The Kings perfunctorily crossed the top item off their checklist at the trade deadline and general manager Rob Blake was affable and forthright afterward Friday.
That stood in contrast to last year’s deadline, a hostile period of internal tumult and the self-created inability to seek help calming it from without.
Yet any consistent observer would wonder if anything of substance has really changed with the black and silver.
Last season, Todd McLellan was out, and then Jim Hiller was in, promoted and then extended. Before this campaign, the 1-3-1 was nixed, but an even stodgier, more defensive-oriented and offensively challenged version of the Kings still magically appeared on the ice.
Above all, the Kings are on another collision course with the Edmonton Oilers, who’ve eliminated them in increasingly efficient fashion from each of the past three first rounds of the postseason. They’ll likely start their opening series on the road, where they’ve been beyond substandard, and their sparkling home record seems unlikely to hold weight against an opponent that held them to one goal in two home losses during a forceful ejection from last year’s playoffs.
At the moment, they’re reeling from a season-worst five games without a win, seeking to avert a season-series sweep by the St. Louis Blues at home before chasing the commanding division lead of the Golden Knights in Vegas. Even their defensive play was highly pervious during their 0-3-0 road swing.
After Friday’s games, the Kings were situated five points back of second-place Edmonton, 11 behind Vegas, a mere two points in front of Vancouver and three points from falling out of a playoff spot altogether.
Southern California iconic broadcaster Jim Hill asked Blake about his level of frustration with a team that was not meeting expectations, with Blake’s response belying Hill’s confident, matter-of-fact tone.
“I’m not sure we’re that far off where those should be. We’ve been, up until last week, in the top 10 in winning percentage all year, and we’re in the top three in our division,” Blake said.
In a news conference that was otherwise refreshing, that statement felt like a cheap sell to a room full of sophisticated buyers.
The reality was much clearer: The Kings not only had little that could be accomplished in the trade market, but they didn’t have the impetus of a contender to take a big swing in the first place.
Even the frank, gregarious Drew Doughty spoke the muted, mixed language of acceptance and denial, saying no matter what other teams did to load up at the deadline, the Kings felt they could still “frustrate teams,” later clarifying that their goal was also to “win some rounds.”
The Kings did attend to some internal business, re-signing Andre Lee, a 2019 seventh-rounder who became a depth forward for them this year, on Saturday.
More prominently, Blake revealed perhaps the worst-kept secret in the business, stating that his management team and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov were progressing confidently toward a lengthy contract extension.
Gavrikov had been represented by Daniel Milstein, who negotiated a two-year contract with a full no-movement clause for his client, which got Gavrikov on track to hit free agency at age 29 and just as the NHL salary cap was set to take a series of leaps.
Yet a few days before the deadline, Gavrikov abruptly changed agents, now employing none other than Pat Brisson, the close associate of not only Blake, but also and especially President Luc Robitaille and special advisor Marc Bergevin. Brisson also represents Kings captain Anže Kopitar and was the agent of embattled former King Pierre-Luc Dubois – who’s enjoying a career season on a Presidents’ Trophy contender just a season later.
“There was really no negotiation prior to that change, actually [none] at all,” Blake said. “What it did was that the new agency gets to know Gavi a little bit, too.”
Many fans, admittedly frustrated, have begun to plaster the internet with “Fire Rob Blake” pleas through avatars, handles, sound, fury and more. Yet Blake is every bit the sound man seen Friday, and he was also the executive who jump-started a rebuild that blazed past those of other battered 2010s contenders like the Ducks, San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks.
Removing Blake, who is in the final year of his contract with a stated goal to at least escape the first round, would do little to curb the insularity and disingenuousness that have produced such a mediocre and unentertaining product on the ice.