I agree that TM should be replaced in the offseason where there will be time to decide and woo the correct replacement. His shelf life in most places has historically been 4 years and we can see why. That said, no chance that this current Kings team is over performing. Based on their roster they should be a 500+ club and they are hovering right around that mark so I would say they are almost performing to potential. The troubling part is the lack of future progress in terms of pulling up future key players on to the roster and giving them NHL experience. That truly is as glaring of an issue as our lack of proper defense construction.
I agree that it's best not for Blake to rush a trade, but on the flip side a trade should have occurred this previous offseason to lock down a future, or at least serviceable, LD when we let go of Maata. Maata, for all his fault, was our best defensive zone defensemen last season and a LD who we replaced with....? Obviously you can't build a defensive squad with all offensive defensemen. Yes we have Mikey and Edler but that's not enough to make up for Doughty (often caught out of position in the offensive zone), Walker, Durzi (who despite being our worst D in the defensive zone we double down and play on his off-side), and Roy (who apparently drank the cool aide and now wants to score goal instead of hang back on D). I can give Blake the benefit of the doubt and think that he expected Mikey, Edler and Roy to be enough but if we were to integrate Clarke that makes such a thought even more head scratching.
As for goalies I can give Blake the benefit of the doubt as no one foresaw the implosion that has been Petersen this year as it seems more mental based than talent based. Quick, on the other hand, has been above average but not good enough to save us from our dismal defense (including forwards). That said Blake has had the opportunity to add a few key goaltending talents in the past few drafts (outside the 1st round) and has passed. With only Villalta in our pipeline that is a pretty odd decision. Really seems like Blakes goal is to flood a position until we get what we are looking for then move on to the next which will work but take quite a bit of time.
On the positive, Ottawa started their rebuild around when we did and are far behind us in terms of the team development so I agree with you that the rebuild isn't dragging as much as it could. I also agree that some of the players we heavily banked on for our future, such as Doughty, simply aren't what they used to be and haven't been able to transition as well as expected along with the new NHL.
Overall the Kings are doing well (all things considered), but you can't continue to charge top dollar to attend games, make fans subscribe to 3 apps to watch games, market to a small population of fans (hoping to attract new) while losing focus on those who have long term diehards (through the good and bad years) and put out a crappy product while expecting attendance and interest to stay high. I'd say more than the team, the Organization has lost its identity.