EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — It isn’t uncommon for Kings prospect Martin Chromiak to run into Tomas Tatar when he’s back in his native Slovakia. Or Zdeno Chara. Or Marian Gaborik. Maybe even Marian Hossa.
Those longtime NHL players are part of hockey royalty in their country, especially in the Trenčín region where they all originate from. The neighboring cities of Trenčín and Ilava are still small enough that Chromiak runs into some of his heroes.
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“I always looked up to players from Slovakia who played in the NHL,” Chromiak said. “And they were from my hometown. Like Pavol Demitra. He was from my hometown. Tomas Tatar. Those guys. I had a chance to meet all of them. I still work out and train with Tomas. We’re from the same small city. We’re together a lot.
“We can see them every day. I know all of them. It’s cool when we meet. They know me as well.”
That might be the cooler aspect of their interactions. They’re aware of him as much as he followed what they did in the world’s best hockey league. And as he continues to develop and chart a path toward the Kings lineup, Chromiak is getting support from those pros that he tries to emulate.
“They’re very nice guys,” he said. “Every time I have a chance to be with them, they’re asking how it is (for me) to be here. They’re trying to help.”
Chromiak is getting closer to where his idols have been. A fifth-round pick of the Kings in 2020, the 20-year-old right wing played his first American Hockey League season with the Ontario Reign after going between HK Dukla Trenčín and the Ontario Hockey League’s Kingston Frontenacs across three years. His totals were modest: 15 goals and 13 assists in 55 contests.
His goal total put him fourth on the Reign behind Lias Andersson, Samuel Fagemo and Tyler Madden. His season wasn’t unlike many prospects playing pro in North America for the first time. It was uneven, with goal spurts like when he scored eight times over a 10-game span — which included his first AHL hat trick — and goal droughts where he didn’t score in his first 13 games and ended the regular season without one in his last 10.
Glen Murray, the Kings’ senior director of player personnel, saw a green winger adjusting to a higher level of competition. Over their recently concluded summer development camp, Murray believes Chromiak is “just having a good, better engine.”
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“He was a young guy last year,” Murray said. “We say this all the time and certain players don’t understand it. The American League’s hard. American League’s very hard. There’s older guys there and they’re battling for their jobs and they’re not going to give it to you. He found out fairly quickly. He had a good six weeks last year where he scored all his goals. But it’s hard. It’s a long season.
“You’re practicing every day. You’re used to having someone taking care of you and now you’re here, you’re a pro hockey player. You have to get your meals and you have to do your laundry and you have to put gas in your car. Whatever it may be. I think sometimes it takes a little time. But I think he’s going in the right direction.”
In the final full five-on-five scrimmage where two running 25-minute clocks of action were contested, Chromiak scored twice and showed what he does best when he darted in off the left flank and snapped in a goal with a precise wrist shot. It is something he’s practiced countless times starting in his backyard when he was much younger, finding the holes in a shooting board. And that’s something he still does to this day when he makes time away from the rink.
There were highs and lows in his first AHL season, but Chromiak said he was happy to have longtime NHL veteran Nate Thompson along the way. Thompson, who played in 844 NHL games with nine teams, often served as a mentor to the winger last season.
“He was great,” Chromiak said. “After every shift, he was talking to me. He was trying to explain all the different situations, what to do, what to do better. If I did something good, he’d say, ‘Good job.’ It was great playing with him. I think I learned a lot from him.”
With the Kings largely set on their forward group, Chromiak will likely spend a second year in Ontario. This coming year, he hopes, will be about becoming one of the Reign’s top players and someone the parent club puts on its radar when it comes to potential call-ups.
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“For sure, I want to play on another level,” he said. “Last year, I was a rookie. I was the youngest guy on the team. I think I learned a lot. But for sure, I want to take the next step and be one of the leaders on the team and help the team win games.”
With nine games played in Los Angeles last season among the highlights of a fantastic development year, Brandt Clarke figured to be among the top performers at the camp. Perhaps it was fitting that the ultra-confident defenseman saved his best for last.
Clarke, to whom the Kings would love to give a spot on the blue line in the coming season, made play after play for his winning Team White side. His best dish was one that didn’t result in a goal — he had the puck down low, did a left turn to circle back and then surprised defenders with a pinpoint cross-ice pass through pairs of skates to Ryan Conmy as he went to the net. Conmy hit the post with his shot.
Murray cracked that he thought Clarke was being more of a forward than a defenseman during the scrimmage and that the staff would “let him off the hook.” But the Kings all know that the 20-year-old has the vision and ability to execute plays that others can’t and they’re being careful in not dismissing his instincts while stressing the importance of being responsible and knowing when to take risks.
“I think how the way his brain works is it’s the last game for the development camp and he’s like, ‘OK, I’m going to be the best player out here,’” Murray said. “You could see it. The plays he makes. He wants the puck. That’s Clarkie.”
“I want to be a full-time L.A. King. I got the taste of it last year. … That’s where I want to be. I was loving it."
With a path now clear to the @LAKings blue line, Brandt Clarke takes his first steps toward sticking in the NHL.https://t.co/213znSnUPC
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) July 7, 2023
Two of the Kings’ top forward prospects, Francesco Pinelli and Alex Laferriere, were together on a line and displayed chemistry as they worked well off each other.
The two often carried play when they had the puck, whether it was supporting the other by moving into spaces to get a pass or maintaining possession in the offensive zone and forcing defenders to work harder at breaking up plays. Before Murray met with the media, he had a talk with Pinelli to express how much progress he had made from last year’s summer camp.
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“He’s here,” Murray said, motioning his hand upward, “and he’s making his way this way. Sometimes it takes a few years for them to understand how hard it is to be a pro and the offseason workouts should be harder than when you come in here to play. I think he’s really taken that to heart. Not that he didn’t do it before and not that he didn’t work out before. But now he really gets it. Like wow, this is big. The off-ice part of it is very big. He’s young.
“Alex, the same way. He’s finished college now. He came here at the end of the year with us, with the Reign, and played three games. And he was pretty impressive. I think he understands now (in saying), ‘OK, I’ve got to really push myself off the ice during the offseason if I want to keep up with the Kopitars and those guys.’ They’ve had a great four or five days. Lot of the summer left until rookie camp. We’re looking forward to getting those guys back here.”
While Conmy didn’t finish off Clarke’s feed, the Virginia native had a presence throughout the scrimmage. Conmy, 18, did have the first goal on a neat wraparound and continually worked his way into scoring areas for other chances. “That’s what we love,” Murray said of the sixth-round pick, who led the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers with 33 goals and 62 points. “He goes to those hard areas.”
Otto Salin, 19, was at his first Kings camp and the puck-moving defenseman that will be back in Helsinki with the Liiga’s HIFK made a favorable impression. Murray scouted the 2022 fifth-round pick in Finland last year. “He’s a confident kid,” he said. “Another right shot. He’s got a great awareness of everything that’s going on the ice. We don’t really grade them on their defensive stuff here because it’s wide open. But we really like where he’s at. He’s got a few years and we’re going to make sure we keep our eyes on him this year in Finland.”
(Photo of Martin Chromiak during a 2021 preseason game: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
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