Staff Additions Under Rob Blake/Luc Robitaille's Regime
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Figured it would be interesting to point out some new names currently employed by the Kings that have come into the organization under Blake's watch. Of course not going to mention the ones that were already there under Lombardi or the ones you're already familiar with (like the coaching staff) but a few of these might interest you (everything available at: https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/...-angeles-kings)
If I'm missing something/someone or made a mistake don't be afraid of pointing it out.
Rob Vollman:
Vollman is a long-time hockey advanced stats/analytics name. More: http://www.hockeyabstract.com/about-us
Trent Frey:
A conditioning coach. More/previous experience: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trent-frey-61b26a60
John Meyer:
Director of conditioning. More: http://labusinessjournal.com/news/20...y-operate-kin/
Craig Johnson:
Development coach. Former Kings player.
Jarret Stoll:
Development coach.
Dean Chelios:
AHL scout, Chris Chelios' son. No previous experience apparent.
Matt Greene:
Pro scout.
Yuri Khmylyov:
Russian scout. Former Buffalo Sabres scout.
Matjaz Kopitar:
European scout. Used to coach Slovenia's NT and briefly in second Swiss league.
Jason Lewis:
Scout. No prior experience that I can find but perhaps someone will correct me, in fact I believe this is the former Kings hockeybuzz.com writer (yes Eklund's writer). I think he was a Kings writer/contributor on HFBoards as well. Sample article: https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Jaso...bers/179/75349
Hubie McDonough:
Technically not a new hire, but has been moved from being a longtime Director of Hockey Operations for the AHL team to a College/Pro-scout for the Kings.
Jason Supryka:
AHL scout. Former OHL assistant coach.
Stefan Ustorf:
European scout. Former Sports Manager and development coach for Eisbaren Berlin (AEG owned team)
Eric Weissman:
AHL scout. Former Buffalo Sabres scout.
Peter White:
AHL scout. Former NHL player. Seems to have no relevant staff experience, his last EP listing is NCAA III assistant coach for Finlandia University back in 2015-2016 but perhaps I'm missing something.
Derik Johnson:
Video coach. Former video coach at AHL level.
Commentary:
We can basically observe several trends.
- The Kings staff has been relatively stable (with minor changes not exhibiting a large turnover) and small in size until 2016-2017. Some of the Kings employees employed up to the first or second Cup win looked elsewhere. Stephen Greeley who was a Kings scout from 2006 to 2013 went to Boston Univ. as an associate coach, then returned to NHL first as assistant to director of player personnel for NYR and is now Assistant GM for Buffalo. Alyn McCauley with the Kings from 2009 to 2015 as a pro scout is now a pro scout for Philadelphia. Mark Mullen an amateur scout for the Kings from 2009 to 2016 is now an amateur scout with Detroit. Todd Woodcroft a European scout for LA from 2009 to 2013 went on to scout for Calgary and is now assistant coach with Winnipeg. Long time personal sage to Lombardi in Jack Ferreira left LA in 2018 and is now senior advisor with Minnesota. He has been with LA from 2007. There's a few others.
- The Kings staff's size (at least those that are listed as being employed by the Kings) has exploded under Blake. I've also long believed that you need the smallest number of people possible (to do a certain job without putting excessive work-load on their shoulders) with the highest level of competency possible so that the project doesn't get dilluted with bureaucratization. The Kings today have 4 people dealing with conditioning, 7 with player development and 24 scouts. That's a lot compared to other teams.
- In their second Cup win season, the Kings' EP page lists 2 people in conditioning, 3 in development, and 15 scouts. (Keep in mind it is possible for outside contractors to be present without being listed, I know for example that Darryl Belfry had such a consulting/unlisted role in Kings development, but I think this trend still says something). I do think Kings' European scouting has been underfed in the past, so some additions there are logical. Nevertheless, even if you look at recent Cup winners, or some of the best teams in recent years (like Pittsburgh, Washington, Tampa, Nashville) you will not see those kind of numbers.
- There's been a mini-miggration of Buffalo staff to LA. Kings have added 3 former Buffalo scouts from 2015 to present, two in the last year.
- A curious number of additions are "AHL scouts", not sure what's the reasoning behind that.
- A number of them are former players. I guess we all speculated about Stoll and Greene going there.
- A number of people to me seem to be questionable. Matjaz Kopitar coached Slovenia's NT to some great results (relative to expectations) is that enough to be a great European scout? Jason Lewis seemed like a sensible writer with an analytical-eye (though from what I recall of his writing, I didn't think it showed any particularly above-average insight, but that's personal opinion), is that enough to be a scout for the Kings? Peter White is a total mystery to me or what his credentials are. Dean Chelios's credentials are...that he is Chris Chelios' son? Craig Johnson seems kind of borderline as does Ustorf who shows some experience as a staffer but only on an AEG owned team in Berlin... What I want to know is are those people the best that's available on the market for the Kings staff? I'd argue that's a rhetorical question when looking at them as a group, I don't think it's arguable the Kings could have done a better job attracting a more talented group.
Obviously you're always going to be hiring some people you know (Lombardi did it as well) and if they're competent that's not a problem, but there's a number of questionable cases here and if you look at the trend as a whole, I think you're getting dangerously close to signs of bureaucratization and nepotism. While you can defend individual cases, all the signs that point to it are present: large number of former players with no experience in management, sons or relatives with no credentials, *uniquely to AEG: cross-organization employees, mass migration from one particular team to another, excessive number of employed people, mystery persons with a lacking job history or holes in their job history (likely buddies)
If I'm missing something/someone or made a mistake don't be afraid of pointing it out.
Rob Vollman:
Vollman is a long-time hockey advanced stats/analytics name. More: http://www.hockeyabstract.com/about-us
Trent Frey:
A conditioning coach. More/previous experience: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trent-frey-61b26a60
John Meyer:
Director of conditioning. More: http://labusinessjournal.com/news/20...y-operate-kin/
Craig Johnson:
Development coach. Former Kings player.
Jarret Stoll:
Development coach.
Dean Chelios:
AHL scout, Chris Chelios' son. No previous experience apparent.
Matt Greene:
Pro scout.
Yuri Khmylyov:
Russian scout. Former Buffalo Sabres scout.
Matjaz Kopitar:
European scout. Used to coach Slovenia's NT and briefly in second Swiss league.
Jason Lewis:
Scout. No prior experience that I can find but perhaps someone will correct me, in fact I believe this is the former Kings hockeybuzz.com writer (yes Eklund's writer). I think he was a Kings writer/contributor on HFBoards as well. Sample article: https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Jaso...bers/179/75349
Hubie McDonough:
Technically not a new hire, but has been moved from being a longtime Director of Hockey Operations for the AHL team to a College/Pro-scout for the Kings.
Jason Supryka:
AHL scout. Former OHL assistant coach.
Stefan Ustorf:
European scout. Former Sports Manager and development coach for Eisbaren Berlin (AEG owned team)
Eric Weissman:
AHL scout. Former Buffalo Sabres scout.
Peter White:
AHL scout. Former NHL player. Seems to have no relevant staff experience, his last EP listing is NCAA III assistant coach for Finlandia University back in 2015-2016 but perhaps I'm missing something.
Derik Johnson:
Video coach. Former video coach at AHL level.
Commentary:
We can basically observe several trends.
- The Kings staff has been relatively stable (with minor changes not exhibiting a large turnover) and small in size until 2016-2017. Some of the Kings employees employed up to the first or second Cup win looked elsewhere. Stephen Greeley who was a Kings scout from 2006 to 2013 went to Boston Univ. as an associate coach, then returned to NHL first as assistant to director of player personnel for NYR and is now Assistant GM for Buffalo. Alyn McCauley with the Kings from 2009 to 2015 as a pro scout is now a pro scout for Philadelphia. Mark Mullen an amateur scout for the Kings from 2009 to 2016 is now an amateur scout with Detroit. Todd Woodcroft a European scout for LA from 2009 to 2013 went on to scout for Calgary and is now assistant coach with Winnipeg. Long time personal sage to Lombardi in Jack Ferreira left LA in 2018 and is now senior advisor with Minnesota. He has been with LA from 2007. There's a few others.
- The Kings staff's size (at least those that are listed as being employed by the Kings) has exploded under Blake. I've also long believed that you need the smallest number of people possible (to do a certain job without putting excessive work-load on their shoulders) with the highest level of competency possible so that the project doesn't get dilluted with bureaucratization. The Kings today have 4 people dealing with conditioning, 7 with player development and 24 scouts. That's a lot compared to other teams.
- In their second Cup win season, the Kings' EP page lists 2 people in conditioning, 3 in development, and 15 scouts. (Keep in mind it is possible for outside contractors to be present without being listed, I know for example that Darryl Belfry had such a consulting/unlisted role in Kings development, but I think this trend still says something). I do think Kings' European scouting has been underfed in the past, so some additions there are logical. Nevertheless, even if you look at recent Cup winners, or some of the best teams in recent years (like Pittsburgh, Washington, Tampa, Nashville) you will not see those kind of numbers.
- There's been a mini-miggration of Buffalo staff to LA. Kings have added 3 former Buffalo scouts from 2015 to present, two in the last year.
- A curious number of additions are "AHL scouts", not sure what's the reasoning behind that.
- A number of them are former players. I guess we all speculated about Stoll and Greene going there.
- A number of people to me seem to be questionable. Matjaz Kopitar coached Slovenia's NT to some great results (relative to expectations) is that enough to be a great European scout? Jason Lewis seemed like a sensible writer with an analytical-eye (though from what I recall of his writing, I didn't think it showed any particularly above-average insight, but that's personal opinion), is that enough to be a scout for the Kings? Peter White is a total mystery to me or what his credentials are. Dean Chelios's credentials are...that he is Chris Chelios' son? Craig Johnson seems kind of borderline as does Ustorf who shows some experience as a staffer but only on an AEG owned team in Berlin... What I want to know is are those people the best that's available on the market for the Kings staff? I'd argue that's a rhetorical question when looking at them as a group, I don't think it's arguable the Kings could have done a better job attracting a more talented group.
Obviously you're always going to be hiring some people you know (Lombardi did it as well) and if they're competent that's not a problem, but there's a number of questionable cases here and if you look at the trend as a whole, I think you're getting dangerously close to signs of bureaucratization and nepotism. While you can defend individual cases, all the signs that point to it are present: large number of former players with no experience in management, sons or relatives with no credentials, *uniquely to AEG: cross-organization employees, mass migration from one particular team to another, excessive number of employed people, mystery persons with a lacking job history or holes in their job history (likely buddies)