Rob Blake has been general manager for the Los Angeles Kings since 2017 and he has certainly earned his fair share of criticism over that time. He is currently in the final year of his contract with the Kings for general manager and recently Pierre LeBrun mentioned on TSN's Hockey Insiders that Blake and the Kings decided to table any contract discussions until after the season.
It certainly made sense with some of the moves made prior to last offseason that didn't work out, like the trade for Pierre-Luc Dubois. However, over roughly the last calendar year the Kings have gotten pretty much every move right and are now in position to finish the highest in the Pacific Division that they have in a decade.
The headline move was trading Dubois to the Washington Capitals for goaltender Darcy Kuemper. The Kings needed a new goal after Cam Talbot left in free agency and Kuemper was a veteran that could be a good fit.
However, no one expected him to have this good of a season and he ranks in the Top 3 of pretty much every goaltender stat and should be a Vezina Trophy finalist.
Rob Blake has been able to find the players to fit Jim Hiller's system for the LA Kings
It hasn't only been the goalie that has worked out for the Kings and it seems that Blake has a good understanding of the type of players that Hiller wants. Prior to the season, the Kings wanted to get bigger and more physical. They would go out and sign players like Warren Foegele and Joel Edmundson as well as trade for Tanner Jeannot.
All three players have been productive and achieved what the Kings hoped but Foegele has been the best addition. He has 22 goals and 21 assists, both career highs, and leads the Kings in +/- with an incredible +33. Earlier this month, Trevor Moore gave his opinion of what Warren Foegele has brought and couldn't have described him better.
I think this is one of my favorite quotes of the year, from Trevor Moore on his linemate, Warren Foegele.
— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) April 4, 2025
"I think if you were to build a Kings player in a lab, it would look something like Warren Foegele."
Feature story on Foegs coming up this morning ✍️
At the trade deadline, the LA Kings were one of the teams to watch as they could look to make a big splash. That didn't materialize and made only one move which seemed like a minor trade by adding Andrei Kuzmenko.
However, the Kings saw something the rest of the league didn't and he has been a perfect fit on the top line with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe while also being a missing piece on the power play unit.