He made it clear that the impression he got when asked to play defense in Manchester was that it was a permanent move, and not just to help him with his center play. He also talks about his time with the Kings so far and how playing defense changed the way he plays center.

“Its been a lot of fun. Its definitely what Ive been working for. I wanted to get to the NHL, so hopefully I can stay as long as I can. The guys have been awesome. The level of play is obviously something I never experienced. Things have been pretty positive. Theres obviously a lot of stuff I need to get a lot better at.”

On his hot start with three goals and an assist in six games: “Ive been fortunate. I had some good looks. Jeff gave me some pretty good passes, as did Moul. I was pretty happy to get the first goal out of the way. Ive tried to be as prepared as I can for each game. You really cant take any shifts off or youll get exposed pretty quickly.”

On being asked to play defense: “I tried to commit to it totally. I went into it thinking I was going to be a D-man after being a centerman my whole entire life. It was a good experience but it was tough while it happened. Kind of some ups and downs, some good games that were fun and others that were really tough. My plus-minus kind of sucked from it. Poor Peter Harrold had play with me every game too.”

On what he learned from playing defense: “All in all, I did learn a lot. It kind of helped me out as a centerman to be supportive of my defensemen and work as a three-man unit instead of just two guys, because if your centers not there it makes for a long day in the d-zone. Now I know what its like for a defenseman if you dont have a good low center.”