Recapping Brandt Clarkes AHL conditioning loan as he re-joins the Kings

Last updated Dec 1, 2022 Edit Source

• News post

• Zach Dooley

The LA Kings welcomed back defenseman Brandt Clarke to the NHL group yesterday morning, as the 19-year-old defenseman rejoined the group yesterday for morning skate.

• Brandt Clarke

• Marco Sturm

# Marco Sturm

[Brandt Clarke] [was] great. I think only in his first game, everything seemed new for him. Since then, he was outstanding. He gets involved, he’s a special kid. Like I said, he’s on the ice and then all of the sudden he shows up in front of the net and has a really good chance. Defensively he has to be more aware, but he wants to go [to the net], and its good. I think that we don’t have a player in this organization like him and I think he will be good for us in the future.

# Brandt Clarke

The first thing that Marco Sturm told me was everything you think out there, everything that Todd has told you, that’s where we want you on the ice for us too. It was kind of seamless with where he wanted me in the neutral zone, where he wanted the puck to go on breakouts. It was pretty easy for me to just hop in and everyone knew where to be.

It felt good, especially to get it in a crucial situation, a 1-1 game late in the second period, it was a big time to get a goal and give us some momentum going into the third. It was a great situation to score in and a great team effort in front, I just picked up the loose change, so it was a good all-around play.

I just saw their forward was leaking a little bit so I made it look like I was going to shoot, so he had to drift back over to me, I tried to give Tyler Madden a lot of time. I thought he was going to one-time it, but he made the right play to catch it and he picked his spot, great shot, great play by him.

I’m looking forward to being back with the [Kings]. It’s going to be a lot of fun, I’ve made a lot of friends on that team, I’m really close with those guys and they still keep in touch with me, so it’s going to be nice to see them all again and be on the ice with them again. I hope to start rolling with them again.

I was pretty happy with how I played, making plays through the middle of the ice, having my head up and making the right reads most of the time. I felt really good and I feel really good with where my game is at right now. I’m looking forward to hopefully using this as momentum for things with the Kings.