It's easy to blast Dean Lombardi for the Ben Bishop trade.
The goaltender is winless in four appearances with a save % below .900. Meanwhile, the scoring-hungry Kings are still starving and now almost out of the playoff hunt.
Hindsight is easy.
If we agree that Bishop, at his best, is still an impact player, Lombardi made a steal.
For the two-time Vezina finalist's services, LA upgraded a draft pick -- they traded a 2017 seventh for Tampa Bay's 2017 fifth -- and gave up 2015 second-round pick Erik Cernak.
Dumping such a recent high pick seems costly, but the Los Angeles organization didn't hold Cernak in high esteem anymore. Of course, the 19-year-old defender has plenty of time to prove critics wrong.
The Kings also swapped Peter Budaj out for Bishop. Ironically, Budaj has one more win than his 6'7" counterpart since the trade.
That noted, we can almost certainly agree that Bishop's ceiling is higher than Budaj's. So while Budaj outplaying Bishop
isn't a complete surprise, considering the volatility of goaltending in small sample sizes, all things being equal, who wouldn't choose Bishop over Budaj?
Essentially, Lombardi bet on Bishop's high ceiling at a discount price. Whether for a handful of games to back up Jonathan Quick or for a longer stretch in case of re-injury to Quick, doesn't matter. That the ceiling has caved in doesn't change the initial deal's cleverness.
No, those sharpening their knives for Lombardi should leave the Bishop deal alone. Instead, they should focus more on the front office's inability to address the club's scoring woes during the Trade Deadline.
The cost for the pricier tickets -- Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Martin Hanzal, Jannik Hansen -- were probably too rich for the relatively barren LA system. Trading Alec Martinez or Jake Muzzin would have just created another hole. Needless to say, this was probably not a Kings team just one move away from the Cup.
However, there were a slew of decent scoring forwards available at a more reasonable cost -- Thomas Vanek, P.A. Parenteau, Radim Vrbata, Patrick Eaves, to name a few -- so why didn't Los Angeles take a swing there?
It's a fair question.
There might have been some question of fit -- whether with
Lombardi's idea of competitiveness or Darryl Sutter's system. Remember that Kris Versteeg was buried on the fourth line last season, while Teddy Purcell is still in the AHL. This is a more legitimate criticism of Lombardi (or Sutter) than harping on Bishop.
Anyway, trading Cernak did not preclude LA from acquiring another forward.
Perhaps ironically, Lombardi's lone pick-up up front, Jarome Iginla, has three goals -- two of them game-winners -- for the Kings. In fact, among Trade Deadline acquisitions, only Alexandre Burrows and Eaves have more goals (four) since the Deadline.
This won't absolve Lombardi -- ultimately, Los Angeles is in the position they're in now because of a string of front office mistakes since the summer of 2014.
But here's some more irony for you.
Lombardi's professed reason for not further supplementing his squad's scoring shortfall at the Deadline is a testament to both his much-maligned loyalty...and to sound analytical thinking:
Like many of us, Lombardi was waiting for the percentages to turn around on Anze Kopitar and Tyler Toffoli's uncharacteristic campaigns, among others. For better or for worse, it looks like he might get stuck holding the bag.
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