Column: Staying with the Kings is not a tough decision for Darryl Sutter

Chris Sutter is staying in Los Angeles, probably the best news local hockey fans have gotten since the Kings and Ducks made earlier-than-expected playoff exits last month. The promise of watching more of his blissfully unselfconscious dance-cam routines is enough to wish the Kings could drop the puck at Staples Center next week.

Oh, and his father, Darryl, is staying on as the Kings’ coach after agreeing to an extension for two years plus an option year, each at more than $3 million per year. The team holds that option, but Sutter would receive compensation if he doesn’t coach that year. His staff — associate head coach John Stevens, assistant coach Davis Payne and goaltending coach Bill Ranford — also will return next season.

See the most-read stories in Sports this hour>>

Signing an extension was “an easy decision” in Sutter’s mind and never in doubt, so he was businesslike during a conference call with reporters Friday. “If I don’t sound excited,” he said, “that’s ‘cause I don’t have to sound excited. But you know that Christopher is.”

Although there were times last season when Chris got more affection from fans than his father did, ensuring Darryl’s return is a good thing for a team that must change in order to keep up with a leaguewide trend toward putting a premium on speed instead of brawn.

General Manager Dean Lombardi’s ability to secure goaltender Jonathan Quick, defensemen Drew Doughty, Jake Muzzin, and Alec Martinez and center Anze Kopitar to long-term deals solidified the core and gave Sutter strong reasons to stay. But Sutter, whose defense has morphed from a rugged but balanced group during the team’s 2012 Stanley Cup run into a top-heavy corps that lacked the depth for a long playoff run, is prepared to bring younger players into that mix. He will have to do the same up front to fortify a group that couldn’t provide adequate scoring depth last season.

(Incidentally, Sutter said that Martinez, who recently underwent shoulder surgery, is expected to be ready when training camp opens Sept. 22.)

Implementing those changes probably will require patience and flexibility from Sutter. Once considered a hard-line coach who had little patience with young players, he has changed his style over the years. When he took over as coach in December 2011, he sensed that his players needed more pats on the back than high-volume lectures, and he rebuilt their flagging confidence while guiding a No. 8-seeded team to the Cup. When they faced elimination seven times during the 2014 playoffs he kept them on course as they became the first team to play 26 postseason games and win the Cup.

With the Kings’ window to contend for another championship firmly open, Sutter has every incentive to adapt again. One reason he has stayed in Los Angeles instead of returning to his ranch in Canada is to monitor players on the Kings’ top farm team, the Ontario Reign, which is facing the Ducks’ top affiliate — the San Diego Gulls — in the second round of the American Hockey League playoffs.

“Every good team needs that nucleus, and with that there’s always change. That’s a fact,” Sutter said. “There’s usually at least five changes a season. You deal with it.

“We have the good fortune now of the players playing in the American League playoffs that we’ve had up and down during the season that we feel are good players, and that’s how you grow. It’s easy to look back at our team and say we put in players from the organization in the last couple years and this season. Now you need guys to make that sort of impact that those boys made on our team. We need two or three of the next group to do it now. That is key for us.”

Left wing Michael Mersch, center Nic Dowd and defenseman Kevin Gravel led the group that went up and down between the Kings and Ontario last season and probably will get the best shots at earning a spot in “The Show.” Defenseman Derek Forbort, the Kings’ first-round pick and 15th overall in 2010, will get a chance too.

Sutter, who will be 58 in August, was asked if he considers this his last coaching stop. “I look at it like I have lots of coaching left. I don’t look at it in that light,” he said. “That’s sort of a question where you’re aging somebody out or they’ve got one more year of high school or they’ve got to get another class, and I don’t look at it like that.”

That’s good news for Kings fans, and for his family. “Just talked w/Chris on phone,” Sutter’s oldest son, Brett, who plays for the Reign, tweeted Friday. “He’s super excited 4 his Dads new contract. Says he’s a free agent looking for dance cam extension.”

Consider it done.

Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelen