Ben Shelley: Weekly Recap: Kings Edition (October 12)

Looks like Kings fans are pleased with what management has been doing.
GO KINGS GO!!

I'm sure we'll still get the obligatory "Fire Blake" comments.

What Blake has done so far has been relatively easy. You or I could've traded veterans away for 2nd rounders, picked Byfield or Turcotte in the top 5 or listened to the scouts on the rest of the picks. The hard part is to come, which is icing a winning team. That's not a foregone conclusion just because of the great youth in the organization (see: Edmonton). Whether that happens on schedule is what Blake will be judged by.

What Blake has done so far has been relatively easy. You or I could've traded veterans away for 2nd rounders, picked Byfield or Turcotte in the top 5 or listened to the scouts on the rest of the picks. The hard part is to come, which is icing a winning team. That's not a foregone conclusion just because of the great youth in the organization (see: Edmonton). Whether that happens on schedule is what Blake will be judged by.
- Osprey

I mean you could argue that Ottawa had it pretty easy with their abundance of high quality draft picks this year, and most analysts agree that they crapped the bed on all of their picks after Stutzle and Sanderson.

The fact that Blake has chained together four A-rated drafts in his tenure is impressive, even if most of the credit should go to his scouting staff. They just as easily could have traded away the high round picks or gone off the board (Thomas Hickey anyone?). What's more impressive is the quality finds that they've been able to get outside of the first round. Kaliyev, Fagemo, Grans, Faber, Chromiak, Spence, etc. are all picks that analysts have lauded. Sure, several of these guys might not work out (most later round picks don't), but the fact that they have such an impressive stable of prospects to work with is worthy of recognition.

What Blake has done so far has been relatively easy. You or I could've traded veterans away for 2nd rounders, picked Byfield or Turcotte in the top 5 or listened to the scouts on the rest of the picks. The hard part is to come, which is icing a winning team. That's not a foregone conclusion just because of the great youth in the organization (see: Edmonton). Whether that happens on schedule is what Blake will be judged by.
- Osprey

The big test he passed for me so far? Blake resisted the perpetual retool. Trading for Bishop, signing Kovi...the possibility was there that his athletic, competitive juices would focus the club on playoff qualification instead of building to be a Cup champion. Last year, he got solid returns on some C grade and B grade assets. The Kings have drafted well under his leadership. But yes: development is an entirely different beast. And then the next step is deciding who to keep from the developed talent, who to cut loose, and who to bring in to complement the young core all in a financially responsible way.

What Blake has done so far has been relatively easy. You or I could've traded veterans away for 2nd rounders, picked Byfield or Turcotte in the top 5 or listened to the scouts on the rest of the picks. The hard part is to come, which is icing a winning team. That's not a foregone conclusion just because of the great youth in the organization (see: Edmonton). Whether that happens on schedule is what Blake will be judged by.
- Osprey

His approach is the right way, he is not taking the Dave Taylor approach of throwing away assets in hopes of taking a marginal team to make the playoffs. I mean I look at teams like Phoenix, who just do not know what they will do. Cap hell crap team. He did not commit bad contracts to Toffoli and Pearson. He does not seem to be tied as much to the loyalty factor that Dean was. Every string the guy has pulled as been good. It is not as easy as you make it out to be.

I agree with all three of you. I'm just saying that, though he's done almost everything right so far, it's still been the relatively easy part because he hasn't had to worry about winning or managing the cap and it's not hard to unload assets, make low risk signings and resist temptation to do anything stupid when there's no pressure to win. He deserves some credit, but the real challenge is to come.

How will he handle it when results are expected? Will he make a rash trade at the deadline just to try to make the playoffs? Will he have the savvy to make trades and signings to bring in the right guys, like Lombardi did with Williams, Carter, Richards, Mitchell, Greene, Stoll and so on? Will he fire McLellan and bring in the right coach at the right time, like Lombardi did when he hired Sutter? Will he resist signing UFAs to long, expensive contracts?

He's done a good job so far, but tearing everything down is easier than building it up. Then, staying at the top is the hardest part of all, as Lombardi found out. Blake deserves some credit, but we shouldn't get carried away... not that any of you are... but there's a Kings fan on another board who made a thread to predict that Blake would win GM of the Year next year. I'm partly reacting to that. The future looks bright, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves and lavish too much praise on Blake before the team has even risen out of the standings cellar.