Hips Post Season Epilogue

Hipcheck

Hipcheck

waxing poetic
Staff member
TEAM LGK
Epilogue- At the end of day; the GM traded multiple drafts picks and legit high end prospects only to see his team finish in the exact same position 3 years in a row but now stuck in Salary Cap hell. The Two best young players came from lucking out at the draft lottery to get Byfield and having Clarke fall to them at the 8th spot.

At the end of 7 years as GM- Kings are no better than they were when they started; arguably in worst shape with a depleted prospect pool and top heavy contracts for underperforming players.

Blake has made some good moves and drafted some good players so I wont say it was all crap; but all in all not enough to cover his ass for the mistakes he's made - and the mistakes he has made have been absolutely catastrophic for an NHL team in the Salary Cap Era.

If he doesn't lose his job we can simply assume Ownership cares more about looking at the Profit and Loss sheet as opposed to the post season Wins & Loss sheet.

As for possible replacements- above my pay and knowledge grade but Id look to poaching some of the Dallas scouting staff and maybe look to whomever Vegas assistant GM may be. This comes simply from seeing Dallas absolutely killing it with drafting the last couple of seasons and Vegas handling(aka circumventing) the cap by the rules and getting players with character and passion. This is just surface level reflection mind you but if you want a successful team you bring in people with some success and a track record of success. We simply havent seen that in the Blake era.

In Retrospect- Once Kings had Faber/Clarke/Spence/Roy/Durzi in the pipeline.....probably should have moved Doughty and started the transition. It was folly to try and chase the cup with 2 players who couldnt get it done in 2017 as key players and thinking they could somehow do it 7 seasons and 560+ regular games later. If Ray Bourque got moved...there was no reason they couldnt have moved Doughty.
Its really another criticism of Blake- in his tenure as GM he was never able to draft the heir apparents. Our goalies were dumpster picks, could never develop a true left handed defensemen, couldnt develop a true center and the true centers they had continually moved to wing. Lotsa would coulda shoulda to go around here but post season record says it.

Will be interesting to see what happens....the results will be telling if its bottom line vs building legit cup contender. As distasteful as it may be for some...one could argue best course at this point a complete rebuild around the players under 25.

Go Reign Go.
 
Todays’ fun stat:

PLD had more penalties than he had shots this series.

That, in a nutshell, describes the results of Blake’s all-in from last summer. And although the trade and eventual signing of PLD, when no one else would touch him, will probably come to define Blake’s legacy, there were plenty of other moves that, in retrospect, did not work.

Bringing Fiala, who loses the puck in a crosswind, into a group formerly known for its possession metrics, was folly, especially considering that the Wild are likely building their team around who we gave up to get him. Overpaying for Campbell, than paying another team to get rid of him, and then unable acquire a ‘replacement tender.

Time restricts me from going on, so I’m going to cut this short. It’s just time for a new look, a new philosophy, a new course. And Blake is not the one to do that
 
I know its not cool to say, but I would not mind trading Doughty at all, but not until Blake is fired and a new GM is brought in.

But this post is spot on.

Expecting Drew and Kopi to lead just because they won championships 10 years ago is ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous to signing Kovalchuck to a 6.25 mil per year contract. They are not the same players.

Since 2014, the team has made the playoffs 5 times and missed 5 times. And we all knew those 5 playoff appearances would probably be one round and done.

My hope for the off season is to clear Luc and Blake and the buddies he gave jobs to. Then bring in a coach even like Boudreau who will get the team moving for two years as he always does then gets fired. I think players like Kempe, Fiala, Danault, and PLD would do well under a system llke his. I also would not be surprised if the Kings want to interview Vigneault again. He was offered the job before Todd, but wanted too much money.

Anyway, I hate this team.
 
Last night I dreamt my boss got fired and was replaced with Mark Yanetti. No joke.

New philosophy is the key this post season. What’s abundantly clear is Blake never had a damn clue what team he was actually building. It’s never looked like he has known, but this season really brought that to light in shining neon.

We all knew what Dean valued. Character above all else, compete, big, heavy, build from the back out and go strong down the middle.

Blake waffled around on key questions until he was playing with flex seal on an idling boat.

Size? Always put it off and said you can add it later.

LD? Still never had three good ones and overpaid to have one on the second pair.

Young talent? Wait, fart around, drain them of value, and don’t cash in when you can outside Faber for Fiala. Some forced their way on due to injuries, Laf and Durzi, many have been blocked from even having a chance.

Goalies? Don’t even draft ‘em. (Though silver lining Slukynsky may be super legit).

Character? Shiv Quick and months later bring in PLD.

I believe all is far from lost and the prospect pool isn’t close to depleted. But gotta get someone in there with a real notion of a team.
 
I feel sorry for whomever has to clean up this mess. We're looking at 2-3 seasons before any new regime can start to see results from a new direction.

As I see it, what is on the ice isn't working out, the cabinet is getting bare, missing picks 2, 3 and 5 this year, no NHL caliber goalies signed or in the system, and there's no actionable plan to getting better outside of scrapping it all and starting over around the younger players. They are bumped up against the cap with RFA's needing contracts. UFA's that are going to want their paydays and will probably walk, and let's be honest with ourselves PLD isn't going anywhere with that contract. Blake gave him everything he asked for and basically got nothing in return. He is ranked #18 on center contracts, but not sure he's even a top 40 center. Is there really a GM out there dumb enough to take that contract? I doubt it. He's shown time and time again who he is. That albatross is going to swing around the neck of this franchise for years to come.

Still a fan. Still going to watch. Still gonna be excited when camp starts. But realistically for the good of the franchise they need a few solid years of bottom 5 finishes, drafting high and letting some beloved players/front office personnel move on to be successful again.

Then again, what do I know?
 
Sadly, its "too late" for the foreseeable future. Because PLD is signed to what I would consider an unmovable contract. Unless he has some total renaissance next year and beyond and becomes the PPG player he was supposed to be, his contract alone (not to mention Doughty's for the next 3 years) will handicap any future GM's ability to make meaningful maneuvers.

When I think of the PLD contact until 2030-2031... I want to vomit. I guess the one bright side is we stop paying Mike Richards in 4 or so years?

Realistically, we're going to be stuck in this middle of the road team until 2026/2027. By then both Doughty and Kopitar will be off the books, and its when we can start a new rebuild.

In the meanwhile, the next few seasons are going to be rough.
 
I think Blake did a pretty good job in terms of the overall approach early on. However, it's one thing to get a team into the top 16 in the league. It's quite another to make them a contender. In retrospect, all the additions, even Arvidsson and Danault early on, were counterproductive. We should have embraced the suck a couple more years.

It's a lot to ask a rookie GM to build a Stanley Cup contender when he's never done that before. Sometimes it works out. Most times it won't. 31 teams end up failing each year, but you couldn't help but watch the series and realize this team isn't going anywhere in its current configuration.

I would blow it up. Trade Doughty if he requests it. For all the criticism, neither Kopitar nor Doughty are the problem. 70 points and a +11 for Kopitar. 50 points and a +15 for Doughty. They both had fine years once again, even when being given the toughest assignments repeatedly.
 


Front office is rotten to the core.
AEG and Danny B let this happen at both of their LA sports teams.
They cleaned out one, and have so far had EXCELLENT results.
Time to do the same at their other LA sports team.
 
Regardless of GM & Coaching changes if any, and assuming PLD stays and the whole team can't be blown up, I've heard it argued that the Kings need size and skill on the wings and a puck moving defenseman (to replace Roy?). Given that, what lines could the Kings possibly field next year assuming in no particular order, our Centers are Kopi, QB, PLD, Denault. Aside from AK, KF and maybe Arvy, it feels like we have a bunch of bottom 6 wingers that have no size and are not puck handling threats. Can we get a puck moving defenseman and what would the pairs look like? Thoughts?
 
Much has been made of the Kings losing to the Oilers three years in a row. Irrelevant (and not unprecedented, as it happed from 1990- 1992, all while Gretzky played for the Kings). Had the Kings played Dallas, they still would have been finished by now. The special teams probably would have been better (for they hardly could have been any worse), but they 5 on 5 would have been a blowout. The end result, big change needed. One focus: the development department. Are all these misses on drafting the result of poor scouting, or poor development?
 
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