• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

MayorsManor.com

NHL blog, LA Kings hockey news and interviews from The Mayor

  • Radio Replay
  • Prospect Rankings
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / HockeyBlog / Dean Lombardi Explains His Thinking at 2016 Trade Deadline

Dean Lombardi Explains His Thinking at 2016 Trade Deadline

February 29, 2016 By John Hoven

We already have the audio from today’s conference call with Kings GM Dean Lombardi up on the homepage. Now, here are some selected quotes from that conversation…

Lombardi on not making any NHL-level trades today:

“I talked to a lot of people today, but I didn’t anticipate anything and it didn’t surprise me… You’re not doing your job unless you’ve talked to just about every team, except the ones in your division, where you know it’s probably not going to work, because it’s just not practical. But, essentially, over a two- or three-week period, you talk to just about everybody. There’s a funnel effect on guys that you continue to check in with, then as you narrow it down it gets smaller and smaller. Then, after last night, today you get more incoming calls because people are still looking to dump or move people. This is a two- or three-week process, and quite frankly you could say, getting Lecavalier and Schenn when we did was part of this chain of events. It’s just that we did it earlier. We probably started the ball rolling, in terms of the trade deadline, with that deal.”

On if last year’s Sekera deal had any effect on how he looked at rentals this year:

“For sure. You always learn from things, right? Obviously it’s no reflection on the player. He’s a good player. But there is an issue of timing. There is an issue of cost. There is an issue, let’s face it, of how the team did. This is one case where I guess hindsight is 20/20, when you can evaluate the value of a deal. You learn from every deal you make, good or bad. It’s not the player; it’s the result. But that’s all part of gaining experience and learning from it. You learn from that one, just like you learn from the Gaborik one. If you’re going to make mistakes, you better face up to it; but I just want to make clear, it’s not a mistake in the sense of the player. It’s a cost factor, it’s a timing factor and then it’s a results factor. It’s not a reflection on the quality of the player.”

On how comfortable he is with his roster coming out of the deadline and looking toward the balance of the season:

“There’s always a different set of challenges, in terms of what this era is going to stand for. One of them is, in fact, having a better regular season and not having to finish in seventh or eighth place. There is an advantage to it, as well as a challenge. You should want to win your division as well as the Stanley Cup. Now we all know that the Cup is clearly the most important by far. However, it’s still a challenge that any team is going to want to pride itself on being the top team. It’s to be good during both and excel during both. So that is one of the goals they had set out for. Now, for the first time in these guys’ era, they got off to a big lead. There’s a mindset that a real pro has to learn to deal with – ‘You have a big lead, so what are you going to do with it? Are you going to let some games go that you weren’t ready for, or are you going to meet the challenge?’ I think they’re in the midst of that now. You can’t look back and say, `Well, this happened four years ago or three years ago. They had a big lead and let it go.’

“This is new turf for a lot of them, and it’s also new in a sense, the transition in the leadership group. Because we lost some guys who knew how to win. Some guys are responsible for taking over and making sure that this doesn’t happen. So am I comfortable? No. I mean, I’d like to have a 20-point lead. Quite frankly, if we still had a 10-point lead, I probably wouldn’t be comfortable. But I think last night, as everybody who called me said today… All the calls that I took, I think every conversation started out with, `What a game last night. That was one intense game. That was a high-level playoff game.’ I think it’s very clear that this battle between the Southern California teams is not going away any time soon, when you look at the average age of the two teams. I guess that’s what sports is supposed to be about. After the intensity of last night, you could have a 20-point lead and you still wouldn’t be comfortable, because that was a war and you better show up ready to play. I mean, that was a man’s game last night. Like I said, every general manager who called me today started our conversation saying, `What a game that was.’ Other than the fact that we had to wait 10 minutes for a (replay) decision. Everything else was pretty good.”

For part two of the call, where Lombardi talked about a possible contract extension for Milan Lucic, click here.

Follow @mayorNHL

Instagram

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please remember to include a link to www.MayorsManor.com

Filed Under: HockeyBlog Tagged With: comments, hockey, interview, Kings, Kings. Lombardi, Los Angeles, Mayor, MayorsManor, NHL, quote

About John Hoven

John Hoven is a former member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and co-hosts Kings of the Podcast. He's also the founder and editor of MayorsManor.com, which has been named Best Sports Blog in Los Angeles and Hockey Blog of the Year. Click "ABOUT OUR TEAM" below for a full bio.

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. FREE REPLAY: Lombardi Conference Call on Trade Deadline says:
    February 29, 2016 at 7:51 pm

    […] Dean Lombardi Explains His Thinking at 2016 Trade Deadline says: February 29, 2016 at 6:21 pm […]

  2. Lombardi Opens Up About Scuderi, Versteeg, Gaborik and the Blackhawks says:
    February 29, 2016 at 7:58 pm

    […] Dean Lombardi Explains His Thinking at 2016 Trade Deadline […]

Primary Sidebar

Kings Of The Podcast

Kings Of The Podcast: S2, E7 with Shane Doan

Kings Of The Podcast returns for an all new episode featuring an in-depth conversation with Shane Doan. Plus, we break down the Kings first win of the season, look at the line combinations, evaluate the D-pairings, and look ahead to LA’s upcoming four-game roadtrip. With Doan, who was recently hired by the Arizona Coyotes in […]

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

  • Game 7: Kings def. Wild 2-1 – Todd McLellan Postgame Quotes
  • Cal Petersen Postgame Quotes after Kings 2-1 win vs Wild
  • Tuesday Morning Skate: LA Kings Lineup vs. Wild and McLellan Comments
  • FIRST GOAL CONTEST: Kings vs Wild – January 26 (Presented by Violent Gentlemen)
  • Ontario Reign Wrap-up: Fast Five With Tyler Madden
  • Reign Fall 4-2, Coach Wrobo Postgame Quotes
  • Akil Thomas Scores in Third Straight – Postgame Quotes
  • Tonge’s Ticket: Tuesday’s Best Bets for Kings at Wild
  • MONDAY: Ontario Reign Lineup for Rematch with Roadrunners
  • Anze Kopitar Postgame Quotes after Kings 6-3 win vs Blues

Tweets by mayorNHL

Footer

Archives

Tags

AHL Bernier Blackhawks Brown camp Carter Clifford coach comments Doughty draft Ducks Greene hockey interview Kings Kopitar Lombardi Los Angeles Manchester Mayor MayorsManor Mitchell Monarchs Murray NHL Ontario Penner Playoffs Prospect Quick quote Radio Reign Richards Sharks Stanley Cup Stoll Sutter Toffoli trade video WCB West Coast Bias Williams

MayorsManor

  • About Our Team
  • Contact Us
  • Store

© 2021 MayorsManor.com