GM Rob Blake looking to see Kings reach another level

Last updated Oct 31, 2022 Edit Source

• News post

• Andrew Knoll

A day before the puck dropped on a new campaign Tuesday, Kings general manager Rob Blake offered some searing answers to the burning questions for his team.

• Kevin Fiala
• Brandt Clarke
• Adrian Kempe
• Phillip Danault
• Alex Turcotte
• Quinton Byfield

• Rob Blake

• Pushing onward

  Progress, again, continued progress. We made a big step getting back in the playoffs, now we’ve got to hold that level and keep going.

• Righting the special teams ship

  It’s another year of adding a couple different younger players into that equation, and then the addition of Fiala gives you a different look on that. So you can see a little bit different movement on our power play than we’ve had in the past.

• Regression to the mean or raising the bar?

  We saw glimpses of that. The more complete player has come out of [Adrian Kempe] throughout the years.

• New kid on the block

  It comes down to making sure that, when he does get in the lineup, he’s going to get the right amount of minutes to keep developing. His play through rookie camp and training camp put him to a level where we want to see him in the NHL.

• Touted prospects

  Both times [Quinton Byfield]’s come into camp ready to go and looked to us like he could earn that spot. He’ll get his chance there now.

• A crowded field

  We understand we’re going to be in a battle to get in, just like we were last year.