reliable speculation I would urge people to focus MORE on the detail that Pacioretty FIRED HIS AGENT than any other detail in the story.

The fired agent is Luc’s BFF. You sure you want to emphasize that part?

 

[All The Kings Men]

The fired agent is Luc’s BFF. You sure you want to emphasize that part?

History is history.

 

[DoktorJeep]

History is history.

If there is one thing Kings fans know all too well, it’s platitudes.

 

[All The Kings Men]

If there is one thing Kings fans know all too well, it’s platitudes.

How is that a platitude?

I'm not going to go into chapter and verse on all the different rumors and speculation I've heard about the alleged Pacioretty trade that never happened.

I have news for everybody... people lie. The media lies, players lie, management lies.

The amount of time people spend on here saying "Well (they) said (this) so CLEARLY they intended to do precisely what they said in precisely the manner they said it" is constantly baffling to me.

Hell I've all but said on here that I will equivocate, obfuscate and omit subjects that I expressly or implicitly cannot talk about.

What I CAN talk about is things that absolutely did happen and what absolutely DID happen is that Pacioretty fired his agent.

Remember when Bob McKenzie said Smyth was demanding a trade and then Smyth denied it and Lombardi denied it and then Smyth got traded?

I don't care what either side said. Smyth got traded and I can't imagine Bob McKenzie just making that up whole cloth.

I'm rambling.

Fin.

 

[Lt Dan]

If there is one thing Kings fans know all too well, it’s platitudes.

 

[Fishhead]

I have news for everybody... people lie. The media lies, players lie, management lies.

You probably omitted a bunch of others from this list.

Even if someone isn't outright lying and feels that they are being up front, statements are going to be skewed in a way that tries to get the listener to be swayed towards what the speaker wants them to believe. It's why I have to giggle when people state opinion as fact, especially when they assert it as an absolute.

With very few exceptions, the reality is always in the middle.