The Los Angeles Kings made headlines on the first day after the end of the regular season. The Kings announced they had fired GM Dean Lombardi and Head Coach Darryl Sutter. They also announced former player Rob Blake would take over as General Manager and Vice President of Hockey Operations. Luc Robitaille was also promoted to President of Hockey Operations.
While the Los Angeles Kings failed to make the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, they club has remained a top possession team. The Kings have also been one of the best defensive teams. They had trouble scoring once again this season, and those issues have Lombardi’s fingerprints all over them.
Dean Lombardi will be known as the architect that built the 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup Champion rosters. In building those rosters, Lombardi mortgaged the future and the group was unable to grow more scorers in their system.
The other issue with Dean Lombardi was failing to realize where to put his money. Lombardi dished out a lengthy seven-year year deal to an aging Marian Gaborik after a strong playoff run. Gaborik now has four seasons remaining and a cap hit of $4.8 million. Former captain Dustin Brown was also offered a long-term deal when his offense was declining and he still has five years remaining on a deal that pays him an average of $5.8 million.
The Kings were already in cap hell, and these contracts ensured the team wouldn’t be able to add additional scoring help.
When the Kings needed scoring the most, Dean Lombardi instead added a number one goaltender in Ben Bishop. The move made no sense because starting goaltender Jonathan Quick had just returned from injury. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to move a prospect like Erik Cernak to bring in some scoring help?
Lombardi did add Jarome Iginla for (pretty much) free, and he did add offense to a club that was starving for it, but it was not enough and too little, too late.
Dean Lombardi made his share of mistakes, and it was probably time for him to move on. There comes a time when it’s best for both parties to move on to greener pastures, and Lombardi will go down as the most accomplished GM in Kings history.
CAN’T FAULT DARRYL SUTTER
Darryl Sutter got the much shorter end of the stick. There’s only so much a head coach can do with the players he has on the roster and Sutter did an admirable job getting the wins he did without much run support for his defensive group.
Much like another coach who was fired in Willie Desjardins, Sutter will be able to rest on the fact that he did his very best with a flawed roster.
The Kings still have a lot of solid players to build a roster around. Jonathan Quick will be healthy next year. Anze Kopitar is sure to bounce back from his poor offensive year. The Kings should be able to shed one of Marian Gaborik or Dustin Brown’s contract either via buyout or via expansion to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Next: Canucks fire Willie Desjardins
Rob Blake‘s main job will be to find some scoring on the cheap and replenish the prospect cupboards. They have a good chance to return to the playoffs next season, but Blake will be focused on a more long term plan.
The Los Angeles Kings went from a perennial Stanley Cup contender to a team on the outside of the playoff picture entirely. They will need to change their identity, and it will be up to a former player with no previous GM experience.