Sat down to chat with Ron Hextall to discuss what’s happening and what’s expected from the Kings AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs. With the current situation, Ron has spent more time than usual watching and working with everyone in Manchester and he was asked to comment on “big picture” issues as well as “breaking-it-down” for us regarding some of the younger players in New Hampshire. Specifically I asked Ron about seven of the youngest players, now in Manchester, that maybe we don’t know much about here in Los Angeles. I have broken the chat down in four segments with each segment ending with Ron’s take on a specific player or two. In part one he speaks about watching a Kings game compared to watching a Monarchs’ game…conversations he might have with the Monarchs’ staff…how often he sees Manchester play or communicates with the staff and he breakdown the games of Andy Andreoff and Nick Deslauriers…
JF: When your watching a Kings game compared to watching a Monarchs game, do you watch it differently?
RH: Yeah it’s a little bit different. Obviously the American League level, the kids are down there for a reason, they’re not quite the finished product yet. You’re evaluating their growth within the year, their growth as a group. There’s a little more patience there, probably because you got younger kids and a lot of first year guys and they’re going to make their mistakes—it’s just part of the growth process, so it is a little bit different. Emotionally, you’re probably just as plugged in or close to it. You want to win the game, we want to bring our kids up in a winning environment and teach them that winning is important, so there are definitely differences.
JF: Can you bring me in perhaps as close as you can to a conversation that you might have with Hubie McDonough or Mark Morris, when the Kings need players, Kings have injuries, you got to have call ups or for a reason you made last year, just to bring King and Nolan up, knowing that you are taking away from their chances, because they are the affiliate of the Kings. How does that conversation go?
RH: Well, Mark and Hubie and Scotty Pellerin in the past and now Freddy Meyer—they are very good with it, they understand the role within the organization and they understand they are a development team. On the other hand, again winning is important, we want to bring our kids up in an environment but again they take pride in the fact that player x, player y brought up to the Kings is doing well. I mean I don’t think there’s anybody who took more pride than Mark and Hubie in the kids that helped the Kings win the Stanley Cup last year that have come through Manchester. The list is long now and those guys have done a great job and again they understand that they’re developing players for the LA Kings and again when they come up they’re almost happy for the players as opposed to thinking oh this is really going to hurt our team.
JF: How often do you actually get to Manchester during the season or maybe follow them on the road during a season and then how often do you communicate with Hubie or with Mark?
RH: I try to go to Manchester once a month, anywhere from five to seven days, so you know typically I’ll catch a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday or Friday, Saturday, Sunday—I catch a few days of practice so I try to go five to seven days once a month depending on what’s going on with the Kings it can go one way or the other, where I don’t quite go in there once or month or maybe I go a little bit more if things are going well for the Kings. It kind of plays off on some of the other work I have to do but for the most part I try to be consistent in getting down there it’s important to see the growth of the players and like you mentioned earlier we got to call a guy up, it’s important that I’ve seen that team within a few weeks of when we’re calling a guy up and then I make the call to Mark and/or Hubie and see what they think in terms of here’s what we need and who do you guys think the best guy is but I need to evaluate that process as well.
Andy Andreoff-Scouting Report
Hextall: Big, strong two-way center, he can always play the wings. He’s got some flexibility there, he’s physical, he never takes a shift off. He can fight if he has to; he plays really hard against top players on the other team. Faceoffs are good but I think they can get better—it’s one of the things that he can work on, but he’s got pretty good skills too, so he’s not just a defensive player. He’s a full seat player who, he’s got a couple goals already and he’s got a good enough skills to produce nice numbers.
Nick Deslauriers-Scouting Report
Hextall: Nick is a bit of a wild horse, he’s a big strong kid I’m not sure he even knows how strong he is, he can be mean at times, he’s a little bit of a runner, which we like—you tame the horse a little bit right. Got decent skills, he’s very good at carrying the puck up the ice, for a big man he can really move and his game is more under control this year that it was last year. We’ve really seen some growth in him. I just, I love his attitude, he’s hungry and he wants to make a difference in a game and you know take a huge run on a guy, he tries to turn the momentum in a game and again he’s certainly made strides from last year.
Thanks again Jim hope all is well
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Nice! A Monarchs update(kinda). Both of these guys sound like the type of players the Kings love…big, strong, two way character guys. I wish I was able to someohow watch the Manchester games without having to buy an online package…
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Nick Deslauriers may make the big club in Matt Greene’s role. Heck, the kid even kinda looks like MG. Good thing Andy Andreoff can play the wings as there seems to be a log jam ahead of him at center.
Off Topic: Bettman, you are still and always will be a PUTZ!
Fehr, I have promoted you to the esteemed title of NIMROD!
This is what happens when a PUTZ & a NIMROD have to negotiate……..NOTHING!
Bye-Bye Winter Classic.
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DesertKing Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 2:45 pm
@King Alex,
Once the reality oc the loss od the Winter Classic paycheck comes in, then we might see some movement. Fehr and Evil Load are too stupid to see it before it happens.
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luc20rules Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 5:21 pm
@DesertKing, +1, They definatly can’t see past their monsterously gigantic egos.
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Can anyone advise how long the winter classic has been around?
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CB14 Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 4:12 pm
@Lake Forest, 2008 was the first year.
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“With the current situation”
I’d be careful, that quote might rub Bettman the wrong way and this entire post may have to be deleted.
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DesertKing Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 4:26 pm
@HockeyNerd,
I think Evil Load was “rubbed the wrong way” by someone in his past which is why he is always so weird.
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luc20rules Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 5:22 pm
@DesertKing, IMHO there is no good way to rub a Evil Load.
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DesertKing Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 7:37 pm
@luc20rules,
+1
Wondering what the outlook is for Hickey and for Forbort. In Hickey’s case how much of his initial potential can still be reached? He was picked in a position indicating a #1 defenseman, is there any chance he could still reach that level or is he destined to be a 2nd or 3rd pair guy?
In Forbort’s case is there any indication that his thought processes and game knowledge are growing fast enough to allow him to exploit his physical tools well?
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HockeyNerd Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 5:07 pm
@The Weasel, One or the other may be kept as the 7th defenseman. Let’s see what they show on training camp.
Oh, wait a minute……
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Thanks Jim, With no NHL these are the stories I am looking for.
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LB Reply:
November 1st, 2012 at 9:50 am
@luc20rules,
Exactly, this is what we’d like to see here on the blog during the lockout. Also some updates on the college and Juniors players would be great.
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Sean O’Donnell’s take being 41 and possibly ending his career being locked out.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nhl/post/_/id/20055/odonnell-puts-nhlpa-ahead-of-career
Always liked Sean as a player and person. It would really be a shame if he wasn’t able go out by his own choice.
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“Superstorm Sandy forced the NHL to close its New York headquarters on Monday and Tuesday, but deputy commissioner Bill Daly indicated that the weather didn’t affect the bargaining process. However, no progress has been made this week.”
Apparently the weather had no effects on the CBA. The lack of progress was again do to the shear incopetents of the heads of the NHL & NHLPA.
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“There are several who would rather cancel the season than accept a bad deal because they are hemorrhaging money and need immediate satisfaction.
While the players believe Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs is calling the shots, an educated guess at the final group includes but may not be limited to Anaheim, Columbus, Florida, the Islanders, Phoenix, St. Louis, Washington and Dallas — enough to block any agreement from getting done (It’s tough to lock it down because owners are forbidden to discuss this stuff. Attempts to talk to a couple were politely shot down).”
Brent Sutter seems to think Minnesota should be on this list after signing himself and Zack Parise to matching 98mil 13 year deals this summer. At least until apparently big brother spoke to him.
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luc20rules Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 6:25 pm
@luc20rules, Remember 5 owners(NHL (Non) Negotiating Team) attend CBA meeting with the sith Bettman. 3 regulars are owners of Boston, Wash, and Minnesota.
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Thanks Mr. Hextall for the Monarchs update.
Being a goaltender himself, I’m surprised that he didn’t mention Martin Jones and his excellent play. I’m sure that update is forthcoming.
Kings and Blues game 1 on Fox sports right now. Game 2 following on the heels of this one. I was going to meet friends for a drink, but I can’t pull myself away from Kings Stanley Cup hockey!
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Weasel. Hickey is a #1 in Manchester. You shouldn’t look at him as not being ready to make the jump to the NHL because it is a well documented fact that the Kings are just exceptionally deep, and Hickey is a top producing defenseman playing top minutes in all situations in Manchester. If he wasn’t doing well than that would say a lot about all the defenseman currently behind him.
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luc20rules Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 10:39 pm
@Dominick (defrim65), +1, Kings Depth at D has long been one of DLs projects from Day 1. It a powerful statement that it is a strength at the NHL, AHL, and arguably got restocked this last draft at Juniors especially considering we traded 1st round selections JJ(3rd overall) & Tuebert(13th overall) in the last 20 months.
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Well its been a rough month. Instead of watching the Championship Banner go up, and seeing the reigning Champions play the greatest sport at the highest level. I have been reduced to watching the ECHL & really bad internet feeds of the AHL Manchester Monarchs.
Then tonight I ran out of the good fun size candy bars and had to give out the reserve hard candies & pops. The doorbell just ran and on the porch was a smelly, fiery, negotiating Gary Bettman. Water then shovel. Kids today? A sad month indeed.
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Great stuff here Jim!
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I always enjoy reading about the kids on the farm and their progress.
I would assume the Winter Classic will be cancelled at some pioint today or tomorrow.
It really seems as though the 2 sides will do whatever’s necessary to ruin the sport.
I read the OD article and I love O’Donnell and the fact that he’s standing up on principle, but nobody, including the NHLPA gives a ratsass about him. His career is essentially over and it will be for nothing.
Ask the guys who lost their careers after the last lockout. I would love to see a poll asking if they had to do it again, would they? 95% would say no. There was absolutely no benefit to not playing that season. They walked away with nothing and will end up getting the same this time around.
Whats the definition of insanity? Repeating the same thing over and over again hoping for different results…
Jsut get what you can and get back on the ice. It’ll only continue to get worse for the players the longer it goes.
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All I wanted for Christmas is my hockey back. Looks like being nice all year is gonna get me nothing but a lump of coal. Next year I’m gonna be naughty!
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LVKINGS88 Reply:
November 1st, 2012 at 11:50 am
@Dominick (defrim65), Yes, Dom, and all of us fans are getting a ” licking stick” to go along with that lump of coal, the only reason I haven’t gone of the deep end is because we Kings fans have finally won the cup.
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I remember going with my kids to a Kings game at Staples (imagine that, a Kings hockey actually occurring at Staples) during Quick’s rookie season. We were seated right behind the goal. One of the opposing players came down the ice on a completely clean, 1-on-1 breakaway. Quick outwaited him, made the save as easy as could be, sent it back up the ice and within a few seconds the Kings scored a goal. While the Kings players were celebrating near the opponents’ goal, Sean O’Donnell skated back to Quick, gave him a head bump, and reading his lips we saw him say “That was your goal.” Quick gave him a tap with his stick, got a drink, and got ready for the face-off. When people ask me why I like hockey so much, I always tell them that story.
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Brown heading to Zurich
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=408610
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ESPN SC NHL – Kings captain Dustin Brown signs deal with ZSC Lions of Swiss League, according to ESPNLosAngeles.com
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DesertKing Reply:
November 1st, 2012 at 12:48 pm
@Subby,
Its gonna be a long lock-out because I don’t think the owners are smart enought to realize that these players can make money in other places on top of what they saved or invested when they were receiving NHL paychecks.
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Well, the Kings were supposed to be playing the Wild tonight so I suppose Ownership can be happy about not spending the $812,134.15 in salaries today. They do,however, lose $940,686.56 or so in income. I guess this makes sense to some.
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I am really curious to see what the players are making over seas compared to here
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