GM Blake agrees to 3-year extension
The Kings have signed general manager Rob Blake to a three-year contract extension, according to multiple reports.
This past season, Blake made subtle moves that some may have initially considered noncommittal or insufficient, only to see each one yield significant dividends on the ice as the team stacked up 99 points and returned to the postseason.
Center Phillip Danault became the team's most valuable player by the campaign's conclusion and one of its leaders almost instantaneously. Winger Viktor Arvidsson was a key component of the team's most productive line in the 2022 calendar year, contributing aggressiveness and versatility. Veteran defenseman Alex Edler was a mainstay on defense at key points during the year, despite missing significant time with a broken ankle.
“Blakey and his staff did an outstanding job last year of bringing in players that fit our group, and trusting players,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “We could play them in any situation and that rubs off on the other players.”
Blake has been at the helm of the Kings for five seasons. He inherited a roster with plenty of elite-level experience — it was just three years removed from two Stanley Cups in three seasons — but that also lugged in tow advanced age and stylistic mismatches to spare as the NHL grew younger and faster.
The Kings made the playoffs in Blake's first season as GM, but became an underperforming group at the top level in short order, all while the lower rungs of the organization had withered.
Blake began the painstaking process of selling off most of the links to the glory days and swallowing the bitter pill of rebuilding as the team meandered through three nonplayoff campaigns. Veteran defenseman Drew Doughty was vocal about improvements that needed to be made last summer, and even typically understated team captain Anze Kopitar echoed some of that sentiment. One year on, both were complimentary toward Blake and expressed unequivocal confidence in him.
Blake and his scouting staff, led by Mark Yannetti, have unearthed some gems in the lower rounds of the draft, too. While higher picks like Quinton Byfield, Alex Turcotte and Rasmus Kupari have seen their development fettered by injuries, later selections like defenseman Mikey Anderson, a fourth-rounder, have already become integral components for the Kings.
“These players have been drafted, have been developed and now have become primary players on our team,” said Blake, who starred on the blue line for the Kings from 1990 to 2001 and returned from 2006 to 2008.
Three years ago, Blake brought in McLellan, who guided the group through two forgettable, pandemicshortened seasons. He instituted a volume-shooting system that was meticulously structured but also executed at a much higher-tempo than the Kings had played at under his predecessors.
“The system and the style was of importance a couple years ago, get that in place. That structure helped us get in the playoffs this year, now you've got to add some skill to that,” Blake said. “Everything's about getting better again, keep moving forward.”