Rob Blake on Kings’ Signing of Brodzinski, Other Moves

It’s that time of the year, the period in which NHL clubs begin signing their college prospects. As reported earlier today, Kings Assistant GM Rob Blake was in Minnesota on Tuesday to meet with prized forward Jonny Brodzinski. Within an hour of returning to Los Angeles this afternoon, he was on the phone with MayorsManor, providing updates on what went down and what’s ahead.

“Once [St. Cloud State] was eliminated, we kind of knew the process,” began Blake. “We gave him a few days. He just hurt his ankle in the second-to-last game there, so we knew there was no real rush. He is going to get it looked at first [before we can] decide where he’s going to go.”

In our previous report, Brodzinski detailed how the injury took place and the risk he was willing to take to play through the pain. Unfortunately for him , his team still lost on Saturday, essentially ending his junior season. Now, after agreeing to turn pro, it’s simply a matter of finalizing the paperwork.

“They’re doing the contract right now,” Blake explained. “It’s a fairly simple [two-year] contract, so it should be done by the end of the day. This morning he agreed that he was going to turn pro, so it was just a matter of getting the deal finalized, which won’t be a hold up at all.”

For Blake, meeting with Brodzinski was all part of his ever expanding duties in his role as one of Dean Lombardi’s right-hand men. Yet, it also was something he had yet to partake in up until that point.

“It was kind of my first time being in that situation,” he stated. “Mike Futa and Mark Yannetti were in there with us. They talked about the necessity to keep developing. [Brodzinski] had a great college career, but we felt, at this time, the best thing for him was to turn pro and be involved with our development group going forward.”

Blake also supported the comments Nelson Emerson and Glen Murray shared with us for a prospect profile we recently did on Brodzinski for the Kings’ website.

“Glen and Nelson had been [to St. Cloud] quite a few times to see him. They were very excited, very happy for him, but they also felt they wanted to get their hands on him for a full year,” Blake continued. “We kind of put these kids in order throughout the season, on where we think they’re at, and Jonny has been rising all year. He has a knack for scoring, for sure. He’s filled out; he’s a pretty good -sized kid. Goal scorers are hard to find, guys that have a knack at scoring goals. He has a great shot, which gets him in spots and open. He’s played a little bit of center this year, probably more than he has in the past.”

Although that is true, as mentioned in the above referenced prospect profile, we’ve been led to believe the Kings’ management team envisions Brodzinski as a right wing moving forward.

Bonus notes and quotes secured by MayorsManor…

Monarchs defenseman Kevin Gravel on his former St. Cloud teammate turning pro today – “He for sure deserves it. He had a great college career. Hopefully, he comes on out to Manchester. We can always use another St. Cloud boy around the locker room.”

Monarchs center Nic Dowd on his former St. Cloud teammate turning pro today – “I’m very excited for Brodz! Obviously, St. Cloud will be sad to see him go, but he has an exciting career ahead! St. Cloud was great for him and L.A.’s organization will be too.”

Blake on Cornell forward Joel Lowry’s pending contract – “He’s a senior, but we want to get him signed here shortly and move forward with him. They’re going to start working on it here shortly… There wasn’t as much of a rush with him. He was done this season and he was out rehabbing his back [following surgery] anyway.”

Blake on if the Kings are interested in any college free agents – “Not really. You won’t see anything, I think, from us on that aspect. You see a lot of them [have started to sign with other teams]. We talked about a few of them, but our guys were pretty comfortable with our prospects we had coming in [this year].”

For more on today’s developments, be sure to check out the articles below.

RELATED CONTENT:

LA Kings Sign College Sniper Jonny Brodzinski – full interview and details

More Kings’ Contract News; Another Signing Expected – interview with Lowry

LA Kings 2014-15 Midseason Prospect Rankings: The Top 10

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