Why the Kings are where they are

Clif

Super Star
Here is a look at the Athletic’s prospect rankings for the Kings in 2021, when they were regarded as the best pipeline in the league. Pay special attention to 5-9.

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Why are they not contenders now? The number one prospect pool didn’t turn out to be the number one prospect pool.

The kids who have become impact players on the current roster, outside of Mikey Anderson, took a while to get there and are still developing their game.

Most players didn’t arrive. Blake also held on too long for a good number of them until their value plummeted.

Vilardi and Durzi were used for a big piece. It didn’t work. Faber was used for a big piece. It worked. (A player who put up two back-to-back 70+ pt seasons worked - this is not debatable. You may think he’s the wrong fit, but that doesn’t invalidate value in for value out)

For the bright, and realistic, side. Rebuilds are not paint by numbers. Drafting in hockey is profoundly difficult. Also, Cal’s collapse was a failure Blake was not prepared for and set a number of trades in motion that altered the team’s path.

This season is a success already for the real growth we’re seeing in young, important players. I think it’s funny that no one called them a contender this year, some doubted they’d even make the playoffs, and now that they’ve been in the playoffs all season the figurative we is all pissed off because their nasty slump reminded us they’re not contenders.

This is going to take more time. But despite some very real setbacks, they are a competitive team with upside on the horizon. The goalie prospects are very exciting and Greentree and Ziemmer have legit promise. hopefully Lee and/or Thomas prove to be valuable 4th liners. What more, the young players producing this year are only getting better. Keep going.
 
Most NHL draft picks never "arrive" - to have 13 out of 28 playing consistently in the NHL 4 years later is actually pretty good. 12 of the 28 still with the Kings and playing some NHL games. And Chromiak is only 22 years old and still with the organization. Ingham is still with the organization on the Swamp Rabbits.

Anderson-Dolan was always overrated, in my opinion - good riddance.

a few have gone off to play in Europe - pretty typical

Dudas, Nousiainen, Parik, Hultz, and Shafigullin were never big prospects and seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Or at least from google.

The draft is such a crap shoot. For any team to get even 4 good players out of 28 kids seems like a miracle.

Plus, this is the group, as you mentioned, that got "stuck" in the "we're pretending like it's still 2014" mentality from Blakey & the gang, which got an extra year added to that mentality due to the covid season. Fagemo & Thomas are still suffering from that - suprised their agents haven't tried to get them out of here already.
 
Most NHL draft picks never "arrive" - to have 13 out of 28 playing consistently in the NHL 4 years later is actually pretty good. 12 of the 28 still with the Kings and playing some NHL games. And Chromiak is only 22 years old and still with the organization. Ingham is still with the organization on the Swamp Rabbits.

Anderson-Dolan was always overrated, in my opinion - good riddance.

a few have gone off to play in Europe - pretty typical

Dudas, Nousiainen, Parik, Hultz, and Shafigullin were never big prospects and seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Or at least from google.

The draft is such a crap shoot. For any team to get even 4 good players out of 28 kids seems like a miracle.

Plus, this is the group, as you mentioned, that got "stuck" in the "we're pretending like it's still 2014" mentality from Blakey & the gang, which got an extra year added to that mentality due to the covid season. Fagemo & Thomas are still suffering from that - suprised their agents haven't tried to get them out of here already.
You are exactly right, it is a reason GM's absolutely hate rebuilds. Most of them don't work and if you don't pull a couple of elite players in those drafts you're just throwing gate money down the drain. Owners love that.
 
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