PLD for Kuemper

Nyssa42 said:
this thread has made me realize that, other than Thomas and Turcotte, our pipeline is now getting a little thin, and we don't have a lot of high draft picks.....time for Blakey to find some later round gems? Or back to the college signings - we've done well with those.

The Reign will be stocked with lifetime AHLers next season. Need to get some Dman draft/college guys unless there is someone good I'm forgetting about/not aware of? (waahhhhh!....Faber.....you fell into the Kings Black Hole of Too Many Good Draft Picks)
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What ever happened to Chromiak? I thought he was highly touted at one time? Did he fall off the depth chart?
 
symbology said:
Very much worth a watch / listen. Read between the lines, IMO it points to PLD being a bit of a POS. (he wanted LA for LA, not the team.)

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Watched it - very entertaining. I didn’t pick up on anything remotely suggesting he’s a POS. And when he first got to LA he said in several interviews the most important thing was winning the Cup and he thought he could do that here. He talked up the environment as well and was clearly very taken by it, but he said a lot of the right things about the team too including that he was excited to learn from Kopitar. Lastly, all reports are of him being a great guy that teammates really like.

Now all that said, I still agree with you he was beach first all the way. it is 100 percent legit in your other post that Hellebuyck and Scheiffle re-committed to the Jets once he was gone. It’s also true that when Hoven was talking about PLD’s Hawaiian vacation during the season break that PL said it was good to reconnect with the “90 percent” of life that isn’t hockey.

90 percent! Like a lot of people I’m just at my job for the pay and my interests are way different than my job, but just given the time commitment it’s way more than 10 percent of my life.

You can be a really cool and interesting guy to hang out with and still manage to be an anchor on a team when your effort, heart, and head are not in it.

Remember when Dean wanted guys who didn’t prioritize the location above all? He just wanted gamers and winners who couldn’t get enough hockey? Wish Blake would reflect on that these days.
 
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Clif said:
90 percent! Like a lot of people I’m just at my job for the pay and my interests are way different than my job, but just given the time commitment it’s way more than 10 percent of my life.
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And this is why I compared him to Anthony Rendon earlier in this thread.

Anthony Rendon, who has been the subject of controversy several times in recent years, addressed where baseball ranks on his list of priorities while speaking with reporters at Spring Training.

"It's never been a top priority for me," the 33-year-old third baseman said on Monday. "This is a job. I do this to make a living. My faith, my family come first before this job. So if those things come before it, I'm leaving."
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It’s perfectly human to see your profession as little more than a job. Even when you have special profession like pro athlete.

That being said if the job isn’t your top priority it’s going to take a lot of discipline to play like it’s your top priority while you’re clocked in. And that’s not even to mention the guys you’re playing against who do make the job their top priority. Good luck against someone more talented than you, bigger than you and who wants it more than you.
 
Clif said:
Watched it - very entertaining. I didn’t pick up on anything remotely suggesting he’s a POS. And when he first got to LA he said in several interviews the most important thing was winning the Cup and he thought he could do that here. He talked up the environment as well and was clearly very taken by it, but he said a lot of the right things about the team too including that he was excited to learn from Kopitar. Lastly, all reports are of him being a great guy that teammates really like.

Now all that said, I still agree with you he was beach first all the way. it is 100 percent legit in your other post that Hellebuyck and Scheiffle re-committed to the Jets once he was gone. It’s also true that when Hoven was talking about PLD’s Hawaiian vacation during the season break that PL said it was good to reconnect with the “90 percent” of life that isn’t hockey.

90 percent! Like a lot of people I’m just at my job for the pay and my interests are way different than my job, but just given the time commitment it’s way more than 10 percent of my life.

You can be a really cool and interesting guy to hang out with and still manage to be an anchor on a team when your effort, heart, and head are not in it.

Remember when Dean wanted guys who didn’t prioritize the location above all? He just wanted gamers and winners who couldn’t get enough hockey? Wish Blake would reflect on that these days.
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I said "a bit of", because he clearly wanted LA for LA. LA was his firs choice and it was not because he thought they had a great chance at a cup. Otherwise, we would have seen a more consistent effort on the ice. Many of his interviews he answered questions the way everyone wanted him to. He said what was expected.

In the video I shared they made coments about how PLD loved being in and around LA and they spoke of all of his interests, which then made me think that LA would be a great place for him to be. So, LA being his first choice does not appear to be a hockey related decision, which is why the "bit of" comment.

He said it would be great to learn from Kopi, cuz everybody else was.

I do get your points. It is hard to say for sure what is in the guys mind.
 
Rogie-Vachon said:
"The Kings just traded Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari and a 2024 second-round pick for Darcy f***ing Kuemper"

"And to think it only cost you Vilardi, Iafallo, Kupari, and a 2nd rd pick to get him."

"Rob Blake shouldn’t have a job gave up all those assets for what Kemper to come back like selling the house and the cars just to get a bike you had in Highschool"

"Wow wow wow great job there Blake. Nothing like giving away all that talent for this guy and now we get a 34 year-old goaltender on the end of his career what’s next maybe they should just let you go. You’re a horrible GM."

Then Helene chimes in: "
When Blake acquired Dubois from Winnipeg last June, Blake represented Dubois as a key piece in the Kings’ ascent toward Stanley Cup contention, the big, physical center who’d give them strength up the middle and allow them to compete with bigger teams in the West. Dubois—who raised red flags about his commitment when he asked his two previous teams to trade him—was never that player for the Kings, never consistently productive at center or on the wing under Todd McLellan or Jim Hiller, who succeeded McLellan.

Remember, too, that Blake had designated Cal Petersen as the Kings’ goalie of the future and signed him to an extravagant three-year, $15-million contract. His future was limited, and the Kings have since made do with journeyman goalies.

If Blake can make that big a mistake with Dubois and other smaller missteps like Petersen, how much can he be trusted to make the right moves to get the Kings back into Cup contention? Yes, he fixed the Dubois mess but he shouldn’t have made that trade in the first place. That’s a huge failure in judgment."
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He's a rookie GM and he's learning on the fly. If all he did was mostly meh and then these two blunders he'd be gone already. But he made some really good moves, too, and he's able to admit his own mistakes and move on...and also fix these mistakes without giving up significant additional assets when the right opportunity arises instead of trying to force things too soon or wait for too long.

This learning curve might seem brutal to some but you could end up with a very good GM in the end if you're patient.


Alternatively, you could fire him...and then what? Even if we ignore the motives behind upper management's direction of the past decade, who can you realistically get that would make the Kings' chances of winning another Cup within the next decade that much better? Serious question, as I've done zero research on this topic as I've seen enough of how this team is lead by upper management to know Rob is here to stay for at least another couple of seasons...
 
symbology said:
I said "a bit of", because he clearly wanted LA for LA. LA was his firs choice and it was not because he thought they had a great chance at a cup. Otherwise, we would have seen a more consistent effort on the ice. Many of his interviews he answered questions the way everyone wanted him to. He said what was expected.

In the video I shared they made coments about how PLD loved being in and around LA and they spoke of all of his interests, which then made me think that LA would be a great place for him to be. So, LA being his first choice does not appear to be a hockey related decision, which is why the "bit of" comment.

He said it would be great to learn from Kopi, cuz everybody else was.

I do get your points. It is hard to say for sure what is in the guys mind.
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All fair and I’m diving too deep into the infamous armchair psychologist role here dissecting what was said, et al. We agree most substantively that his motivations re: living arrangements really put into question his commitment. And to that end a lack of drive is its own form of being a toxic teammate. You can be cool but if you don’t give all to the game itself that drags people down.
 
symbology said:
I said "a bit of", because he clearly wanted LA for LA. LA was his firs choice and it was not because he thought they had a great chance at a cup. Otherwise, we would have seen a more consistent effort on the ice. Many of his interviews he answered questions the way everyone wanted him to. He said what was expected.

In the video I shared they made coments about how PLD loved being in and around LA and they spoke of all of his interests, which then made me think that LA would be a great place for him to be. So, LA being his first choice does not appear to be a hockey related decision, which is why the "bit of" comment.

He said it would be great to learn from Kopi, cuz everybody else was.

I do get your points. It is hard to say for sure what is in the guys mind.
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PLD loved the anonymity of expectations away from Canadian market, but unfortunately, we noticed his performance.
 
Clif said:
All fair and I’m diving too deep into the infamous armchair psychologist role here dissecting what was said, et al. We agree most substantively that his motivations re: living arrangements really put into question his commitment. And to that end a lack of drive is its own form of being a toxic teammate. You can be cool but if you don’t give all to the game itself that drags people down.
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I believe PLD believes in the PLD "hype." Unfortunately,growing up being told you're a golden boy doesn't supercede work ethic and being a winner. He never grew past this stage, and this a neverending loop a la Patrick Laine with multiple teams trading their asses
 
Bollocks said:
He's a rookie GM and he's learning on the fly. If all he did was mostly meh and then these two blunders he'd be gone already. But he made some really good moves, too, and he's able to admit his own mistakes and move on...and also fix these mistakes without giving up significant additional assets when the right opportunity arises instead of trying to force things too soon or wait for too long.

This learning curve might seem brutal to some but you could end up with a very good GM in the end if you're patient.


Alternatively, you could fire him...and then what? Even if we ignore the motives behind upper management's direction of the past decade, who can you realistically get that would make the Kings' chances of winning another Cup within the next decade that much better? Serious question, as I've done zero research on this topic as I've seen enough of how this team is lead by upper management to know Rob is here to stay for at least another couple of seasons...
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WTH are you talking about? Blake a "rookie GM"? He's been GM since 2017.
 
Madness20721 said:
WTH are you talking about? Blake a "rookie GM"? He's been GM since 2017.
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A bad choice of a word, yes. I meant that this was his first job and that he's obviously not a finished product as an NHL exec. Dean showed promise with the Sharks but wasn't able to push them over, then switched to a scout role and only after that landed the Kings' job as a GM. Dean was more proven than Rob was at the time of his hiring, but still not proven he can build a winner. Perhaps the Sharks regretted letting Dean go too soon?

My point is:
1. Contrary to many people's belief on here - Rob is not all that bad of a GM given the state of the team he was given, the fact that this is his first gig and considering he probably didn't (and likely still doesn't) have free reign over what direction to go in.
2. He's shown he can learn from mistakes instead of letting his ego get the best of him.

He now needs to learn how to pick the winners and competitors, and cultivate a winning culture, yes, and he needs to avoid overly bold moves with questionable intel like the PLD trade.

The flip side to him staying is him being fired and replaced with...whom? A Kyle Dubas? Successful and proven GMs are basically never on the market...
 
Learning on the job is one thing, but as blake, he's crippling the Kings for 10 years moving forward, from terrible contracts he's awarding to bad drafting. Seems the stakes are very high as a GM in the NHL and unfortunately ours is very inexperienced and it is showing.

You are correct, at the very least Rob lake is correcting his own mistakes but that's not good enough for a top level executive to be constantly making these huge mistakes at what point do you think him for a service and get someone with more vision and experience?
 
Bollocks said:
A bad choice of a word, yes. I meant that this was his first job and that he's obviously not a finished product as an NHL exec. Dean showed promise with the Sharks but wasn't able to push them over, then switched to a scout role and only after that landed the Kings' job as a GM. Dean was more proven than Rob was at the time of his hiring, but still not proven he can build a winner. Perhaps the Sharks regretted letting Dean go too soon?

My point is:
1. Contrary to many people's belief on here - Rob is not all that bad of a GM given the state of the team he was given, the fact that this is his first gig and considering he probably didn't (and likely still doesn't) have free reign over what direction to go in.
2. He's shown he can learn from mistakes instead of letting his ego get the best of him.

He now needs to learn how to pick the winners and competitors, and cultivate a winning culture, yes, and he needs to avoid overly bold moves with questionable intel like the PLD trade.

The flip side to him staying is him being fired and replaced with...whom? A Kyle Dubas? Successful and proven GMs are basically never on the market...
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Blake is like a stock trader that buys high, sells low, and then buys another stock high again and claims that is correcting his mistake. In reality, though, he lost money, on in this case value, due to a bad investment which he fought against conventional wisdom to buy, and then panicked and listen to others to sell. We shouldn't confuse compounding a mistake with correcting it.

I will agree that Blake is not a bad GM, but he's also not a good one. Currently, in my opinion, he falls somewhere in the lower middle tier - which is sad because prior to last season I would have rated him much higher.
 
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