The Kings are mutually parting ways with general manager Rob Blake, sources tell Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (X link). Los Angeles quickly confirmed the news.
For now, team president Luc Robitaille is staying on. He’ll lead a search for Blake’s successor beginning immediately, the Kings said. They haven’t named an interim GM, but it’s likely Robitaille or director of hockey operations Jake Goldberg will handle day-to-day duties for now. L.A. didn’t have any assistant GMs on Blake’s staff.
Blake’s contract was up after signing a three-year extension in May 2022. That extension came after the Kings ended a three-year playoff drought and pushed the Oilers to seven games in a first-round loss. Fast forward to 2025, and L.A. has now lost four consecutive playoff series – all to Edmonton, all in the first round. This year, they had a 2-0 lead in the series and held home-ice advantage for the first time, but dropped four straight games en route to another early exit.
A Hall-of-Fame defenseman who spent the majority of his playing career in Los Angeles, Blake took a few years off after retiring in 2010 before resurfacing as an assistant GM with the Kings for the 2013-14 season. He’s remained in L.A.’s front office ever since and was promoted to GM in the 2017 offseason following the end of Dean Lombardi’s 11-year tenure in the role.
Blake compiled a 309-238-71 (.557) regular season record in his eight seasons as the Kings’ top decision-maker, 19th in the league during that stretch. In the postseason, the Kings are just 8-20 for a .286 win percentage. Among teams who have made the playoffs since 2018, only the Ducks (0-4) have won a lesser share of their games.
“On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Rob for his dedication to the LA Kings and the passion he brought to his role,” Robitaille said. “Reaching this understanding wasn’t easy and I appreciate Rob’s partnership in always working toward what is best for the Kings. Rob deserves a great deal of credit and respect for elevating us to where we are today. He has been an important part of the Kings and will always be appreciated for what he has meant to this franchise.”
While there wasn’t much advance reporting that Blake’s job was in peril if the Kings failed to advance past the first round again, the change is far from out of the blue. L.A.’s rebuild is far in the rearview now, and the club has exhausted nearly all of the high-end prospects Blake accumulated during his tenure. After peaking as one of the league’s deepest pools a few years ago, the Kings dropped to No. 26 in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s prospect pool rankings earlier this year.
Blake leaves his successor with a favorable salary cap structure. The Kings have over $23MM to spend this summer with just four roster spots to fill, per PuckPedia. Their only notable pending restricted free agent is winger Alex Laferriere. They’ll have plenty of room to accomplish that, work toward extending pending UFA defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov, and add some scoring depth via trades or free agent signings.
Image courtesy of Kirby Lee-Imagn Images.
Bizarre choice for the Kings. They just had a great season, and they look to be strong for the foreseeable future. Job offer elsewhere maybe?
Can’t get past Edmonton. That’ll happen
Nothing bizarre about this. He’s had the job for 8 years and has produced mediocrity, poor development & drafting of players, the PLD debacle, 4 years in a row one and done playoff exits. Fans have been asking for this the last 3 years. Luc should be next.
Gotta win in the playoffs. He made some head-scratching moves, but then made some great ones, too. He gave away so much for Dubois, who was flat out miserable. But then moved him (and his big salary) for Kuemper, who was their best player all year long.
This isn’t surprising & LA fans are probably quite happy. Rob Blake has been on the radar for awhile now & after losing 4 straight years to the Edmonton Oilers in the 1st Round of the playoffs especially when leading the series this year & still ended up losing, was the final straw it appears.
LA has a good competitive team but their biggest need is more scoring power which one assumes will be the primary target for the next GM if they want to finally advance past the 1st Round of the playoffs. I guess only time will tell, if that can be achieved.
Don’t speak for all of us. I don’t see Blake as the issue.
I wasn’t speaking for all. I may have generalized but I didn’t say I was speaking for everyone. Calm yourself.
8 years in a row of golfing by Cinco de Mayo.
Long overdue
Luc has to follow him out the door. Start with a fresh vision
Luc and the hc should be shown the door as well.
Seems like a coin flip. They had a great run this year. Incredible D and goaltending, also good work from middle 6 forwards after the deadline. If they can somehow land a Mitch Marner, maybe they have a real shot, but the game is so high-scoring it’s hard to see them as a real contender any time in the future. I guess moving on from Blake is the move if he was in “stay the course” mode. I dunno. Absolutely loved their season this year though. Was hoping they’d ride it deep. Oh well.
I rarely read about the Kings being in the running for any big-name FA’s. Seems like Blake spent his tenure stockpiling a lot of draft capital, then just slowly acquiring fringe players.
The Ron Francis school of GMing.
PLD out here ruining another GM’s career.
But seriously— this should be a highly desirable job. Marner would be a great fit for them.
Bergevin’s influence was terrible for him. They have broken the rebuild process in the middle and throw away prospects like in a final phase.
Known year-to-year “””contender”””.
I would love Marner in LA. But they have Kempe on RW. which one would you move down to the “2” line? With an aging Kopi/danault they’re gonna help down the middle pretty soon.
Marner would be amazing in LA and the Kings have the cap to do it.
You would need to move Moore to make room and I’m fine with that.
The issue is there are a lot of teams with space More than usual. The one advantage is that the Kings are one of the few playoff teams with over 20 million in space. That alone is attractive.
Plus I would wanna get the hell out of Toronto too. Me personally. I think the right player to bring in would be Ehlers from Winnipeg. He would fit perfect as the LW1 And would be half the price.
The Kings need steady veteran to anchor the 4th line too. An upgrade at GK2 would be nice
Kuzmiko would be a great addition.
McDavid & Drysaddle got Blake fired….
Kovalchuk, Petersen, PLD and the many players & prospects that were traded for mediocre returns or waived sealed his doom! Although his moves paid off this year they still couldn’t get past Edmonton! Time to move on! Good luck Blake! Hiller is next!
Given how well PLD did in DC this year and with zero drama, you have to wonder why LA couldn’t unlock that production from him. Is there something wrong with the team’s culture?
PLD wore out his welcome off 3 teams and you think it’s a reflection of one team’s culture? Not the player? I won’t be surprised if PLD has a 35 point season next year now that the ovi tour is over.
Hopefully Blake is taking Bergevin with him!
Lots of Kings fans are rejoicing out there, I’m sure
F**K Yeah! Now go find a real GM and not just call a former player. Wait, oh crud, they are gonna hire Dustin Brown to be GM aren’t they?
Obviously the Kings search for a new GM should start with anyone who has ever been Edmonton’s GM. If you can’t beat them, hire someone who knows how to beat you.