He was once a savior of the Kings organization, was he not? I'm ready for the excuses and I knew he wasn't going to be that good cause he had frosted tips.
I don't look at it that way. I think it just shows how much we have improved in our scouting and drafting. 5 years ago someone like Pushkarev would have been our #1 prospect. Now because of better scouting and drafting he is #5 and will probably move down as this years crop is added.
He was once a savior of the Kings organization, was he not? I'm ready for the excuses and I knew he wasn't going to be that good cause he had frosted tips.
Wasn't in just our organization. He was the 2nd or 3rd best prospects in the Avs farm system when we got him.
I don't think he was ever the same player after his shoulder injury. But beyond that Aulin is a good example of why its always a bad idea to over hype prospects. No one is a sure deal and no one should be expected to be the next great anything.
No one is a sure deal and no one should be expected to be the next great anything.
Wrong... there are sure deals... Gretzky was, Lemieux was, Crosby and Ovechkin certainly were, and a number of others were as well. You want to place bets on Malkin's output in the NHL?
DT was skewered because he traded (at the time) 3 highly rated prospects (Aulin, Anshakov, Tambellini) in exchange for rent-a-players who were soon to be free agents (Straka, Carter, Parrish). Aulin and Anshakov didn't pan out, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but at the time the fans were being fed the "we're building from within" rhetoric.
"Trading our future" is fine if you are trading for "their" future....
Wrong... there are sure deals... Gretzky was, Lemieux was, Crosby and Ovechkin certainly were, and a number of others were as well. You want to place bets on Malkin's output in the NHL?
And their have been just as many "one in a lifetime" players who turned out to be nothing.
... but at the time the fans were being fed the "we're building from within" rhetoric.
I don't know how a person can operate with such a rigid and literal view of language and human behavior. Can you not imagine (much less embrace) the idea that changing circumstances will present new opportunities that might cause someone to act in a way that (god forbid) might appear contradictory? "Building from within" was a convenient catchphrase used a few times to describe (truthfully) a general philosophy; it wasn't a damn inviolate contract etched in stone.
Every GM has to spout a few generic platitudes, and then has to act according to the needs and opportunities of the moment. God help us if you're going to keep a database of everything Lombardi's ever uttered and hold it against him at the first sight of incongruence.
(And just for the record, nobody from the current organization has said "rebuilding" to my knowledge.)
He did have that one highlight reel goal where he came down the side and went top shelf from the faceoff circle. I thought he was well on his way to becoming a fixture in LA's future. Then the buzz wore off and he became just another guy , it happens. We all put too much into prospects because the reallity is they are the great unkown, the x factor.
Daigle was considered one of the most promising prospects of his generation. In junior hockey he had set new records and some writers compared him to Wayne Gretzky with the added bonus of a mean streak. The Ottawa Senators were even accused of deliberately losing late in the season to draft him. When the expansion team finished last, they drafted Daigle over future NHL superstars Chris Pronger and Paul Kariya. He also uttered the infamous comment "I'm glad I got drafted first, because no one remembers number two." He also received the largest starting salary in league history (five-year, $12.25 million), which lead to the introduction of a rookie salary cap a few years later.
I don't know how a person can operate with such a rigid and literal view of language and human behavior. Can you not imagine (much less embrace) the idea that changing circumstances will present new opportunities that might cause someone to act in a way that (god forbid) might appear contradictory? "Building from within" was a convenient catchphrase used a few times to describe (truthfully) a general philosophy; it wasn't a damn inviolate contract etched in stone.
Every GM has to spout a few generic platitudes, and then has to act according to the needs and opportunities of the moment. God help us if you're going to keep a database of everything Lombardi's ever uttered and hold it against him at the first sight of incongruence.
While is is true that "changing circumstances will present new opportunities", IMO the biggest problem that this franchise had over the last 5+ seasons is the lack of clear commitment to a plan. Vacillating between building for the future and sacrificing the future for the quick fix guaranteed that the team ended up mired in mediocrity - not quite good enough to make a real statement in the playoffs, but not bad enough to get the true quality prospects.
In an interview during the draft, Lombardi called the Kings' organization he found after being hired "a black hole".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kearney
(And just for the record, nobody from the current organization has said "rebuilding" to my knowledge.)
From the LA Times 6/24:
Lombardi met with billionaire Philip Anschutz, the Kings' owner, and Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, this week and presented proposals on how the team should proceed. According to a league source, those plans range from tearing the organization apart and then rebuilding — an idea that makes those in the team's marketing department cringe — to trying to patch the holes on the fly.
"This is the type of thing that should have been done 12 months ago," Lombardi said before that meeting. "You have to be ahead of the curve. Instead of one-, three- and five- year plans, they seemed to be running on 24-hour lead time."
Whatever plan is adopted, it will take time to implement.
"To get back to where we had it in San Jose is going to take three years," Lombardi said.
He was a Top prospect. Not sure he was ever the top prospect.
His problem is he was a rich kid. So paying the price to get to the next level was never there. Not sure he ever recovered from the injury to his shoulder he took a couple a years ago in prospect tourny.
He was a Top prospect. Not sure he was ever the top prospect.
His problem is he was a rich kid. So paying the price to get to the next level was never there. Not sure he ever recovered from the injury to his shoulder he took a couple a years ago in prospect tourny.
, it happens. We all put too much into prospects because the reallity is they are the great unkown, the x factor.
