Building from within

All the power to Them
I hope they succceed.
If Lombardi makes our team into another Detroit or Pittsburgh, I'll be the first one to congragulate him and ask for his forgiveness, for calling him Dumbardi.

But thus far, I can only go with whats been demonstrated so far.
If he continues to make:
-crappy free agent signings
-giving no trade clauses to a bunch of has beens (Thornton, Handzus, Blake)
-signing players coming off of knee surgeries (Mcauley & Handzus)
-selecting players ranked 26 at 4th overall in the draft
-making poor trades
-putting together a terrible undersized corp of D-Men

How can anyone be blamed for doubting this GM.

Now, if he makes a smart move on draft day and acquires a kick ass D-Man who knows how to punish forwards who hang around the goalie, along with choosing the right D-man 2nd overall (not a player ranked 26th).
He'll be my hero if he signs another kick-ass D-Man (Brooks Orpik) by way of Free agency.
He will be Dumbardi - No More.

cant argue with any points there

Ok Anthony, we know you hate Lombardi.

If you were in his place I'd be curious to know what you would have done differently, or what you would do in the future. Try to ground your ideas in some semblance of reality if at all possible.

Actually Rich I'm glad to hear you say that it's a philosophy that both DL and LR buy in to, because I was worried ever since Luc was appointed the president of business operations for the Kings that he would NOT share DL's philosophy of building from with in or have the patience for it.

Having Luc drinking the GM's kool-aid is far better than having him not be on the same page with what his GM wants to do.

What's this non-sense about me hating Lombardi.
I never said that. And I challenge anybody to prove me otherwise.

I have mentioned that his performance (as GM) is unsatisfactory/poor.
In my opininion his negatives outweigh his positives.
But that can change.

Anthony, I have an idea. Instead of you constantly beating the poor dead horse into a bloody pulp, how about you tell us how you would’ve done it better than Lombardi. Over the last 2 years, who would you have traded, signed, drafted, extended contracts to, and so on? Try to be realistic. For example, when listing your UFA signings, please take into consideration the other 29 teams that were trying to lure these same players over to their team.

Rich, this may be a good topic for a slow week of Kings info. I'd like to see the master plans of some these back seat “I could do it better” GM's and Lombardi disbelievers.

Does everyone also understand that Pittsburgh sucked so bad for so many years that they ended up with plenty of #1 and #2 picks? Hell lets do it their way and completely suck for another 5 years and get all the #1 picks. Or we can try to hear out Lombardi and try to work with pieces that we have. I like the position we're in because we have pieces who can fit together and plenty of picks to trade or draft soon.

"Lord Anthony, Super internet GM said:

What's this non-sense about me hating Lombardi.
I never said that."

You don't have to say it, it's all in the tone of your posts.Your posts reek of hatred towards him and what he's done. You tear down Lombardi every chance you get, and constantly remind us of all the bad mistakes he's made. I have yet see you post ONE single positive thing he has done to help turn this organization around. I bet you whined and moaned when we traded for Jack Johnson.

28 Kings

I guess you must have missed my compliments to DL about:
-the O'Sulivan trade
-the Johnson trade
-signing of Erik Ersberg (an outstanding one)
-signing of Brad Stuart
-even the signing of Nagy (too bad that didn't work out)

Anthony,

Still waiting to hear how you would have done it better.

An interesting article, yet I don't buy it in regards to the Kings. If it were true, they would've fired their scouting staff along with the rest of management. The Detroit model clearly shows their European scouts keen eye for talent. We don't have that and with DL's signings last year, he doesn't have it either.

One of the main reasons I'm rooting for Detroit over Pittsburgh is that the Pens got REALLY REALLY lucky to have the kind of talent coming into the league when it did; it didn't take a whole lot of brains to select Malkin or Crosby- those were ultimate slam-dunks. Some of the other guys they made good choices on, but contrast that with the Red Wings, who have had to mine later rounds and have the ultimate winning organization. In my opinion, they've "earned" their success a lot more than the Pens, and at this point I think they have to be the absolute model of what an NHL franchise should be. I used to loathe them, but I have really grown to respect the organization.

On a side note, it gets really tiresome seeing all the comments by or about Anthony every time I read a post here- it takes away from legitimate discussion, and the thoughtful/topic-relevant posters seem to have mostly dried up. Sigh...

"If it were true, they would've fired their scouting staff along with the rest of management"

JANUARY 2007

From the LA Times:

Assistant director Grant Sonier also removed from staff, sources said.
By Chris Foster, Times Staff Writer
6:15 PM PST, January 5, 2007

"The Kings fired Al Murray, the director of amateur scouting, and a large portion of the amateur scouting department Friday, a source close to the team said.

Murray has been with the team for 18 years, the last 13 as director of amateur scouting. Grant Sonier, the assistant director of amateur scouting, also was fired.

General Manager Dean Lombardi declined to comment.

Murray's departure was the last step in the complete overhaul of the franchise, which began last spring when General Manager Dave Taylor was fired. While Taylor remains as a consultant, nearly everyone else in the front office has been fired or reassigned within AEG, the Kings parent company.

The Kings have had a spotty amateur draft record in recent seasons. They had eight first-round picks between 2000-04 and only four of those players are still in the organization."

Must have missed that, huh?

one other thing-
"The Detroit model clearly shows their European scouts keen eye for talent. We don't have that and with DL's signings last year, he doesn't have it either."

Look how many years it took, on average, for those guys to get in the organization AND produce- it is far to early to judge the kings recent drafts. However, I do agree that the Kings are not likely to follow Detroit's European scouting success- DL seems to have a preference to draft from the CHL (specifically the WHL and OHL)

As a regular of this blog over the last couple seasons I gather that it's frequented more by the hardcore Kings (hockey) fan than the average or casual fan. In my experience, the hardcore tend not only to be more knowledgeable and passionate but also more critical. I see no fault in questioning management decisions / track record and someone calling it like they see it. Some peoples glasses (of kool aid) are half full, others are half empty.
I'm not a fan of negativity or cynicism either but lets stop being so sensitive and running to Lombardi's rescue every time he gets a deserving face wash. Let him defend himself by doing what he was brought here for and making good on his plans to build a winner. The foundation is being layed but the critics won't be silenced until there are results. Until then a variety of differing opinion make for entertaining reading.

Great job Rich & crew, This site has never been better.

Look Rich, the Kings drafted guys in the same years as Pittsburgh. They got Cammalleri, Kopitar, Frolov, Brown. You know what? Those guys aren't nearly as good as Fleury, Malkin, Crosby, Staal. The Kings are NOT NOT NOT "like" the Penguins. They are the last place team in the league. Please report on the team and stop shilling for the GM.

Way to go J!

I have to give Lord Anthony some credit, he does put his own name on his posts. As for the anonymous posters who complain and whine about not winning and "oh how we've waited so long! for a winning team!" - stop rooting for the team! its as simple as that. I'm all ears if you have an opinion - a trade that you didn't like, a move we should have made, some criticisms founded in some scant knowledge of the actual game played and not the one you see half drunk off of $10 watered down beers in your luxury suite. I for one like what is going on over the past 2 years ... and I've been a fan since the early 70s and even worked for the Kings in the early 90s. I'm frustrated too and I'd love to see us smack the Wings down every time we play them, but I also take some pride in doing it the right way - laying the foundation for the long term not just a year or two. I know that many of you feel the same way. Its not far away.

Has DL ever signed or traded for a player/s of the
quality of Zetterburg or Datsyuk? He has been a GM
for 9 years now and his best moves that I can think
of would be drafting Marleau (no brainer) and getting
Cheechoo (brilliant move) in the second round by trading a high draft pick. It is way too early to judge
his LA drafts yet. My other question would be since he
has a plan to rebuild L.A. through the draft why was he
even trying to sign Briere or Drury last off-season.
Was this to appease fans that he was trying to improve the team or did he know going in he had no chance to
sign either of these guys and would be back to rebuild by the draft plan.

Mario? I can't tell whether you're trying to make a point or criticizing the Kings. Because if you're criticizing us for somehow not getting those players, that's not very intelligent.

fortunately, i don't think that's the point you're trying to make. so if you're trying to say that this has nothing to do with the Kings and Rich should be more unbiased... well, I disagree with that too. Rich has been extremely unbiased; read either the UCLA or USC blogs for comparison.

he pulled this article from a reader comment, found it informative and interesting, and shared it with the readers, who happen to see the relation to us. tell me where rich said that we're like the Penguins; you quoted it, you must have seen it somewhere. pretty sure he meant that we have an approach similar to the one they used, sticking with homegrown prospects instead of finding short-term fixes. and i agree with that.

Mario L

Rich didn't write this article. it was pulled from TSN [the Canadian ESPN ]

also, as many mistakes as DL has made thus far, Cammalleri, Kopitar, Frolov, and Brown had nothing to do with him.

additionally, i think there are plenty of teams who would love to have any one of those players even though they may not be the caliber of 2 of the 4 players you listed [Malkin and Crosby].

losing sucks... but wow.

I'm not an apologist. I just have enough in the way of common sense to understand that it takes some time to build a winner from the ground up.

That's why I'm so curious as to what Anthony and other posters screaming for Lombardi's head would have done differently. These things take time, and it's not like Lombardi and co. destroyed a beautiful King's tradition. They took a worthless and perennially under-performing product, and destroyed it in the hopes of building something better. I cannot wait to see the result.

You guys aren't paying attention. Rich says Dean and Luc would cite this article as proof we should wait and see. That Dean and Luc are trying to make the Kings like Detroit and Pitt. Well that's pure BS. The Kings drafted good players high in the last 6 or 8 drafts. The Kings have been out of the playoffs for 5 seasons. In those seasons they have drafted plenty of players and some (the ones I list) have panned out. What has it got us? LAST PLACE. How is that even REMOTELY like Pittsburgh? How is it even REMOTELY like Detroit?

It's NOT!

Dean is pulling the wool over your eyes. Taylor was drafting good players at the end. Kopitar, FRolov, Cammalerri, Brown. These guys can PLAY. Taylor put in a training facility and got an AHL franchise too. He had developed an "infrastructure". Yet where did that get us? Out of the playoffs for 5 years. TAYLOR DRAFTED 3 times in the 03 first round! Where did that get the Kings? Las place!!

Drafting players, even good players, is not something NEW that Lombardi invented or stole from The Penguins. WAKE UP! DUmbardi is an idiot.

voice of reason
The result will be a team that never gets out of
the 2nd round. I watched Mr. Lombardi dick around
for 7 years and never have the balls to make a
move to get us over the top. Some horrible drafts
and some crappy trades as well plus signing injury
prone free agents like Iafrate and Suter who never
did much for us.Sound familiar? He also loves to
dick players around during contract negotiations
like he did with Marleau, Nabakov and Stuart at the
beginning of 2002 season. Another nice touch was
publicly blasting Owen Nolan so when he moved him
he got squat.