Rookie Faceoff Primer + Marco Sturm Talks Tournament & Approach

Hockey Is Back!

The LA Kings are on the ice at Toyota Sports Performance Center to begin the 2024 Rookie Faceoff with their first practice of the weekend. Kings rookies will skate today in a practice setting before games tomorrow and Saturday against Vegas and Utah specifically. Sunday will also be a practice day for the Kings, while Monday will be the final game of the event, as the Kings take on Anaheim.

Thursday, 9/12 – Practice, 10 AM
Friday, 9/13 – Kings vs. Vegas, 7 PM
Saturday, 9/14 – Kings vs. Utah, 7 PM
Monday, 9/15 – Practice, 11 AM
Tuesday, 9/16 – Kings vs. Ducks, 3:30 PM

The Kings will be represented by their two most recent first-round picks – Brandt Clarke and Liam Greentree – as well as the bulk of their top prospects within the system. The full camp roster is available HERE.

On the ice, the Kings are led behind the bench by Marco Sturm, the Ontario Reign Head Coach, who will lead the team for the third consecutive event. Sturm has coached many of the prospects who will be representing the Kings, either in a tournament like this or with Ontario. He knows what to expect from certain players and he’s got a bar for certain players. We spoke with Sturm for over a half hour on a number of different players and team-related storylines. The full interview is below, with a few selects pulled as well on key Kings prospects such as Clarke, Greentree, Aatu Jamsen, Jakub Dvorak and more –

Sturm on Balancing Ice Time Over The Three Games
My job is to give everyone the chance to showcase themselves, to be the best they can be. Obviously we have our draft picks and that’s going to be the main focus, not just for you guys or the fans or whatever, I think, for us, coaches, management, we all want to see our guys perform. There’s some other guys who are invites as well, it’s not like I’m not going to look at them. There’s experience the last couple of years that there is always a surprise or two, so I’m always excited about them too, see how they can play at this level and maybe get a contract out of it, who knows right? So it’s always an exciting time, event for us coaches to see those types of different players, but also I’m always curious to [see] my guys I had last year, how they perform this year. There’s the new draft picks, this year we have a first rounder, so there’s always excitement.

On how much time he actually has with his team in advance of Friday’s game
Not much. We’re going to have opening meeting [Wednesday], just give them a little bit of a heads up and and give them the information they need for this. For this tournament, [Thursday] will be our only practice, so we’re going to practice once, we’re going to do some, just a little bit of video. Guys usually come in very nervous, so you’ve got to be very careful with their information, how much information you’re going to give them. We have our – coaches – have a like a routine we did, like the way we did it the last couple years, or we felt like there was the right amount to practice with all information and stuff like that. So not much [practice time]. Sometimes the games can be little wild sometimes, during those kind of games and stretches, but overall those guys compete and we want them to compete, and we want them to have success and also to have fun.

On setting the tone early, with this event, heading into camp
I believe in setting the tone early and it doesn’t matter if it’s early in the season, if it’s in practice early on in the season, if it’s the rookie camp, for example, this is what I believe. You don’t want to start that way, you really don’t. If you start that in a rookie tournament, it might carry it over to the preseason, it might carry over to the regular season and all of a sudden, we’re in 2018-19, but they gave me a job, so hopefully not gonna happen to me this year. Hopefully, what I’m saying is, I do believe that as a coach, I believe that in a player, I do want them to to have success, but also to set the tone early, to send a message also to the opponent. People gonna play that the Kings, we might lack on draft picks or on young kids right now, just where we at with the Kings right now. There’s a San Jose and some others, Anaheim, they’re collecting a lot of draft picks in the past, so they might be more skilled than that, but it also comes a lot from the heart and it’s about work and and effort and attitude. That’s what we tried to show right from right from the start.

Rookies are on the ice as we speak in El Segundo for a full-team practice. Full coverage to follow here on LAKI after the skate!