I had a bunch of stuff all typed up yesterday and then shit hit the fan at work (one of our Ethernet switches took the dirt nap and knocked out our Internet) so I had to scramble like hell to fix it.
Anyway, I'm still not buying the hype with the Kings. Rob Blake has papered over some of his more egregious errors with the signing of Phillippe Danault and trade for Pierre-Luc Dubois, but I'm not sure this team is truly a legit contender. It most certainly will make the playoffs and might even go on a big run IF the goaltending holds up, but I just don't see enough gamebreaking talent. Depth, yes, but both Doughty and Kopitar are about a decade past their primes. Fiala is a solid talent but I wouldn't put him on gamebreaker status.
Oh and they haven't had a plethora of high picks, but one they absolutely whiffed on their fifth overall pick in 2021 (I think it was that year) with Alex Turcotte. I'm kinda surprised he was a full-on bust. I thought for sure he'd be at least approaching the same level as the rest of that insanely stacked USNTDP team with Caufield, Hughes, Zegras, etc. Byfield is finally rounding into form, not sure what his ceiling is at this point. Time will tell with another high pick, Brandt Clarke.
Talbot is a weird one. By far the most successful University of Alabama-Huntsville Charger of all time (fun fact, I guess he was briefly UAH teammates with another goalie named Wyatt Russell, yep, that Wyatt Russell who's the son of Kurt Russell and is now playing a Marvel superhero) and has had one very erratic career. Did well as a backup in New York, got snagged by the Oilers and put in a few good years, then promptly imploded. His last season in Ottawa was beset by injury according to him, either way it wasn't good, and now he's in Los Angeles doing okay. Sure seems like the Kings have just resigned themselves to signing second-tier starters and trying to make them work rather than trying to develop a guy from within (their attempt to do so with Cal Petersen could not have ended worse) or spend large on a big name. I guess they figure with a deep enough team and McLellan's defensive systems they can get the job done. As said earlier, I'm skeptical but I'm curious to see if it works.
I don't mean to totally slag on Blake as an executive, as I have done in the past. Dean Lombardi left the Kings in absolute shambles, and Blake was forced by ownership to rebuild around #s 11 and 8 no matter what. That's led to a front office that had to take some ill-advised gambles, like Ilya Kovalchuk and giving money and term to the aforementioned Cal Petersen.
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