Darryl Sutter has always known about Adrian Kempes “mature game”

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• News post

• Jon Rosen

Darryl Sutter, as may be tradition, accommodates friends, broadcasters and reporters from his previous coaching stops when their teams’ paths overlap. Especially in Chicago and San Jose, there seemed to be an appreciative fondness between the media and a coach who deeply enjoyed his tenure in Northern California when Los Angeles would roll through at the height of the teams’ rivalry.

• Adrian Kempe

• Darryl Sutter

# Darryl Sutter

They’d slot [Adrian Kempe] in that checking role or that penalty killing role even though he was a first round pick. So, everyone thinks, ‘well, he’s an offensive guy,’ but you can see that [checking] with him, right? And he had that skating ability always.

I think for sure you’ve seen him as an 18 or a 19-year-old, and his first three years pro as a high-end skill set player, but I think you’re just seeing a real mature game out of him now. He’s a guy that can play a lot of situations, which every coach loves, and if you need him, to play all three positions, too.

# Adrian Kempe

They were playing really physical up front and to crack the roster I needed to do that as well. I think I showed some of that during the camp. Just try to play hard and play the right way and that was pretty much it.

I remember I did have a good camp. I think it was one of my better camps for sure since I’ve been here. I think I was well-prepared going into camp, and obviously I was young still and there were some older players, and maybe they thought I needed more time in the AHL. Obviously, I think I had a good enough camp that I should’ve been on the team, but I came up later that year anyway and it was just a matter of time, so it worked out well.