On May 6th, Team President Luc Robitaille addressed the media for a little less than 30 minutes and shared his thoughts on the regular season, as well as the team's failure to reach the second round of the playoffs for the fourth straight season. 

"The one thing I would say, make no mistake, when we talk about this franchise and we talk about getting to the next level, the mission of this franchise is to bring back a Stanley Cup to Los Angeles," said Robitaille.

As for the GM that will endeavor to win that third Cup, it will not be Rob Blake. Under "Blakey's" tenure, the Kings qualified for the playoffs five out of eight seasons but were unable to win a first-round playoff series, a failure that would cost the Hall of Fame defenseman his job. 

"I think at one point, we both (Blake and Robitaille) realized and agreed that it was time to probably bring a new voice, just to get us to that next level. Realizing that when you study other franchises and so forth, so...and it's important for us to look at it this way," explained Robitaille. He would go on to make it a point to thank Blake for the "countless hours behind the scenes and the sleepless nights" and for leaving behind "a damn good team."

While just how good this team is will be fuel for much off-season discussion, the LA Kings did have a very successful regular season. A record 31 wins on home ice, a second-place finish in the Pacific Division and a franchise-tying record in points (105) are all things upon which to build, but none of it brought them any closer to their first playoff series win since 2014.

When asked about the upcoming GM search and what it would mean for the coaching staff, Robitaille quickly said that "everybody's staying", before saying a few minutes later that the "record of what Jimmy's (head coach Jim Hiller) done this year is really, really good, that be really hard for any GM to say that this guy shouldn't come back."

Hiller does have some regular season successes to point to: successfully deploying the 11-7 lineup for much of the season, experimenting with using five forwards on the powerplay, and working around defenseman Drew Doughty's absence for most of the season. His decisions during the playoffs, however, leave a lot to be desired.

In addition to the ill-advised, and as of this writing, still unexplained decision to challenge an Edmonton goal in Game 3, to benching young defensemen Brandt Clarke and Jordan Spence for long stretches in the series, and the complete unwillingness to use grinders like Samuel Helenius and Jeff Malott, Hiller did not rise to the meet the moment. 

It remains to be seen how much Robitaille's vote of confidence in Hiller will weigh on the new general manager's staffing decisions. If Robitaille truly means that the general manager has the final say in these matters, there is no reason to assume that Hiller will be behind the LA bench at the start of next season. 

One can also wonder how these comments from Robitaille may impact the decision of a potential general manager to come to LA. If it's construed that the president is throwing his weight around too much in personnel decisions, might that not persuade candidates to look elsewhere?

No matter how things may play out, one thing for certain is that the LA Kings are going to have a lot of things to do this off-season if they want to turn this "damn good team" into a Stanley Cup champion.