YEAR FOUR: Time To Make A Trade

Dean Lombardi was hired as General Manager of the Los Angeles Kings on April 21, 2006. Six years later, the Kings hosted the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history.  The former GM of the Sharks certainly didn’t hit on every trade, draft pick, or free agent signing he made during his tenure in Los Angeles.  But after a few short years in Los Angeles; he brought a sense of direction and an identity that the franchise had severely lacked for over a decade.

  

The 2016-17 season was an absolute disappointment.  With that said, I never understood how a GM who brought the franchise such success didn’t get the chance to breakdown the team he constructed and rebuild it.  The Kings were only a year removed from a 102-point season when Lombardi was relieved of his GM duties. 

LOMBARDI 2.0? 

I was surprised when the Kings promoted Rob Blake as general manager.  After all, he was hired as assistant GM by Lombardi for the 2013-14 season.  He was one of ‘Dean’s guys.’  Wasn’t he just going to provide more of the same?  After Blake hired assistant coach John Stevens to takeover for Daryl Sutter.  We had our answer. 

Dean’s core bounced back for the 2017-18 season; 98-points and a first-round sweep by the expansion Vegas Golden Knights.  That off-season Blake took his first big swing as GM and signed 35-year-old Ilya Kovalchuk to a three-year contract in an attempt to jumpstart their anemic offense.  The Kings struggled out of the gate, Stevens was fired a month into the season and then the puzzling hire of Willie Desjardins as interim head coach. 

WHO'S KINGS ARE THESE?

The roster Dean Lombardi took over in 2006 looked nothing like the Kings roster that made a 22-point improvement in his fourth season as GM.  I wanted to provide a snapshot of the rosters from each of those seasons to show the slow progression made. 

Using a combination of the old and new expansion draft protection rules; I created a snapshot of the NHL roster: 9 forwards, 5 defensemen, 1 goaltender based strictly by time-on-ice.  First and second-year pros were exempt.  Also players 35 years or older were exempt.  Notable prospects are players in the system that appeared in at least one NHL game.

Now let’s be clear the first three seasons under Lombardi, The Kings weren’t good.  They finished with 68, 71, & 79 points in his first three seasons.  The team drafted 4th (2007), 2nd (2008), and 5th (2009) overall. 

After four short years, Dean Lombardi had completely overhauled the roster top-to-bottom.  Using my snapshot parameters, only four key players/prospects were Dave Taylor acquisitions: Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Alexander Frolov, and Jonathan Quick were still in the picture four years later.  That 2009-10 season began a run of five straight playoff appearances; two Stanley Cups and three Western Conference Finals appearances.

Now, let’s do the same exercise with the 2016-17 roster that Rob Blake inherited and what it looked like at the end of this season.

FULL REBUILD? 

What Rob Blake has done over the last two seasons is the easy part.  Hoarding prospects and picks for key veterans like Alec Martinez, Tyler Toffoli, Kyle Clifford, Jake Muzzin, and Tanner Pearson is fine business.  The Kings have quickly amassed an embarrassment of riches in the AHL and the prospect pipeline (albeit possibly lacking that blue-chip prospect).  With their lockdown lottery luck; this year’s #2 draft pick should bring that top-end prospect into the mix. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

If you prorate the Kings 29-35-6 record this season to 82 games; the Kings would end up with 75 points.  For the 2018-19 season, Colorado needed 90 points to secure the 8th seed in the West.  Will full seasons from Vilardi and Bjornfot get the Kings another 15 points next season?  No.

The Kings have made 23 picks in the last three Entry Drafts under Blake (eight picks in the first two rounds).  The Kings have another 11 picks in this year’s Draft (four more picks in the first three rounds).  You can only have 50 players under contract.  Blake has done a fine job accumulating picks and strengthening the prospect pool.  But the chances of these prospects carving out lengthy NHL careers are less than a coin flip.  

Anze Kopitar just turned 33.  Drew Doughty is 30.  Both are two of the highest paid players in the NHL.  And both are still two of the best at their positions but for how much longer?  The current roster is lopsided; the Kings most productive players are on the wrong side of 30.   Short of Alex Iafallo, Sean Walker, and Matt Roy; the roster is missing players in their mid-20s that can be relied upon to contribute.  By the time we start hearing names like Turcotte, Kaliyev, and Kupari contributing at the NHL level, it will most likely be too late for Kopitar & Doughty.

Dean Lombardi put his stamp on the roster in his third year, trading fan favorite Lubomir Visnovsky (who he’d just signed to a five-year extension) to Edmonton for Jarret Stoll (26 years old) and Matt Greene (25 years old).  The only significant move that Blake has made to the NHL roster in three seasons is striking out on Ilya Kovalchuk.  Blake is already on this third coach.  The clock is ticking.  It’s time for Blake to make this Kings team his own.  Now.