Kings Brandt Clarke heads to world juniors camp, but when might he return

Last updated Dec 11, 2022 Edit Source

• News post

• Eric Stephens

In the days leading up to Wednesday’s announcement of the Kings loaning Brandt Clarke to Canada’s world junior team selection camp, the 19-year-old was left to skate in practices with the club and get whatever he could out of those.

• Brandt Clarke
• Alex Edler

• Todd McLellan

# Brandt Clarke

It’s kind of hard because sometimes we don’t have full team practices very often. “So many games repeatedly. It’s usually just me and sometimes the injured guys and stuff like that after the morning skate. It’s just a part of being disciplined. Even if it’s not the full team, I still got to work as hard as I can. It’s all about (maintaining) that game cardio. I don’t want to step back into a game and be not ready to go and then give another reason to take me out of the lineup. I feel like that’s just something that I’ve just been making sure I do. Something I haven’t really lost yet. At all.

I’ve talked to [Rob Blake] about that a bit. He thinks it’s a good idea. Yawns (Kings assistant coach Trent Yawney) thinks it’s a good idea and everyone thinks that’s a good idea for the foreseeable future. They’re obviously guiding in the right direction. If they think that’s the good hands for me to be in the next month and just play and succeed, then that’s what I’m going to do. Hopefully we come out on top, and I can use that momentum back with the Kings in the new year.

I have a lot of friends on that team. There’s a lot of guys that I’ve just known through camps and stuff like that. It was a very seamless transition into that dressing room. It was fun. Those two weeks that I was there, it’s a really fun group. A lot of skill. A lot of future talent that’s going to be on this team very soon.

They’ve told me from the beginning that they want me here for the year. Hopefully that’s the plan. This is where I want to be. That’s the end goal.

# Todd McLellan

What we don’t need is a confused young player. We need a player that understands that there’s a plan and that the team, development in particular and coaching staff and teammates, are all involved and have his best interests at heart. Might not always seem that way to a young player. May not even seem that way to media, fans, whoever might be out there.

Sometimes players get rushed and we don’t want to do that with Clarkie. There’s the hockey part and then there’s all of the strength and professional habits and practice habits and travel habits and teammate habits that are really, really important. And you don’t necessarily always get that at the junior level when you play 38 minutes a night. You stay on the power play for two straight minutes. And I’m not saying that’s happening with Clarkie. They’re a very well-run team where he was before. But that can happen in certain situations. Right now, we think that this is a real good spot for him, and we’ll see where it goes.

There’s a lot of experience there. There’s a lot of detail to their work. And Clarkie was part of that. It was a hard workout. Not because the coaches made it hard. It’s because Alex Edler and Alex Iafallo made it hard. Clarkie got better just in that situation alone. His legs got stronger. His lungs got better. He moved pucks. But he got to watch what Alex Edler was doing. And the quicker that these younger players – not just Clarkie but any team’s younger players – can grasp that just by osmosis and watching, that young player – whoever it is – has a way better chance of success. Alex Edler was that guy going to Vancouver at some point and I don’t know who it was that stayed out with him and worked him. But osmosis got to Edler. Now it’s got to get to Clarkie.