It’s been an eventful year for the Kings’ 2021 first-round pick.
Brandt Clarke started his 2021-22 season on a negative note, as a bout of mononucleosis cost him participation in both the 2021 Rookie Faceoff and NHL training camp a season earlier. Back in the OHL, Clarke was named midseason team captain for the Barrie Colts when he was 18 years old, an honor not imposed on a play with three seasons of junior eligibility as often.
Clarke said positivity is a big part of his leadership style as captain, something that is a key part of the team’s success and something that starts before the game and continues during it. Clarke’s positivity was perhaps put to the test in December, when he was not selected to represent Team Canada at the junior world championships, despite outside media viewing him as close to a lockout at the time.
However, the snub did not prevent Clarke’s success on the ice, as he scored at a rate of more than a point per game in the OHL, leading his team with 59 total points in the process. The second half of his was not without its setbacks, however, with an eight-game suspension in March and an eventual season-ending lower-body injury in April costing him a chance to participate in the postseason.
Regardless, though, Clarke had an impressive first season as a member of the Kings organization and believes he’s come a long way in completing his overall game since the Kings drafted him eighth overall a summer earlier.
“I think when I was drafted a lot of people were talking about my offensive capabilities and I’m not saying I let them go, I still think I keep getting better in that situation, but my coaches at Barrie really honed my defensive game, they wanted me to play against the best in the league. league,” Clarke explained. “That is [also] what the people in Los Angeles were telling me, they wanted to see how I handle myself in those kinds of situations, against the best in the OHL and I really stuck it out, I think I stood out.”
Photo by Chris Tanouye/Getty Images
Clarke’s path then took him to the LA Kings’ developmental camp, with the opportunity to showcase that all-around game against others within the organization’s prospect pool.
A developmental camp certainly features a broader array of talent than Clarke faced in the OHL this season. With players who own NHL games in camp, as well as players who had just been drafted and were still several years away from the pro ranks, Clarke had the opportunity to not only keep up with some higher caliber players , but also to impose his style of play in scrimmage scenarios as well.
“The intensity is really high, everyone was trying to make their mark and that’s what you want,” Clarke said of the camp. “You want the intensity to be high, you want to do your best and that’s what I was trying to do. I’m trying to show myself but also, you know, be a good teammate in the locker room and be a good guy off the ice as well.”
After all, development camp is as much about progress and comfort off the ice as it is about performance on it.
Clarke certainly took notice of those with NHL experience in camp, primarily the duo of Tobias Bjornfot and Jordan Spence on the blue line. Both players were regulars at times for the Kings last season, with Bjornfot playing 70 regular-season games and Spence contributing down the stretch and in the first-round series against Edmonton.
The opportunity to not only test himself against that level of talent, but also to learn from the way they behave both on and off the ice was a great lesson for Clarke.
“They’re bringing the intensity, they don’t take days off, they put in a lot of effort in every skate, every workout is awesome,” she said. “It is the mentality that you have to have if you want to play at the highest level and that is why they have stagnated. That’s why they will have successful careers and that’s just what I want to instill in myself, that’s the kind of attitude I want to have 365 days a year.
As it progressed, Clarke’s next stop after development camp was Hockey Canada’s summer exhibition event, which brought together candidates for the 2022 and 2023 World Junior Championships, as well as the best Canadians participating in the Under-18 level.
With the best and the brightest on the ice together, in one building, not being selected for the original 2022 tournament is in the back of Clarke’s mind, but his approach entering camp was simple enough: play his game.
“There’s always something backing up your mind, you want to prove people wrong, but I don’t want to let that make me second-guess myself,” he said. “I’m just going to play my game. It’s made me successful in the past…so I’m going to stick to my game plan, do what I do and hopefully put a smile on their faces, I guess you could say.”
Brandt Clarke with a good PPG in today’s game U-20 against U-18 to @HockeyCanada.#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/1yU8LVSybA
— Russell Morgan (@NHLRussell) July 27, 2022
You could say his play put quite a few smiles on quite a few faces during the most recent game, between Clarke’s Red Team and the U-18 select team. After nearly setting up a pair of power play goals with high-danger passes, Clarke held the zone in the left spot, missed a man as he worked his way to the net and converted the game-winner.
It was a sequence and it came in a summer skirmish game against players younger than him. That context is necessary. But he also offered a glimpse into some of the traits that make Clarke special, namely his hockey sense on the offensive end, his vision of the game to create a rare opportunity for others, and puck skills that are rare for a defending. Regardless of the context, those are great things to have and he showed them off well.
Assuming Hockey Canada doesn’t change its mind about the tournament coming up in August, the next test for Clarke will come with much tougher competition, when the Kings hit the ice for training camp in September.
Clarke is a wild card when it comes to the NHL roster and his status entering his 19-year-old season is such that he is eligible for the NHL or OHL and not the AHL. With a glut of right-handed defenders, there are certainly no guarantees for a player in that situation, but that won’t stop him from believing in himself to thrive in that situation. How he will shake out, against the highest levels of competition, will be known in six weeks.
“I’m really intrigued to see how I am in those exhibition games, against the best players in the NHL,” he said. “It will be interesting, but I feel confident in myself. I had a few summer skates in Ottawa, with some of the top pros in the NHL and stayed there, I can still play my game, my kind of creative style, so I’m confident in myself. I think I’m ready to go.”
Photo by Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images