Rob Blake Should Win GM Of The Year

[DoubleMinor]

You didn't mention one of the most damnable aspects of the trade and that is the second round pick also was included. Is this still true.

Thanks for your reply. You make some good points.

Didn't know that about Luc but you have certainly read other comments here regarding his influence on the team, mostly negative. Your new info is interesting but is that what someone in his position should be focused on? I am honestly asking as I don't know how much responsibility someone in the position should have and if he is concentrating on optics or PR is he dropping the ball in other important areas?

Have to chuckle as I am watching the Jets and the announcers are praising Iafallo as the "Swiss Army Knife" of the Jets after he made a couple of good plays on the PK.

I have been rooting for Villardi since day 1 and I feel with my very limited perspective that the Kings didn't make him feel wanted. Maybe he has thin skin, or needs extra encouragement. I do remember his saying; "I hope they want me, they drafted me after all". I also enjoy his passing very much and feel he is already one of the best passers in the NHl.

Let me say in the end however that you have made really good points that I appreciate you sharing and they are all good and worthy of consideration.

Nice post.

I don’t know how hockey organizations work, if there are different structures or not.
In this case you have the ownership (AEG) and the team management (Luc, Blake). Blake is the guy who I think is running the team. I think he needs approvals from AEG for major moves (at least). Is the protocol to have it go from Blake to Luc to Beckerman etc, or does Blake go to Luc and they both go to Beckerman, or does Blake go to Beckerman? Does Luc tell Blake NO and it stops? No idea.

My hunch is that Luc is aware but allows Blake to make decisions. Luc is the PR guy, the facility guy, a main face of the franchise. While there is definitely negativity on this site that you alluded to re Luc, he is a really popular guy in the business/political worlds in LA. That matters to AEG. The guy who is President of the LA Kings gets access. He is promoting the Kings but AEG uses the access and relationships Luc has to help AEG. That’s my opinion on how it works.

I don’t think it’s a case of dropping the ball. I think it’s just that there are defined duties of the job. Blake is the hockey guy. Luc is the business guy.

I don’t think the adjective re Iafallo is wrong. He can fit anywhere. He’s not a star. But he’s a very responsible player.

Vilardi was a top pick. We all rooted for him. We needed him to be that top player. It took awhile but we all saw the talent.
For some reason he did not stay here. The next five years of so will tell us if the decision to move him was wise or stupid.

GKG

 

[hokiecat]

Trading Gabe with Arvidsson injured drove the Kings to have zero right-handed shots for the PP last season. That is almost a criminal neglect of a need that Blake and co should have been well aware of and addressing.

I am not handing out awards to a guy for cleaning up messes largely of his own creation.

 

[Halfwall]

Trading Gabe with Arvidsson injured drove the Kings to have zero right-handed shots for the PP last season. That is almost a criminal neglect of a need that Blake and co should have been well aware of and addressing.

I am not handing out awards to a guy for cleaning up messes largely of his own creation.

Right. Because injuries are the GM's fault.

 

[DryKing]

He is younger.

He is younger...has better career stats and won the Vezina two seasons prior to being traded.

 

[Halfwall]

He is younger...has better career stats and won the Vezina two seasons prior to being traded.

Like I said, he is 3 years younger.

 

[empire]

You know what I love about Rob Blake is his fantastic hip checks, his incredible slapshot, his indelible leadership as our captain, and his pride in himself. He is always a KING.

 

[Bollocks]

Trading Gabe with Arvidsson injured drove the Kings to have zero right-handed shots for the PP last season. That is almost a criminal neglect of a need that Blake and co should have been well aware of and addressing.

I am not handing out awards to a guy for cleaning up messes largely of his own creation.

I know GMOTY is given based on RS success, but would you still claim "he deserves no recognition" if the Kings won the Cup this year? I feel it would be like the whole debate regarding Kopitar being a passenger ("the Kings won in spite of Kopitar").

With Rob I always get the feeling he started on the black list from the get-go since his trade to Colorado as a player and known ties to Luc, and then the PLD trade feels like it's the final nail in the coffin of his reputation no matter what he does to remedy it.

"He got lucky with Kuemper"...would a reaction like this be used if the Kings signed Zito next season and HE made a blunder similar to PLD later on, and remedied it later on, would he also be ostracized the way Rob is? I don't think so...I feel like there is a lot of unfair bias among Kings fans and people underestimate context and behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on that we don't know of...

 

[hokiecat]

I know GMOTY is given based on RS success, but would you still claim "he deserves no recognition" if the Kings won the Cup this year? I feel it would be like the whole debate regarding Kopitar being a passenger ("the Kings won in spite of Kopitar").

With Rob I always get the feeling he started on the black list from the get-go since his trade to Colorado as a player and known ties to Luc, and then the PLD trade feels like it's the final nail in the coffin of his reputation no matter what he does to remedy it.

"He got lucky with Kuemper"...would a reaction like this be used if the Kings signed Zito next season and HE made a blunder similar to PLD later on, and remedied it later on, would he also be ostracized the way Rob is? I don't think so...I feel like there is a lot of unfair bias among Kings fans and people underestimate context and behind-the-scenes stuff that goes on that we don't know of...

First, if the Kings win the Cup (hint: we're not) then I'd be totally praising Blake.

But the level of insanity in this thread seems high to me. Last season was the "push all the chips in move" and we did EVEN WORSE than the prior 2 post-seasons. The trades over the past 2 years have been pretty much a disaster with the exception of Kuzmenko which was great.
Jeannot deal = overpay. We paid a 4th and 2nd for that?
PLD for Keumper = Very good deal. But it was 2 GMs swapping their mistakes. Glad it worked out for both teams.
Iafallo, Vildardi, Kupari, 2nd for PLD = awful. Not just the trade cost but then signing that contract.
Durzi for 2nd = awful. Salary dump. Terrible asset management to lose a guy for cheap in order to free up cap space
Peterson, Walker, Grans, and 2nd for nothing = awful salary dump move. Needed a lot because of trading for Gavrikov and not having the cap space to extend him
Lemieux + 5th for MacEwen = awful. Waste of a pick
Quick, 1st and 3rd for Gavrikov and Korpisalo = nice to get Gavrikov but should have just paid more to get Chychrun and have cost certainty and more of a scoring LHD. Blake bled assets all spring/summer rather than just "buy once cry once"

Blake has capped the team out. He did a nice job of obtaining a real #1 goalie this season after giving us the Dollar Tree goalie duo in prior years (because he capped us out). He pushed the chips in and we haven't gone any further in the playoffs but the prospects pool is depleted.

Patrick in Washington should be GM of the year. He did a rebuild on the fly and they still have a stacked prospect pool. Doug Armstrong should be runner up. He fired a perfectly good coach to scoop up a great coach who hit the market due to Boston's stupidity.

Edit: Blake extending Q this past summer is looking super intelligent right now. He deserves some credit for a team friendly deal and also not going 8 years early foolishly like the GM in Buffalo.

 

[hokiecat]

Right. Because injuries are the GM's fault.

You can't be serious.

The GM's job is to hope for the best but plan for the worst. Name me one other NHL team which is/was one-deep at having right handed forwards on the roster. Maybe the Avs last year since they probably knew RyJo was washed up but I can't think of another team in the past few seasons which traded themselves into a lineup mess and didn't attempt to address it.

 

[Halfwall]

First, if the Kings win the Cup (hint: we're not) then I'd be totally praising Blake.

But the level of insanity in this thread seems high to me. Last season was the "push all the chips in move" and we did EVEN WORSE than the prior 2 post-seasons. The trades over the past 2 years have been pretty much a disaster with the exception of Kuzmenko which was great.
Jeannot deal = overpay. We paid a 4th and 2nd for that?
PLD for Keumper = Very good deal. But it was 2 GMs swapping their mistakes. Glad it worked out for both teams.
Iafallo, Vildardi, Kupari, 2nd for PLD = awful. Not just the trade cost but then signing that contract.
Durzi for 2nd = awful. Salary dump. Terrible asset management to lose a guy for cheap in order to free up cap space
Peterson, Walker, Grans, and 2nd for nothing = awful salary dump move. Needed a lot because of trading for Gavrikov and not having the cap space to extend him
Lemieux + 5th for MacEwen = awful. Waste of a pick
Quick, 1st and 3rd for Gavrikov and Korpisalo = nice to get Gavrikov but should have just paid more to get Chychrun and have cost certainty and more of a scoring LHD. Blake bled assets all spring/summer rather than just "buy once cry once"

Blake has capped the team out. He did a nice job of obtaining a real #1 goalie this season after giving us the Dollar Tree goalie duo in prior years (because he capped us out). He pushed the chips in and we haven't gone any further in the playoffs but the prospects pool is depleted.

Patrick in Washington should be GM of the year. He did a rebuild on the fly and they still have a stacked prospect pool. Doug Armstrong should be runner up. He fired a perfectly good coach to scoop up a great coach who hit the market due to Boston's stupidity.

Edit: Blake extending Q this past summer is looking super intelligent right now. He deserves some credit for a team friendly deal and also not going 8 years early foolishly like the GM in Buffalo.

Must be nice to live life in a rearview mirror.

 

[Bollocks]

First, if the Kings win the Cup (hint: we're not) then I'd be totally praising Blake.

But the level of insanity in this thread seems high to me. Last season was the "push all the chips in move" and we did EVEN WORSE than the prior 2 post-seasons. The trades over the past 2 years have been pretty much a disaster with the exception of Kuzmenko which was great.
Jeannot deal = overpay. We paid a 4th and 2nd for that?
PLD for Keumper = Very good deal. But it was 2 GMs swapping their mistakes. Glad it worked out for both teams.
Iafallo, Vildardi, Kupari, 2nd for PLD = awful. Not just the trade cost but then signing that contract.
Durzi for 2nd = awful. Salary dump. Terrible asset management to lose a guy for cheap in order to free up cap space
Peterson, Walker, Grans, and 2nd for nothing = awful salary dump move. Needed a lot because of trading for Gavrikov and not having the cap space to extend him
Lemieux + 5th for MacEwen = awful. Waste of a pick
Quick, 1st and 3rd for Gavrikov and Korpisalo = nice to get Gavrikov but should have just paid more to get Chychrun and have cost certainty and more of a scoring LHD. Blake bled assets all spring/summer rather than just "buy once cry once"

Blake has capped the team out. He did a nice job of obtaining a real #1 goalie this season after giving us the Dollar Tree goalie duo in prior years (because he capped us out). He pushed the chips in and we haven't gone any further in the playoffs but the prospects pool is depleted.

Patrick in Washington should be GM of the year. He did a rebuild on the fly and they still have a stacked prospect pool. Doug Armstrong should be runner up. He fired a perfectly good coach to scoop up a great coach who hit the market due to Boston's stupidity.

Edit: Blake extending Q this past summer is looking super intelligent right now. He deserves some credit for a team friendly deal and also not going 8 years early foolishly like the GM in Buffalo.

You forgot Foegele and Edmundson signings. For as much as Edmundson was/is overpaid, Foegele is underpaid IMO and both were near perfect fits for this team.

Then there is a contract extension of Kempe, too.

Jeannot is unfotrunately injured when his value would likely be the biggest, so...overpayment it is not (yet).

Durzi was simply the odd man out (considering Spence and the imminent arrival of Clarke) and the teams knew that. Also, ring me up when a team with Durzi in the top 4 wins a playoff series...meaning it's easier to be an undersized offensive defenseman on a bad team without pressure and then playoff intensity.

His drafting is IMO VERY good and he showed patience with developing some players that were plagued by injuries (QB, Vilardi, Turcotte) that many other GMs would rush too quickly or give up on too soon with the pressure of returning to Playoffs ASAP.


I'm not trying to argue he's the best GM in the NHL at all. He is, however, in the top 10 easily, and from this season onwards (so far) in the top 5.

And you seem to have an opinion a GM is unable to learn on the job...trajectory IS important and it seems he lacks the toxic ego that would prevent him from fixing his own mistakes. Some GMs would even double down...


Anyways...you've been a convinced Rob hater for a long time. It's fine. I just hope we all won't be terribly disappointed with his eventual replacement...