Will DL be the Kings' Franchise GM?

[DryIslandBartender]

I think that it is a given that it is pretty much Lombardi's job for as long as he wants it now. He'll be a franchise GM as long as he is happy out here with the Kings. The ultimate test would be if the Boston Bruins ever came calling.

Bruins came calling when Dean interviewed for the Kings job in 2006.

He chose the Kings because his wife wanted to live in Southern California(after his wife was wined and dined in Beverly Hills) and Dean was enticed by building the Kings into a consistent winner. They are very happy in Los Angeles and will stay for a very long time.

 

[Telos]

Bruins came calling when Dean interviewed for the Kings job in 2006.

He chose the Kings because his wife wanted to live in Southern California(after his wife was wined and dined in Beverly Hills) and Dean was enticed by building the Kings into a consistent winner. They are very happy in Los Angeles and will stay for a very long time.

They may be happy, but now that they've lived here for a while I wouldn't pretend to be capable of predicting their future plans. Who knows, maybe they are both in favor of going back home to the east coast after spending so much time in California. The only thing we can pretty much say for certain is that the job is likely his until he doesn't want it.

Who knows in the distant future though. Everyone said the same about Lamoriello and Holland, and while that has held true, they have been set in their organizations for very long periods of time, their fanbases have changed their opinions of them and quite a few want them gone now. I am sure similar patterns will be seen amongst Kings fans. Luckily it appears that won't be for a long time, but who knows.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

That's an interesting thought. A lot of the legacy/lifer GMs appear to be on their way out soon.

 

[Scottkmlps]

Cup rings under DL: One
Cup rings under every other GM in Kings history: Zero

Case closed

This.
Lombardi came in and rebuilt this franchise, not just team but franchise, from the ground up and brought the 1st Cup within 6 years of being hired. He's already a franchise GM.

 

[Ron*]

Tore down a horrible ****ing AHL team, built it from the ground up at the same time convincing ownership this was the best way for long-term success (not like all our other ass holes who thought getting fallen stars in their late 30s was the way to go), and ending up with a Cup contender now four years in a row (one accomplished).

No, he ain't worth ****. :/

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

He definitely deserves to be treated like another Holland/Lamoriello and should remain GM until he decides to retire. No question about it.

 

[kingsfan28]

Yes! He should get a lifetime contract. Having DL as GM is the single best thing to ever happen to this franchise.

Totally agree. He came in , evaluated the ENTIRE organization from top to bottom, cut all the dead weight and built a winner. One thing that's always has stood out is that he saw the need to bring in guys from winning organizations. He was smart enough to see that teams who have won have always had guys in the front office that know how to win.

 

[ukyo]

Moulson was not traded, where do you people come up with this stuff ?

Moulson was an UFA for like the 34534905830485690348590834590 time.

How many times do people have too keep bringing this up ?

Moulson was even offered a contract by the Kings to return, he choose to leave too guarantee himself playing time.

Err? Nothing to do with UFA or trade. If DL really wanted to reward a guy that had paid his dues, he could have done it. I didn't even have a problem with how DL handled Moulson anyways. I was just pointing out cases in which DL was certainly not loyal to the point where you'd worry about it being a problem.

 

[ukyo]

This.
Lombardi came in and rebuilt this franchise, not just team but franchise, from the ground up and brought the 1st Cup within 6 years of being hired. He's already a franchise GM.

Not just this, but how he planned it from the start.

1. He said he was going to not only build a Cup contending team, he was going to turn the Kings into a perennial Cup contending team. He could have said what every GM that doesn't really have a plan would say, "our goal is to win the Cup."

2. Then he outlined, in surprisingly transparent detail, how he was going to do it. Actually laid out the different pillars of the plan, which in regimes past were never really talked about, like player development, the reserve list, an actual blueprint to building a culture, cluing us in on the rationale behind bringing in guys like Scott Thornton, etc.

3. Then he went and frickin' did it, and now we not only have a Cup, we're probably set for another decade plus of solid playoffs-laden Kings hockey. I never thought I'd see the day.

 

[Rorschach]

I'm not worried about Lombardi. It's our ownership status that I hope is stable.

 

[vindogla]

Not to be overlooked but very important is the usually difficult matter of coaching:

Lombardi came in, took a look around and fired Crawford.

Then he went out and picked a superb interim coach in Terry Murray who would mold the young core into their rough shapes until he could pry Sutter out of Viking again.

Sutter finishes up the job by showing the entire team and organization what it takes to actually win a Stanley Cup Championship, a lesson learned which will be put to good use for years to come.

Dean Lombardi runs this team like a boss!

 

[TonySCV]

Not just this, but how he planned it from the start.

1. He said he was going to not only build a Cup contending team, he was going to turn the Kings into a perennial Cup contending team. He could have said what every GM that doesn't really have a plan would say, "our goal is to win the Cup."

2. Then he outlined, in surprisingly transparent detail, how he was going to do it. Actually laid out the different pillars of the plan, which in regimes past were never really talked about, like player development, the reserve list, an actual blueprint to building a culture, cluing us in on the rationale behind bringing in guys like Scott Thornton, etc.

3. Then he went and frickin' did it, and now we not only have a Cup, we're probably set for another decade plus of solid playoffs-laden Kings hockey. I never thought I'd see the day.

Yep. I'll never forget that spreadsheet that he whipped out at a GM breakfast with all the empty boxes. Now they're all filled.

The man did exactly what he said he would do with total transparency throughout the process.

 

[TonySCV]

We've come a long way from the first GM Breakfast in 2006 (in almost every regard)...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=276214

 

[raswilliam]

We've come a long way from the first GM Breakfast in 2006 (in almost every regard)...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=276214

Frolov-Conroy-Cammalleri
Armstrong-McCauley-Brown
Thornton-Belanger-Willsie
Cowan/Kanko-Avery-Kostopolous

hahaha!

 

[Reclamation Project]

Yeah, reading those line projections brought back some less than favorable memories. Amazing how far this franchise has come. All hail Dean!

 

[Nefarious]

He got us a SC in my lifetime, and I was able to witness the whole thing! There have been, and will be a lot of fans of every sport who could/may not be able to say that about their respective team(s).

So yeah. DL should stay as long as he wants the job!

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Frolov-Conroy-Cammalleri
Armstrong-McCauley-Brown
Thornton-Belanger-Willsie
Cowan/Kanko-Avery-Kostopolous

hahaha!

Anytime I get called a bandwagon fan, I'm breaking out that roster as proof of the lean times.

I'm not sure that 1st line is better than our current 3rd line...

 

[Reclamation Project]

Anytime I get called a bandwagon fan, I'm breaking out that roster as proof of the lean times.

I'm not sure that 1st line is better than our current 3rd line...

Ah yes, doesn't it feel great? Still to this day I remember being called a bandwagoner while I wore my brand new Stanley Cup Champions hat in 2012.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Anytime I get called a bandwagon fan, I'm breaking out that roster as proof of the lean times.

I'm not sure that 1st line is better than our current 3rd line...

What's funny to me is that only two of those 12 forwards are still in the NHL, and that lineup is from 8 years ago.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Reminds me of Halpern scoring the other night

 

[bral]

Anytime I get called a bandwagon fan, I'm breaking out that roster as proof of the lean times.

I'm not sure that 1st line is better than our current 3rd line...

That's lean for sure but check out our roster anytime in the late 90's. I don't know how I became a fan in '97 they were absolutely brutal. I couldn't even use the Kings on the video games at the time it meant insta-loss.

 

[bral]

Bruins came calling when Dean interviewed for the Kings job in 2006.

He chose the Kings because his wife wanted to live in Southern California(after his wife was wined and dined in Beverly Hills) and Dean was enticed by building the Kings into a consistent winner. They are very happy in Los Angeles and will stay for a very long time.

I believe he wasn't given final say in Boston as well. In LA he was given complete control of hockey operations.

 

[Nefarious]

I believe he wasn't given final say in Boston as well. In LA he was given complete control of hockey operations.

Scary thought where the kings would be without him. Also curious what Boston would have turned out with him, though they've fared pretty well otherwise.

 

[kingsfan]

Not to be overlooked but very important is the usually difficult matter of coaching:

Lombardi came in, took a look around and fired Crawford.

Then he went out and picked a superb interim coach in Terry Murray who would mold the young core into their rough shapes until he could pry Sutter out of Viking again.

Sutter finishes up the job by showing the entire team and organization what it takes to actually win a Stanley Cup Championship, a lesson learned which will be put to good use for years to come.

Dean Lombardi runs this team like a boss!

Dean also hired Crawford in the first place and has stated publicly he wanted to stick with TM and pinned the blame for firing on the players. He was to loyal to TM in my opinion, but I'll give him props for having a massive pair of coconuts to hire Sutter -the same man he fired in San Jose- when he had to know his job was in the balance and it wasn't an overly popular choice at the time.