LA Kings State of the Franchise: Key Takeaways + Quotes from Robitaille, Blake, Emerson

Good Morning, Insiders!

Kings win 5-2!

9-1-2 in their last 12. One point back of the division lead, six points clear of a playoff spot.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 27, 2022

Yupp, good morning indeed!

The Kings are off today, a well-deserved day after consecutive wins over the Ducks and Islanders this weekend. With that now behind us, let’s rewind to yesterday’s State of the Franchise event, which took place before the Kings took on New York. Not wanting this to get lost right before the game thread, I saved this for the off day today. Nothing groundbreaking here, but a few items of interest came from the Q&A session.

The panel consisted of Kings President Luc Robitaille, Kings General Manager Rob Blake and Kings Director, Player Personnel Nelson Emerson. Head Coach Todd McLellan was originally scheduled to join the panel but was a late scratch due to his entering into COVID Protocol.

Deadline Plans
Starting with the Trade Deadline, Rob Blake hinted a couple of times at the notion that the Kings might not be the most aggressively, active team in the league, though he reaffirmed what he did in the offseason, in that all roster moves from this point forward will be made to improve the team. No more selling off players for future assets.

“It’s a little different than the past couple of years,” Blake said. “The last couple of years, we took steps that may not look like we were advancing right away. I think this year, starting in the summer, in signing some UFA’s and some trades that were made, it’s all taking steps forward. We’ll continue that philosophy, not only into the trade deadline, but into the summer and as the seasons go on.”

Now, that’s not to say the Kings won’t make a move. They certainly could, because as we all know, the situation today isn’t the situation in three weeks, so we’ll continue to monitor things as that day gets closer.

During the presentation, Robitaille laid out a four-year plan from 2018-22. The 2018-19 season was about selling assets, 2019-20 continued that, while adding young pros to the organization. 2020-21 was about working some of those younger players into the NHL lineup and 2021-22 was about using cap space to add missing pieces.

We’ve seen veterans and core members move on to other organizations. We’ve seen an influx of young talent, creating one of the league’s best prospect pools. We saw those players start to integrate at the NHL level. And, through additions of players like Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault, we’ve seen the Kings begin to use their cap space to their advantage.

Blake indicated that the Kings should have between 3 and 5 million in cap space at the deadline, should they decide to make any moves. One additional note on the deadline is the timetable for defenseman Alex Edler, who is making progress towards returning from his injury. Blake projected that Edler could return by the end of March, making him like a de-facto deadline acquisition, in that coveted left-shot defenseman category.

“Alex Edler, we project back by the end of next month,” Blake said. “When we get him back in the lineup, it’ll be nice to get him back, it will be like a deadline addition for us on defense.”

However it comes into fruition, the Kings have the utmost flexibility at the deadline, should they choose to make a move.

The Process Of A Trade
Blake also expanded a bit on the process of a trade.

I think the NHL video game series has made us all believe that trades are simple. You see a player that you want, you fill out the value bar and they accept the offer. All of a sudden, you’ve got that top-six winger you were craving and it took approximately 90 seconds.

Not quite the case in the real NHL.

“It can take weeks or months for one trade, even a year,” Blake said. “You can talk about a player at one time, but a team needs that player based on injuries or circumstance and it may come full-circle a year or a year and a half later.”

Blake was asked if there is a “GM Group Chat” during the event, which drew some laughs from the crowd, but he actually said there is something like that out there. When you have a player you want to move, no better way to get a name out there than to notify……the GM’s.

He also discussed how the Kings brass talks about their team on a daily basis, looking at what they have, what they need and what it might take to get there. That process is more than just Blake, but a departmental overview of where things are at.

“Part of it is, there actually is something like that, that goes around,” Blake said. “If you have a player that you want to move, you want to get his name out there to just the GM’s. When you talk about trades, the whole process is getting together with your hockey operations staff on a daily basis, the coaching staff, just understanding where the team is and certain needs.”

Blake also added that the Kings make it a point to fill out their staff with people who have ties to other organizations. Having those open lines of communication around the league is important, not only for the relationships when a potential deal might be of interest, but to understand where other organizations are at in their process.

“There’s lot of communication between different organizations, especially leading up to deadlines,” he said. “At the start of the season, teams learn what they have player-wise and then you start fielding calls based on the different needs……that’s why we fill our staff out with guys who have good communication with other organizations, just to keep everybody in the loop and understand with what’s going on with different organizations.”

Young Guys To Watch
I always enjoy Nelson Emerson’s segments during these types of events, because of the passion and optimism he speaks with regarding the players in the pipeline.

Emerson highlighted four players in the system to those in attendance. Two were obvious – right-shot defensemen Brandt Clarke and Brock Faber. In Clarke, he called him “one of the best defensemen in Canadian juniors”, highlighting his ability to make plays at the highest level. With Faber, he touched on his international pedigree at a young age, with the ability to skate and defend well, closing off gaps and lanes at a high level.

Those guys are household names, though. We talk about their progress all the time. The more interesting part, I felt, was when he went deeper in the pipeline and highlighted the progress of 2020 third-round selection Alex Laferriere and 2020 second-round selection Samuel Helenius.

On Laferriere – He’s having an outstanding season. He works, he competes, he skates, he’s the kind of player you pull for, because he wasn’t a high draft pick, but he does all the right things. If you watch the way we play, the way Todd wants us to play, this kid will fit right into that.

On Helenius – He’s six-foot seven and he’s a centerman, and to add onto that, he’s mean. Sometimes the big guys aren’t mean, but it’s really difficult when the big guys are mean, and he can do that. We’re excited to get him over, into our organization. He’s a signed player, so we’ll have him with us very soon, he played great at the World Juniors.

Internally, have heard Helenius’ name mentioned several times as a player that the Kings are high on. His upside is probably a role in the bottom six, but as a center of his size, with the ability to make plays as well as play with an edge, Helenius is one to keep an eye on.

A few other things that I found to be interesting from the program

– A fan asked a question about Dustin Brown, certainly a topic of conversation this season among Kings fans. Blake was quick to point out the things that you don’t see that Brown brings to the locker room here and pointed to his history of success with the Kings,

“There’s a lot that goes on with Dustin that you guys don’t see,” he said. “If you go into the room right now, you’ll see a Quinton Byfield or a Mikey Anderson, trying to figure out the lineup for the New York Islanders and they can lean over and ask a guy like Dustin Brown, the history of it all, understanding the game of hockey. He’s been a tremendous asset for his organization and we’re lucky and fortunate to have him.”

– Blake also touched on the management of assets at the AHL level. He gave a bit of detail into the process of forecasting 1, 2, 3 years out regarding waivers eligibility and the notion of maximizing entry-level contracts that don’t require waivers.

“I think, what the American League is for, is to go and play well and play with confidence, play in positions where they’re going to be productive. That way, they’ll gain the trust of the coaching staff and a player that can be productive. With an entry-level contract, we only have three years that we can do that, so you want to take advantage of that as much as possible, because once you get past that, you run into waivers. You’re probably familiar with that, we lost a young player in Kale Clague earlier this year because we just didn’t have room on defense. We always have to be planning one, two, three years out, with waivers, when can we get them in the lineup, but also when can we allow them to develop in the American League, gain that confidence, gain that trust so when they get into the lineup, they can immediately help us.”

Emerson added that Luc likes to use the line “we’ll never get in trouble leaving a player too long”. He said it’s important to use the CBA the way it was written, which is that players can be down there to develop, improve and get better. The Kings believe that where you get in trouble is when you bring up a player who is too young and not ready. They want players to be ready to go when they come up to the NHL level.

– On Gabe Vilardi, Blake reaffirmed that Vilardi is very much still in the plans for the Kings. Robitaille noted that Vilardi is “doing what he’s supposed to do” with AHL-Ontario right now, scoring at a point-per-game pace this season. He’s transitioning to the wing, learning a new position and producing at the offensive end while doing so.

It’s a process, one that currently has him best fit at the AHL level, but in the long run, Blake sees Vilardi as a contributor for the Kings at the NHL level.

“We see him playing for the Kings eventually,” he said. “We use the American League to help develop. He had a real good training camp, a tough start to the season, but he needs be involved in power plays, getting up and down the ice, playing with pace. We switched him to the wing in the American League, it’s a different position than he’s normally played, but he’s producing. He’s over a point-per-game, a goal every other game. [The AHL] is where they get the ability to play that many minutes. There will be a situation where we get him into our lineup, eventually, but right now, it’s his current process and progress going forward.”

– Lastly, Robitaille touched on upgrades to come at Crypto.com Arena, a process he confirmed is set to begin over the summer. He indicated that those plans initially would have come last summer, but were delayed due to complications stemming from COVID.

“It’s a three-year process, so it’s going to be every summer for the next three years,” Robitaille said. “Next summer, we’re starting on the event level underneath, Kelly Cheeseman has been following to make sure everything is done right. There will be some bunker suites, they’re going to re-do the chairman’s club, they’re going to re-do all the clubs for us, they’re going to re-do our wives room, which is important for us. A lot in year one will be on the event level, and year two they’ll go halfway. If I’m not mistaken, they’re going to spend more money on this rebuild than it cost to build [the arena]. It’s going to be a lot of changing, a lot of fun.”

Robitaille also noted that in the last phase, the Kings will get a newly designed locker room at home, a nice note for the team, but the bulk of the upgrades will be put towards increasing and enhancing the fan experience. Good signs all around.

Insiders, that’ll be all from me today. Stepping away from the laptop, hopefully for the entirety of this beautiful Sunday. Jared Shafran will have post-game reactions from the Ontario Reign’s rematch in Tucson, coming up at 2 PM Pacific, and I’ll be back with a look ahead to tomorrow’s game versus Boston in the morning.

Go Reign. Go Hurricanes. Go Sabres. Go Islanders. Talk soon!