Kings to take net management one game at a time

Questions about goalies and playing time often prompt an amusing baseball reference or two from Kings Coach Darryl Sutter, letting out his inner manager for a minute.

Not this time.

Sutter, who once declared there would be “no pitching rotation” involving his top two goalies, instead traveled down memory lane when asked about the handling of his No. 1 goalie, Jonathan Quick.

“I’ve been lucky to have had Jonathan [Quick], Kipper [Miikka Kiprusoff], Mike Vernon, Eddie Belfour ... all great goalies,” Sutter said. “Great goalies make you a good team.

“In terms of saying how much they’re going to play, I don’t even go there. If you say 60 [games] and they play 70. Or you say 60 and they play 50.”

In other words, Sutter refuses to get boxed in, by anyone. It is an interesting issue and obvious question, however, given Quick’s recent injury history. Plus he has had significant playoff mileage — 64 games in the last three postseasons with the Kings winning the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014.

Quick, 28, had surgery for a torn wrist ligament in June, and the organization is hoping he will be ready for the start of the regular season, a home game against San Jose on Oct. 8.

He missed nearly eight weeks last season because of a strained groin and had back surgery shortly after the Kings’ Cup victory in 2012. He was the most valuable player in the playoffs in 2012 and won the Jennings Trophy last season, an award given to goaltender(s) having played “a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it.”

“We’ll just see. I want to get him healthy first,” Sutter said. “There’s been no season that’s been the same, even last year. We want Jonesy [Martin Jones] to get sharp because we’re going to need him.

“We’re going to need him early, that’s for sure. Go from there.”

What is the ideal workload for Quick at this stage of his career? Quick will turn 29 on Jan. 21.

Kings goalie coach Bill Ranford, respected for his care and handling of the goaltenders, was curious enough to embark on a project of sorts, crunching some numbers from the last decade. He also examined the careers of Hall of Famer Patrick Roy, now coaching the Colorado Avalanche, and future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur.

“I did some research this summer, and the goalies that have won the Stanley Cup over the last 10 years are averaging in the low 50s to low 60s, so maybe there’s something there,” Ranford said.

“You don’t have to play the guy 65, 66 games like everybody thought you needed to, to keep your No. 1 ready. The fact is, we’ve gone so far the last three years, played more hockey than anybody. We have to be smart about the way we handle things, not only from our goalie standpoint but from our players.”

Quick hasn’t thought about any sort of reduction in his schedule.

“You love playing the games,” he said. “You never voluntarily say, ‘Yeah, give me the night off.’ The coaching staff has a good feel for their goaltenders and their team and what is best for them.

“They run the ship, and we just go to work. That’s about it. They tell me to take a day off, I’ll take a day off. When they tell me I’m going, I’m going.”

When Quick was out for a prolonged stretch last season, Ben Scrivens (since traded to Edmonton) and Jones kept the Kings afloat. Jones won his first eight NHL starts, tying a rookie record. Now there is no denying Jones has put in substantial work in the summer to get ready for Year 2 in the NHL.

“You’ve got a guy who is only going to get better. He looks like a house out there,” Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi said. “He looks huge, a big guy, and he plays big.”

Said Ranford: “The body is starting to mature into a man — that’s only going to help him. He still hasn’t played a full season in the NHL yet, and it’s a grind. The fact that he’s stronger this year is going to help him.”

The organization has learned from past mistakes with its goalies.

“I think the hard lesson we learned a few years ago with Jonathan Quick and Jonathan Bernier was, we tried to set up a schedule ahead of time, and it just didn’t work,” Ranford said. “You start pigeonholing yourself, and you regret some of the moves you make.

“Realistically, we’re going to take it a week at a time…. I remember we said, ‘We’re never going to put ourselves in that position again.’ We’re going to take it from a game-to-game business.”

Sutter provided some insight into Quick’s most recent injury, which occurred in the second round of the playoffs against the Ducks.

“The hand thing, Corey Perry slid into him,” Sutter said of the Ducks wing colliding with Quick. “That’s going to happen. It doesn’t matter who is in net. He tore a ligament. Most guys would have been done for the year.

“Two of those three injuries, he played through them. It wasn’t mileage or fatigue or anything.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Twitter: @reallisa