AEG makes front offices changes to Kings, relieves Sutter, Lombardi of duties; Promotes Robitaille, Blake
AEG has shaken up the front office of the Los Angeles Kings.
AEG, which is the parent company of the Kings, announced that Luc Robitaille has been named President of the club and will oversee all hockey and business operations while Rob Blake was named Vice President and General Manager and will run point on all day-to-day hockey operations.
Kings coach Darryl Sutter and Dean Lombardi, GM of the team since 2006, have been relieved of their current duties.
AEG made the announcement in a release on Tuesday by Dan Beckerman, President and CEO of AEG, a day after their 2016-17 season ended with a loss in Anaheim.
The Kings will host a news conference on Tuesday at 1 p.m., which can be seen on FOXSportsWest.com.
"This was an extremely difficult decision and was made with an enormous amount of consideration for what we have accomplished in our past. But the present and future of our organization is the highest priority," said Beckerman. "Words cannot express our gratitude and appreciation for what Dean and Darryl have accomplished for the Kings franchise. They built this team and helped lead us to two Stanley Cup Championships and will forever be remembered as all-time greats in Kings history. But with that level of accomplishment comes high expectations and we have not met those expectations for the last three seasons. With the core players we have in place, we should be contending each year for the Stanley Cup. Our failure to meet these goals has led us to this change."
https://twitter.com/LAKings/status/851586913072893952
Robitaille, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, has served as Kings President, Business Operations the last 10 years.
In 19 seasons as an NHL player, including 14 with the Kings, Robitaille -- the all-time Kings leader in goals scored (557) and a former Kings captain -- recorded 1394 points (668-726=1394) and won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 2002. His jersey was retired by the Kings in 2007.
Blake, who is also a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, becomes the ninth general manager in team history. In 20 seasons as an NHL player, including 14 with the Kings, Blake recorded 777 points (240-537=777) and won a Stanley Cup with the Avalanche in 2001. Blake has his jersey retired by the Kings in 2015.
"This restructuring of the front-office will establish a single leader of the organization that will provide a unified vision, focus and alignment between the team side and the business side," said Beckerman. "It mirrors the same structure we recently implemented with the LA Galaxy and it will not only enable the integration of these two sides of the club into a single organization but will bring symmetry between the Kings and Galaxy."
