THE Kiss and longtime managing director Rob Blake have mutually agreed to separate, announced the team on Monday, four days after the team Fourth loss of consecutive playoffs At Edmonton Oilers.
“On behalf of the whole organization, I would like to thank Rob for his dedication to the Los Angeles and the passion he brought to this role,” said President Luc Robitaille in a statement. “Reaching this understanding was not easy and I appreciate Rob's partnership by always working on what is best for kings.
“Rob deserves a lot of credit and respect to raise ourselves to the place where we are today. It was an important part of the kings and will always be appreciated for what it has mean for this franchise. ”
New GM's search will start immediately, said the Kings.
Blake, 55, was a defender of the renowned temple whose 20 -year -old NHL player career included two stays with the Kings. He spent several of these seasons to play alongside Robitaille, who brought back Blake to the Kings as Deputy Managing Director before the 2013-14 season, which ended with the team Win his second Stanley Cup.
Less than four years later, the team dismissed the director general Dean Lombardi, the architect of his two Champions of the Stanley Cup, and promoted Blake, who quickly enlarged the team's development program of the team, adding coaches of strength and packaging, a sporting dietitian, a psychologist and other specialists, by making one of the most robust NHL.
However, the Kings have not won a eliminatory series since then.
The early release of this spring of the playoffs may have been the most painful of the Blake team as general manager. The team equaled deductible records for the victories (48) and the points (105) while breaking the record for home victories (31), which gives it a home advantage in the first round of the playoffs. But after dominating the first two games At home, the kings were swept away in the next four.
This extended another franchise record, marking the 11th consecutive season, the Kings failed to win an post-season series.
The director general of the Kings, Rob Blake, on the left, and the president of Kings, Luc Robitaille, attend together the recovery of the NHL 2024 in Las Vegas.
(Jeff Vinnick / NHLI / Getty Images)
Unlike Lombardi, who was often visible in the team and available to the media, Blake, who was in the last year of his contract, rarely spoke publicly. In addition, it has long been the target of criticism of its construction of alignment and poor trades, such as the one who brought Pierre-Luc Dubois to kings in the summer of 2023 in exchange for Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, Gabriel Vilardi and a choice of recovery in the second round. Dubois signed a $ 68 million contract on the ceiling with Blake, then quickly turned out to be a bustSetting career stockings with 16 goals and 24 assists.
But Blake repaired this last summer, moving Dubois to Washington's capital in exchange for goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper, who has had a career season and is one of the three finalists in the Vezina trophy. Blake also concluded an important case on the deadline of March, acquiring forward Andrei Kuzmenko Philadelphia flyers, who also agreed to divide the rest of Kuzmenko's salary.
Trade immediately improved the Kings offensive and saved a powerless power game, helping to win 17 of its last 22 games to place second in the Pacific division, the best finish of the term of Blake as general manager.
But this chance – and Blake's time with the team – ended in the playoffs.
