Maybe he’d sign with the Kings anyway, but it was getting real dicey and it looks to be very apparent he loved the idea of playing for the Wild. All points to a true win-win trade for Blake.
Yep, I think this is the key point. I read as many articles as I could on it after seeing that picture, and two things were obvious:
1) he wanted to play for the Wild and one day was determined to get there
2) he said he was surprised when he found out about the trade (very unclear if he meant surprised in which he didn't see a trade coming, or surprised as in he won the lottery)
Faber did want another shot at the title, but many of his teammates in the same position did as well but ended up signing with their NHL teams. Simply said, he may have signed with LA in the sort term, but it would have been a big gamble on Blake's part to wait on potentially walk away with nothing. It was clear, though, that Faber never thought of LA as "his team".
Heck going back to Doughty, he spoke pre-draft on how much he loved the Kings growing up and wanted to be in LA should they draft him. That's usually the kind of talk you see from a player who is ready to commit to a team if selected. Faber, however, always projected as though he wanted to be in Minnesota and only Minnesota.
“Being a Minnesota kid and playing at the University of Minnesota and now with the Minnesota Wild it’s obvious people from Minnesota love that. Fans. Even my friends and family and having them all so close, it is a whole lot different than it would be if I was in L.A.,” Faber said. “This is the State of Hockey and it’s the State of Hockey for a reason. It’s everything I could have imagined. But again all you think about is how happy would those fans be if you could bring back a Cup. That’s the main goal and that would be the coolest thing in the world, obviously. Yeah. it’s the State of Hockey. It’s special to be here and I’m so grateful for it.”
Scott Burnside will be following defenseman Brock Faber through Training Camp
www.nhl.com