Has built up a solid prospect pool though, but I agree signing Kovy and getting Phaneuf was idiotic.

On a positive note, I heard that LAK might be sending a record amount of kids to wjc

That's not really a credit to him though. That's Yannetti and his scouts as well as not trading good draft picks.

And most of which are 3, 4 years from making the Kings.
If you watch the Kings, the foundation is there. They are among the best in the entire league in possession and Corsi. They are 1st in shots against though. The issue is very simple and is not rebuilding or retooling. The issue is the roster itself. They need to be players in this coming Free Agency and get Kopitar, Brown, and Doughty the help they need to be a good team(which they aren't far away from being) before its too late. Hopefully Turcotte, Vilardi, JAD, Bjornfot, and maybe Clague can come up next season and make a decent impact. Lizotte, Walker, and Kempe are good pieces for the team, but not near enough. Roy is starting to impress, but who knows. In the end, that 11M cap hit from those 3 players are really going to hender how much we can do in FA. This next offseason is really going to be a defining time for Blake as GM...

I’m pretty sure you just dumped on Blake for being aggressive about getting this team to compete for a playoff spot when he signed Phaneuf and Kovalchuk but you believe he needs to add in free agency this coming year to what, accelerate the rebuilding process to be competitive when they were just able to admit to themselves that a rebuild is necessary. Sounds like more of the same thing. The 11 million in dead cap space is unfortunate but we probably won’t be competitive until the year after next so it’s as fortunate of a situation as you could have considering the circumstances. When that space is greatly reduced, more players are moved out, more prospects are playing and feeling more confident and everyone is on the same page about McClellans system(since we’ll be introducing new prospects to it) then I think they may try for free agency, until then they can just bid their time

1) Traded Gaborik (DL bad signing) for Phaneuf. Dion gave 1 good season & 1 bad season to the Kings, while Gaborik gave nothing to OTT. NOT BLAKE’S FAULT, BLAME DL.
2) Richards termination was done by DL, not Blake.
3) Yes, Stevens & Willie didn’t work out, but Blake hired McLellan and he looks like a solid hire.
4) If you don’t want to credit him for the last 3 drafts, and all the great prospects he’s collected (including the Muzzin Trade) then you’re not thinking clearly.
5) Yes, the Kovalchuk signing was bad! He took a shot and missed terribly. But that signing didn’t alter the Kings from any free agent signings, now or next year.

The Kovalchuk signing looks bad, but I think Blake has done a solid job as a GM. Team looks primed for a deep playoff run in 2-3 years. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the last few players from the Cup runs & the prospects maturing.

Gonna just play devils advocate a little but I actaully overall agree with you.

1) Correction: Phaneuf had max 26 good games and 67 bad ones. The way I see it, Gaborik when healthy was still a decent player and the advantage of Gabprik was when he was injured, which was often, he was on LTIR, giving the team cap flexibility and actual salary relief. Phaneuf was generally healthy player and was becoming painfully obvious that he couldn't keep up in the new NHL. I won't say this was bad trade per se but he misjudged some very important criteria that had he been more prudent, would have told him to stay clear of this move.

2) Agreed and even if it was him, not his fault in the slightest.

3) I don't think his hires have even been that bad, I think simply had misguided goals for their seasons under those coaches. Their loss to Vegas should have been an eye opener for them that its not the coaching style that was that bad, but its roster makeup and age group of the core that was misconstructed.

4) GM's get wayyyyyyy too much credit for their drafting. Truth is none of the players under his guidance have made the NHL yet so we can't crown Blake a genius just yet. I don't think any one of us could have done any worse with the picks he had simply using online draft mocks.... Development has EVERYTHING to do with how a player becomes a good player or not. That will be the thing to hang his hat on if they become good but we'll have to wait and see for that.

5) Agreed to a certain extent, that roster spot could have been given to a younger player. It didn't overly affect them but there were some negative impacts from it.

I think its been too early to judge him to harshly, while he hasn't killed it as GM he hasn't "Chiarelli'd" it up either.

Moron

That’s pretty much sums up my opinion of you. You seem to just hold a grudge against Blake.

He has been fine as a GM. It’s been what, 2 years relax kid

Nobody within the Kings organization ever said anything about this being a rebuild buddy. In Luc’s words it is a “Reload”. We have good prospects ready to make the jump next season and With the additions of a few FA pickups then That will put them in a good spot. That sounds a lot like what a “Reload” would be.

I respectfully disagree. I think Blake has been fine. I think he took over with this team at a crossroads. He was in a hard spot in my opinion. Trade everyone that brought home 2 cups or give them every chance to rebound. I think they deserved the chance to try to rebound! This team had won 2 cups and he tried what he could to help them work their way out of it. Kovalchuk was a last ditch effort to keep this team going. He even picked up Hagelin at the start of last season. By the time Christmas hit last year it was clear it was time to move on and he started that process. Traded Muzzin, great trade, Thompson, Hagelin, bought out Phaneuf and now terminated Kovalchuk. He’s signed Lizotte, Peterson, Iafallo all as free agents. Got Prokhorkin to come over. Hired McLellan. And I actually read somewhere that when Willie was interim that Blake was just waiting for McLellan. True or not I don’t know. I think this deadline and this summer will say a lot. But Overall think he showed this team of guys some respect for what they had accomplished and held them together as long as he could. Everything I’ve heard is this organization is a class act and even with Kovalchuks departure there was no drama and I think that says a lot about how things are run.

Are you ****?

What is one good thing Blake has done other than not trading our picks and good players? Although I think the Petersen deal is amazing those are about the things he’s done well. Look at the coaches he’s hired. Todd is proving to be alright, but time will tell. The trades he’s made for playoff pushes when we were in that spot were absolutely garbage and you can’t argue. Signing Kovi and trading for Phaneuf were almost as dumb as hiring John Stevens (The worst head coach in Flyers history) They might as well of kept Gaborik and let him ride LTIR so we wouldn’t be ****ed in cap of players that aren’t on the team anymore.

I don’t understand the trouble you are having seeing this? Kings have hopefully 3 more good years in Kopitar and Doughty(although I am a firm believer that Doughty will be good till he’s 40) that’s nothing to wager on. Kings built up there prospect pool. They have a lot of good players about to come up. Now is the time to load up and go for another run. Not saying go all in but Add the players needed to make it a playoff team and the year after we’ll be in a position to go much further in the playoffs.

One thing worse than a GM that makes bad trades is one that does nothing. Blake does nothing. We are not rebuilding we are “Reloading” I think there’s been plenty to rule Blake a bad GM. He’s already hired 2 very bad head coaches and make 1 dumb trade and multiple stupid signings. Now here we are almost 2 years and he hasn’t really done anything at all except for hiring Todd and putting Kovalchuk on unconditional waivers.

I really think that after this next offseason people are going to see what I mean.

You do realize he’s been the GM for roughly 2 years right? No GM fixes a team in that amount of time. He’s doing what he needs to do. He thought they had 1 more year left in the tank when they signed Kovalchuk. Kovalchuk was a low risk high reward type guy. He didn’t work. Does nothing to the teams future. Kings have plenty of cap space. When the contract drops off they’ll be fine. You think it’s the end of the world, it’s not.

You can’t just magically “load up” especially with the lineup they currently have. Panarin wasn’t coming to the kings. Kings weren’t going after players like Stone Or Pacioretty at those prices, so what exactly are you crying about? There are no players the kings need right now. A rebuild needs to happen, deal with it.

I think the kings will have 1 or 2 shots at getting Kopitar and doughty another cup. But it’s not happening for at least 2 years. This by no means means Blake is a terrible GM. You think he is because he didn’t get a player like panarin.

Carter, Toffoli, and Lewis need to go. Won’t get much but they need to go. I would also say trade Clifford then resign him in the off season.

The year they need to load up in is 21-22 season. Hopefully get a year of Turcotte, Anderson, Clague, JAD...in the NHL before adding a significant player (RNH is the one I would gun for). I would love for them to sign krug this offseason but I highly doubt that happens.

“Reload” yeah ok. I was merely pointing out the hypocrisy of your post that you were attacking Blake for one thing but also suggesting the same thing. Your argument fell in on itself there. It’s a good thing we don’t have you as GM or else it would be more of the same but by all means go for it

I also don’t understand why you would take what they say at face value. They have to appease the fans who have a share in paying for their operations the same way politicians have to appease their constituents so they stay in office. You have to see the forest through the trees friend

"Reload" was straight out of Robitaille's mouth. Rebuild never came out of his or Blake's mouth so not sure what you don't understand there. You are an idiot. See the forest through the trees? If that's the case, the trees I'm seeing is our core having another solid 2-3 years and we have the power to take advantage of those years. We have Bjornfot, JAD, Turcotte, and Vilardi who will all be solid and NHL ready next season. Maybe Clague too. With a couple good trades and FA pickups, we could be contending in 2 years. We DO NOT need a REBUILD. Not when we have guys like Turcotte, Vilardi, Bjornfot, Clague, and Petersen ALREADY. I don't understand the trouble you are having seeing that. Really don't.

Apparently you didn’t read my second comment about taking what they say at face value but I didn’t expect your short sided logic to catch that but I’m the idiot. You seem to have an affinity for seeing the obvious about their prospects but it’s a matter of application that could invariably go either way. They had a fantastic few years drafting and have a bright future but are they going to magically pull $ out of their ass to sign enough free agents to close the gap between their core who are all over 30 and their young players under 25. Seems like realistically it’s going to be more of a challenge than you’re making it out to be. In the end, I’ll eat my words if they are competitive in that time frame of 2-3 years but look what happened last time we thought we were competitive and the fact of the matter is we we swept in the first round. Anyway if your logic wins out then it’s good because we’ll be competitive again, if mine does well then I’m right so I like where I’m sitting on this one. Win-Win for me