Friday practice notes

-- The Kings have signed goalie Jon Quick to an entry-level contract. This is a guy the Kings will be watching closely. Jonathan Bernier is still considered the top goalie prospect in the system but Quick took a big step forward this season at UMass. I remember Lombardi bringing up his name during an unrelated conversation a while back, but I didn't think too much of it at the time. It would be a real stretch to say Quick is NHL-ready at this point, but with proper development he could be around sooner rather than later.

-- I haven't heard officially, but I've been told that Noah Clarke is headed back to Manchester. That's not a surprise, and it's better for him to get minutes down there now that Armstrong is back.

-- Speaking of backs, I asked Anze Kopitar about his today and he said he's pain free.

-- Rob Blake's neck injury continues to be an issue, according to Marc Crawford. Blake might not play Sunday at San Jose but they're pointing toward Tuesday for a return.

-- Crawford confirmed what most have assumed for the last week or so, that Lubomir Visnovsky is done for the season with a broken bone in his foot.

-- I asked Crawford about Jack Johnson and who, if the entire defensive corps was healthy, he would prefer to have Johnson playing with. Crawford initially said Blake, then added Aaron Miller's name in there. Those would have been my two choices as well, for the same reason that Crawford offered. As a young guy, Johnson is going to have a tendency to want to do too much, and he needs a calm veteran back there with him to settle him down and to stabilize the team in general. ``He's not a shy young man out there,'' Crawford said of Johnson.

I spent a lot of time talking to Dustin Brown, and to Crawford about Brown, so I'll have some of that later.