Crowning Acheivement: Lombardi building Kings into a winner

NHLHS Los Angeles Kings Correspondent Mike Murangi takes a look at the progress of the Los Angeles Kings with most, if not all, of the work and thanks being given to Dean Lombardi.  The teams GM has put them into the perfect position.

Here at NHLHS we have some great reporters doing articles on an impact player for their respective teams. I felt, as a Kings fan, I wanted to take a moment and talk about the most important King of the moment; the man who has built this team from the ashes into the envy of a lot of fans around the NHL. That man is the General Manager, Dean Lombardi.

Born in Hoyloke, Massachusetts, Dean attended to New Haven University and Tulane Law School. He was a player agent for three seasons before joining the front office of the Minnesota North Stars. Hired away by the expansion San Jose Sharks, Dean was one of people that helped the Sharks improve by a record 58 points in one season. He was named Vice President in Charge of Hockey Operations in 1992, and earned the title of General Manager four years later. Under his watch the Sharks drafted Patrick Marleau, Vesa Toskala, Jonathan Cheechoo, Brad Stuart, Scott Hannan, Marco Sturm, Marcel Goc, and Christian Ehrhoff among others. Lombardi’s history in San Jose as it relates to trades and free agency is impressive, too having brought in such players as Owen Nolan, Teemu Selanne, Adam Graves, Vincent Damphousse, Mike Ricci, Kyle McClaren, Mike Vernon, Todd Harvey, Bryan Marchment, and Scott Thornton. The year the Sharks advanced to the Western Conference Finals, 18 of the 23 players on the roster were acquired by Lombardi.

Relieved of his duties after the Sharks got off to a slow start in the 02 – 03 season, Dean became the pro scout for the Philadelphia Flyers. On April 21, 2006, Dean was hired as President and General Manager of the Los Angeles Kings.

Dean and the Kings

Dean came to the Kings with a vision. For the first time in the franchise’s long history the Kings were going to rebuild through the draft and player development. There were two solid young players in the Kings system already in Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar, and Dean quickly locked both of them up in long term deals. His first draft pick was goaltender Jonathan Bernier. On that same day, he dealt leading scorer Pavol Demitra to the Minnesota Wild for the 17th pick (Trevor Lewis) and Patrick O’Sullivan. So, in just two short months, the Kings acquired a future goaltender and two young forwards.

Now, there were mistakes made in the first few months. Dean would be the first to admit that Marc Crawford did his best for the Kings as head coach, but he was just not the right personality to lead young players in the NHL. Also, acquiring Dan Cloutier was a train wreck, ending a year and a half later with a buyout. On September 29, 2006, Dean made one of the best trades in franchise history acquiring the rights to young stud Jack Johnson and Oleg Tverdovsky for Tim Gleason and Éric Bélanger. Now with a solid plan, Dean focused on building the Kings at the draft table. In addition to the picks mentioned already, Dean has acquired Thomas Hickey, Brayden Schenn Colten Teubert, and Derek Forbort in the first round, not to mention the best draft pick so far, Norris Trophy finalist Drew Doughty. In later rounds, he has acquired the likes of Wayne Simmons, Oscar Moller, Kyle Clifford, Vyacheslav Voynov, and Jeff Zatkoff. More late round gems include: Andrei Loktionov, Justin Azevedo, Brandon Kozun, and Alec Martinez. The Kings have the #1 ranked prospect pool in the NHL according to The Hockey News and Hockey’s Future ranks the Kings second. So, for the first time in franchise history Kings fans can truly root for homegrown talent.

Free agency has been a mixed bag for Lombardi. Brad Stewart, Alyn McCauley, and Tom Preissing were busts. Michal Handzus and Rob Scuderi were great signings. Plucking Kyle Quincey and Randy Jones off the waiver wire were good moves as well, but it’s the trade market where Dean has performed better than anyone expected. This is where Dean acquired the already mentioned, Jack Johnson, Matt Greene, Jarret Stoll, Justin Willams, Ryan Smyth, and Brad Richardson. All have performed better than expected.

This season, Dean has acquired Alex Ponikarovsky and Willie Mitchell via free agency. Most importantly, he has put together a wonderful staff from head coach, Terry Murray, to his right-hand man, Ron Hextall, and much respected head of the scouting department Lee Callans. He has made several runs at other free agents such as Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa and Dan Hamhuis to no avail. In his defense, a lot of players feel that the travel playing on the west coast is too tough, and choose to stay east. By not landing any big contracts, the Kings are in a great cap position for when Doughty and Johnson are up for bigger contracts this summer. Dean has done such a remarkable job with the Kings, upper management rewarded him earlier this year with a two-year contract extension.

Moving forward and coming off a franchise best 102 points and the first playoff berth in 8 years, the Kings GM will now need to make the moves to take the franchise from playoff team to contender. Dean has cap space and a lot of tradable assists so, if needed, he can make a large splash in the free agent or trade market. With all that in place, Dean has given Kings fans something we have wanted for 40 years, a legitimate shot at Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Mike Murangi
NHLHS Los Angeles Kings Correspondent
mmurangi@nhlhotstove.com
Twitter: @Draft_Mike