September 23 practice quotes: Darryl Sutter

On what he sees in Devin Setoguchi:
He’s here on a tryout. He’s 29 years old. I’m familiar with him for a long time. He’s still a really good player. [Reporter: Your families are close, correct?] I think he’s probably closer, just because of proximity, where he did live, to my younger brothers, but obviously I know him from watching him play junior, in the division.

On how he plans on incorporating players who return in tiers from the World Cup:
I think it depends – obviously Quickie was the first out. As it goes along, we’ll see how they do. I think it’s for every player in that tournament, not just ours coming back, how you incorporate them. You’re not really ‘incorporating,’ they’re good players, all those guys. You’re not trying to find out how they’re playing. They’ll be ready to go, but you’ve got to give them their time, too.

On how he plans on assessing the younger forwards battling for roles:
I think as we go along, we’ll see. If you look, our camp, counting the black-white game in Ontario, there’s really seven games in a week, if you count that. As I said, you’re going to give them an opportunity to play lots of games, and they’re going to get that in the first week, and then it’s going to break out, because then we have a few days off and then games in Vegas and then a few days off. Give them the opportunity early, and see if you can find something that works. It’s pretty obvious that there are spots there in some for. You can only have 21 or 22 guys on your roster.

On how many spots are realistically open on the team:
I think it just depends on veterans, how they play. It’s been pretty clear, the picture painted from the organization, that unlike the last three or four years where there are positions available. I think at every position, right D, left D, center, goaltending, there’s lots of ‘em. You base it on performance, and that’s the best way of being fair with the guys, too. Let them play. You’re not going to learn much from practice. Not everybody works hard.

On what has stuck out about Tom Gilbert, a veteran he has coached against:
He’s a veteran. See if he can still keep up. I’m not going to break that out into individuals. You know what, you guys do your own analyzing and all that. It’s unfair to base it on age or any of that. I’ve said that with the defensemen – Scuds, Greener, Tommy are all in the same spot – and then there’s a group of young guys that are in the same spot. They will sort it out on their own.

On what he looks for from younger players who have transitioned from rookie to main camp:
Handle the pace of play. If you look at from rookie camp to here, there’s what, a handful of guys left, and they’ll be here for a handful of days? Most of them go back to their junior teams because their junior seasons are starting. Most teams sort of have some sort of rule where guys get to stay for a few days or stay through rookie camp. Everybody has something different. I think the Kings, since I’ve been here, have kept a few guys over. They know their schedule. They know they’re here and get to practice for a few days with the big guys. No junior players will go to Ontario because they can’t.

On who will have to pick up the production lost from Milan Lucic’s departure:
I think I’ve talked about guys on our team that have to get better in terms of production. We think that Tanner and Tyler can be better players in terms of production, and I think guys like Dwight – all our wingers. Nobody’s over the hill, if you look at our wingers. We need Gabby and Brownie to be clearly better players in terms of production. They want to be, so they’ll get the opportunity to do that.