LA Kings - Key to Brandt Clarke development is right amount of minutes
# LA Kings - Key to Brandt Clarke development is right amount of minutes
# Contributors
# Players
# Staff
# Summary
Over the last couple of seasons, the LA Kings have seen an influx of young prospects make their NHL debuts. They will have another in 2021 first-rounder, Brandt Clarke. The 19-year-old has reportedly made the team’s 23-man roster for Opening Night.
# Notes and Quotes
# Rob Blake
“I think we have some experience on our staff. I think Trent Yawney has done a terrific job with some young D and the different organizations he’s been in, so we’ve relied on his help on that. Jim Heller went through the situation with the young D on the Islanders a couple of years ago. So basically, it comes down to making sure when he does get in a lineup, he’s going to get the right amount of minutes to keep developing.
I think his play through rookie camp and training camp put him to a level where we want to see him in the NHL and that kind of went into the decision process. But now the step is to make sure that it keeps going that way, and we’ll let that play out here the first little while and probably have to reevaluate again.
I think he can play in all situations, use him a lot on the penalty kill, which can give you an opportunity to get the minutes needed to keep developing at the NHL level. The powerplay, obviously, you see the deception and his hockey IQ in that. But also defending, good in his sense. He’s gonna have to learn to protect himself a little bit more. Guys are bigger and stronger at this level than in junior. But I think the all-around game, there’s a lot of aspects that would allow a player, when he does get in a lineup in the regular season, to maintain those minutes that are going to help progress.
We’ve tried quite a few over there. Sean Walker has played there at times. I think we gotta get him comfortable coming back from knee surgery before we experiment again with the left side. Sean Durzi, you saw the last game slide over there and made that transition really easy. And we’ve used Brandt Clark a couple of times over there. So the availability to open up that left side within our defense can increase getting Brandt in the lineup and getting the minutes he needs.