That feeling of being excited extended beyond just Kempe himself.<\/p>\n
Forward Kevin Fiala was happy to see Kempe get rewarded, to lock in a potential running mate for the foreseeable future. As arguably the team\u2019s two most dynamic scorers, they\u2019re together to help usher in a new wave offensively for the organization, with Fiala under contract for three more seasons after this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery nice to see that he got rewarded,\u201d Fiala said. \u201cIt\u2019s done now and that\u2019s very nice for him and for the team. We\u2019re very excited to have him here for another eight years, it\u2019s going to be very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head Coach Jim Hiller is certainly happy to have him as well.<\/p>\n
Certainly can\u2019t blame him here. Kempe has become an impact player in all situations, with his versatility and ability to do so many things the right way, he is a massive asset for any coach, Hiller included.<\/p>\n
Hiller has leaned heavily on Kempe, playing him 19:13 over the last two seasons as the team\u2019s head coach, the most among Kings forwards in that span. Certainly a guy he’d like to keep around.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re really happy for him,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cHe’s been here for a long time, important player for the team and I think for the organization, homegrown, so lots of good stuff there. He gets his money, and we get our player, so everybody’s happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As we go forward, Kempe\u2019s impact on the Kings could continue to grow.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s saying something, because he\u2019s already pretty darn impactful. But with Anze Kopitar set to retire at the end of the season, locking in Kempe for eight years became that much more critical.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s certainly the on-ice component, as Kopitar has led the way in that area for so long. But Kempe leads the Kings in scoring this season, as he did last year and as he did in 2023-24. The two seasons before that, Kempe led the Kings in goals. He\u2019s been a rising star offensively and he\u2019s already helped to lessen the burden that Kopitar carried for so long. At times, the captain was seemingly driving the bus himself. Kempe’s been a big help and a big player to help carry the load when Kopitar does hang them up.<\/p>\n
Where Kempe has also grown is in the leadership department, which will be a massive hole to fill. Kopitar is among the most respected leaders in the NHL. It\u2019s not just going to be Kempe who needs to step up but as he\u2019s grown as a player, Kempe has taken on more of a presence in the locker room. He\u2019s not the most vocal guy around, but people seem to listen when he speaks. When Drew Doughty has b een out over the last couple seasons, it\u2019s been Kempe, along with defenseman Mikey Anderson, who has worn the second \u201cA\u201d on the sweater.<\/p>\n
As he enters the eight-year extension, at some point soon, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising at all to see that letter be a permanent thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’ve just seen him, since I’ve been here, grow as a player and I think as a leader of the team,\u201d Hiller added. I think he’s low maintenance for the coach and I think as a teammate, he’s always there for his teammates. Those guys, you love to have him in your organization and when they’re elite players, like he is, it makes it even more important.\u201d<\/p>\n
It’s all a part of the growth that\u2019s led Kempe and the Kings to this point.<\/p>\n
I shared this yesterday but imagine if the Kings had given up on Kempe earlier in his career. After his fifth season with NHL games, Kempe had a career high of 14 goals and 31 points. You often see players like that, first-round picks, given up on by the team that drafted them, only to thrive in a new situation. But the Kings stuck with Kempe and Kempe stuck with the process, moving to the wing and ultimately establishing himself as a first-line player in the NHL.<\/p>\n
Pretty good example of the development process and more importantly, the need to understand what you have sometimes. The Kings got rewarded for their patience with Kempe\u2019s process and Kempe is seeing the rewards of the work he\u2019s put in to become the player he is today.<\/p>\n
Now, he is established.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s battled through the process and come out the other side a star player in the NHL. And he\u2019s done it all in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
Kempe became an All-Star in Los Angeles. He became a 40-goal scorer in Los Angeles. Played best-on-best international hockey as a King. But he\u2019s also become a husband in Los Angeles. A father here. It\u2019s here he wanted to stay and here where he wants to spend the remainder of his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family has been in LA the entire time, it\u2019s our home and we want to keep building our family,\u201d Kempe added. \u201cIt’s very exciting for everybody, very thankful for everybody that’s been around for these years and for the coming eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That feeling of being excited extended beyond just Kempe himself. Forward Kevin Fiala was happy to see Kempe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-292243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}