I guess it's hilarious if you're King'sJester.
I'm not staunchly defending Blake. I was critical of signing Athanisiou a second contract. And ludicrous to give him 2.7. That they should have instead I was critical in that they should have promoted someone from the Reign, instead. I was critical of a second contract for Edler. That it took Toby's spot...and if they believed Toby needed to go to the AHL, then sign someone more useful than a 37 yr old Edler, that lost a step after his ankle break. Going back to Gaborik for Phaneuf, I didn't like that and there could have been a better exit plan. And other moves over the 6 years.
I was not accusing anyone about the last 3 years of Lombardi's work....the Bishop deal, Sekera deal and Lucic deal were all worse than any deal Blake has made. The 2015 draft, Hammond? and Mayor's Manor had Barzal and Kyle Connor as the targets. They both have sources, so who knows...someone should ask Yannetti. Dean didn;t like college players and somehow thought getting Lucic 1 year, instead of Barzal or Connor. Barzal is the #2 center the Kings have needed since Carter was fading fast. Connor was the LW Kopitar needed. #13 overall + Jones was overpayment, anyway. If the Kings had either Barzal or Connor, they probably never miss the playoffs, since 2018. Dean was trying to compete for Cups and yet somehow put together the worst roster since the year he took over, when he came in and added Nagy, Calder, Stuart, Handzus..Cloutier
DL's choices from the Gaborik deal, onward is irrational to bring up? 3 years of not adding a quality player and these were his roster, in 16-17:
Shore, Dowd, Setoguchi, Andreoff, Gravel, Ladue, Dwight King and Jordan Nolan regressing to AHL level play again. Blake inherited crap. DL'S last 3 years reveresed the ship. Those 3 years, 7-8 years ago, affected the next 3-5 years.