Islanders’ GM search could take Rob Blake twist after Kings breakup
NY Post
After a weekend when Kings advisor Marc Bergevin’s name was prominent in whispers around the Islanders GM job, the spotlight shifts to the person Bergevin reported to in Los Angeles.
Indeed, the instant reaction upon Rob Blake’s ouster as general manager of the Kings, announced Monday as a mutual agreement, was to wonder how soon Islanders operating partner John Collins might reach out to set up a conversation.
It would be overkill to call Blake the favorite to be general manager or president of hockey operations with the Islanders — it’s unclear, for starters, whether Blake wants another front office job immediately — but his presence on the market does mean that the club would be derelict in its duty if it did not at least speak to Blake and sound out his interest.
The Hall of Fame defenseman, who notably won the 2002 Stanley Cup alongside Patrick Roy with the Avalanche, had been in the Kings front office since 2013 and had been general manager since 2017.
While the Kings failed to get past the first round of the playoffs under his tutelage, with four straight losses to Edmonton canceling out four straight seasons of 99 points or more in the regular season, Blake’s successful rebuild after their Cup-winning core stalled out should catch Collins’ eye.
That has allowed Los Angeles to squeeze another window of contention out of franchise legends Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, and the maneuvering Blake pulled off to develop a suffocating defensive team that was nearly unbeatable on home ice this season is not at all far from what the Islanders should be trying to do.
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