Hits and misses by GM Rob Blake

15 comments

1. Go Kings!! 🍻🇨🇦

2. GKG!

3. Let’s go Edmundson!

4. Good calls Eddie!

5. they should've included Blake in that Pierre-Luc Dubois trade!!

6. I felt from the get go kings needed a seasoned gm to rebuild. Kovalchuk signing and McLellan hiring just validated my fears.

7. Eddie, has no one informed you that Philadelphia also took on Ryan Johansen, Colorado's own Cal Petersen, to acquire that 1st round pick in the Sean Walker trade?
   Details count Eddie.

8. Just to try and approach some of the "bad" signings and trades with optimism…

   In the season prior to signing Ilya Kovalchuk, the Kings lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Vegas would go on to the Finals (losing in 5 games). The series between LA and Vegas was very tight; Jonathan Quick playing lights out. The narrative about signing Kovalchuk was that LA thought they were just a couple goals shy of winning that series and, with a bit more fire power, could have been in Vegas' shoes by making it to the Finals. …While the signing didn't materialize the way LA had hoped, the reality is that this signing was pretty close to Dean Lombardi's flub of re-signing Marian Gaborik. While Gaborik had a fantastic 2014 Stanley Cup run, his 7-year extension at $4.875 AAV (14% of the team's total salary) was certainly a big eye sore. I kind of lump these two signings in with one another because the idea was the same: the team needed scoring, and it never came.

   As for the Cal Petersen trade… Yes, the signing was bad. $5M per season was WAY too much of a reach. However, to get out from that signing with the trade they did was a stroke of genius. It has handcuffed Philadelphia financially with Petersen, and Walker — I'm speaking bluntly — was never more than a third-pairing Defenseman at best. To that point, while I personally like Helge Grans, I never saw him as more than a bottom pairing guy; so this wasn't like Blake broke the bank to unload a bad contract. He got rid of three players he wasn't going to keep and he made it someone else's problem to deal with.

9. I am fine with player transactions Blake made, Kovalchuk had a really good season in the Russian League the previous season. The Kings gave up no assets to get him. His play did not transfer to NHL. The Petersen contract he was the best Goalie in the AHL and his first season in the NHL was not bad. I personally would have liked to see CP play 100 games before signing him to the contract that they did. Most of the signings Blake made were to help the team become a winner. The problem I have with Blake is his coaching hires. Todd was brought in to help develop the younger players and for the team to take the next step and that was to make the playoffs. He achieved that. The other hires were horrible and went against his player signings which was to win. I hope Hiller can get the Kings to the next step but I don't know.

10. The Matt Roy commentary is uhh..pure fantasy. The only way Blake trades Roy in that moment is if he gets a better RD in return. If you trade Roy for futures that automatically throws Clarke into the fire. But let’s face it, Clarke wasn’t ready and to throw him into that situation would have been a disaster. Then the question becomes: Who was the best RD available at the time? Well, at the deadline It was none other than Sean Walker. Imagine you are trying to make the playoffs, are you trading Matt Roy for Sean Walker? A pending UFA for another pending UFA? Not gonna happen. Therefore the best option was to try and go on a deep run with Roy on the team.

11. Stop sugar coating Blake. Blake has created a team that can maybe enter round one, but lose to an elite team. Blake hasn’t come close to building an elite team. It is doubtful he can ever do that. The problem is other NHL teams have excelled into elite status and so the Kings just are outclassed by them.

12. Martin necas comes to kings ? Rob Blake make it happen 🙏

13. I don't look at anything Blake does as GM tarnishing anything he did as a player.

    Roggie Vachon and Dave Taylor were both GM's for LA and both ended up not lasting.

    Nothing they did as GM tarnished anything they did as players.

14. One thing that Blake did that I thought went really well. They were rebuilding for what 4 years under his watch? They are since then a playoff team, while San Jose and Anaheim are in rebuilding hell

15. It's right in front of us, this guy must go, and that includes Bergevin and Luc. If you are happy with his transactions, sorry, you are not committed to winning