Another great Yannetti interview

[ATKM]

I never knew his value was that high so soon to his waiver pick up. I certainly don’t sweat the Hickey episode now, and I wasn’t even that upset when it happened. But to hear Yanetti address it over several interviews over the years I can’t help but think of any number of prospects Blake could have traded but didn’t.

Yea it's hard to care too much about any mistakes made in the lead up tp 2012-2014 cus it wall worked out and who cares... but mistakes are mistakes I guess.

For 3 years Kings were regarded as having the best or nearly best pipeline. Some of those players were ranked far higher at the time than they would have been if crystal balls were real and analysts could see the NHL careers they’d actually have (or not have.) I get that it’s a risky game, but gotta push some chips to the table sometime either as prospect + picks trades or prospects as valuable throw-ins. You know you can’t play them all anyway, so have to move some of them.

JAD, Bjornfot, Kaliyev, Fagemo, Thomas, even Madden all had value at some point.

Roy, Gavrikov, Durzi... *cough*

 

[Bollocks]

I never knew his value was that high so soon to his waiver pick up. I certainly don’t sweat the Hickey episode now, and I wasn’t even that upset when it happened. But to hear Yanetti address it over several interviews over the years I can’t help but think of any number of prospects Blake could have traded but didn’t.

For 3 years Kings were regarded as having the best or nearly best pipeline. Some of those players were ranked far higher at the time than they would have been if crystal balls were real and analysts could see the NHL careers they’d actually have (or not have.) I get that it’s a risky game, but gotta push some chips to the table sometime either as prospect + picks trades or prospects as valuable throw-ins. You know you can’t play them all anyway, so have to move some of them.

JAD, Bjornfot, Kaliyev, Fagemo, Thomas, even Madden all had value at some point.

OTOH who are you trading them for? You need young, cost controlled talent in order to be competitive so you can't recycle for draft picks everyone that doesn't earn a surefire chance with the big boys, and despite them having a relatively higher trade value it would be dubious to trade for example two of them for an established bottom 9 F/bottom 4 D player who is not that cost controlled anymore.

And no one would trade you a blue chip prospect for 2 mid prospects that are both unproven.

 

[Clif]

Roy, Gavrikov, Durzi... *cough*

Not trading Roy really hurt. That playoff series met writing on the wall.

OTOH who are you trading them for? You need young, cost controlled talent in order to be competitive so you can't recycle for draft picks everyone that doesn't earn a surefire chance with the big boys, and despite them having a relatively higher trade value it would be dubious to trade for example two of them for an established bottom 9 F/bottom 4 D player who is not that cost controlled anymore.

And no one would trade you a blue chip prospect for 2 mid prospects that are both unproven.

Kings have had plenty of cost-controlled players on the roster I didn’t even name, so those I did means they had prospects to spare.

Not sure who or what they could have traded them for, though LD was a problem throughout Blake’s tenure so that would have been a nice place to look.

Here’s some perspective on a few trades COL made en route to their 22 Cup:

Darcy Keumper for Connor Timmins and a first, conditonal 3rd. Timmins is currently on his fourth NHL team at age 26. He’s a big RD but doesn’t hit much. Low impact guy but his trade helped COL secure a goalie who backstopped them to a Cup. COL took Timmins in the second round. He was 22 and 38 NHL games in when they traded him.

Josh Manson for Drew Helleson and a second. Helleson is another big body and maybe he’ll be a decent player, had 99 hits last year. But he’s nowhere near Josh Manson at least yet. He’s 24 and has played a whopping 59 NHL games with 14 pts - all for the powerhouse Ducks. COL took him in the second round in 2019 so they traded him in his D+3 year and completely solidified their defense.

Artturi Lehkonen for Justin Barron and a second. Like Manson this was a deadline deal when prices are highest. Ever heard of Josh Barron? Me neither. He played parts of the last two seasons in Laval before getting moved to NSH and you know good they were last year. He was a first round pick for COL but they had the wisdom to move on early.

I can’t say the moves Blake could have made with a number of prospects. I can only observe he hardly made any at all.