In what was an interesting trade deadline for the Los Angeles Kings and its fanbase, 22-year-old Brandt Clarke winds up staying put with the organization.
The rumors started after a fan uproar came about Clarke’s minimum ice time and being a healthy scratch in back-to-back games on March 1st and 3rd. The Ottawa native has not had a time on ice of over 18 minutes since January 11th, even going as low as 5:15 on February 22nd.
Media members started talking about Clarke being a valued trade piece, most often mentioned as being involved in a potential deal with then-Carolina Hurricane Mikko Rantanen.
Despite the swirling rumors, it never made sense to trade Clarke. As one of the more promising young defensemen in the league, moving him for a rental or an aging player has disaster written all over it.
The only notable move the Kings made was acquiring left winger Andrei Kuzmenko. This move should help bolster what is a weak power play.
Kings general manager Rob Blake stated that “there never was” a willingness to trade the 2021 first-round pick at this year’s deadline.
Blake also mentioned that the defensive pairings would “go more favorable to where [the Kings] were earlier in the year,” revealing that he likes Joel Edmundson and Brandt Clarke playing alongside each other.
After the deadline ended, the Kings loaned Clarke to the Ontario Reign. This is no reason to panic, as this is simply a paper transaction to make him eligible for the rest of the AHL season, including the Calder Cup playoffs.
Being the only waiver-exempt player, the Kings wanted to keep all options open for Clarke. In 50 regular season AHL games last season, Clarke lit the lamp 10 times while also tallying 36 assists. In the Calder Cup playoffs, he had six assists in eight games played.
This move will make Clarke available for the Calder Cup playoffs if the Kings get eliminated early in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Last season, the Kings did this with forward Alex Turcotte, loaning him to Ontario before recalling him the next day.
Turcotte would end up being a massive contributor to what was a nice run in last year’s Calder Cup playoffs.
When asked last year if a deep playoff run could help translate at the NHL level, Turcotte believed, “It could be huge.” Maybe this was one of the many reasons he has taken a step forward this year in his career.
The Kings clearly believe the same can be true for Clarke. Another long playoff run, whether in the NHL or AHL, can boost Clarke the same way it did Turcotte.
