Finally, Kudelski Has a Position of His Own : Hockey: Last season, he did a bit of everything for the Kings. Now they expect a lot from him at center.

The date: April 20, 1991.

For Bob Kudelski, the end of the world.

As he is lifted off the ice in the hushed silence of the sold-out Forum, one thought runs through his mind: “My career is over.”

Kudelski, the Kings’ versatile forward, had been hit by the Edmonton Oilers’ Craig Muni, and Kudelski’s right knee was seriously injured.

If, indeed, at 27 he is through with hockey, it is the ultimate in a series of frustrations that have dogged him since he first put on a King uniform.

The date: June 23, 1991.

For Bob Kudelski, a brave new world.

In only two months, he has shed his crutches, shed his life as a bachelor and is about to shed his role as the Kings’ jack-of-all positions but starter at none.

Emerging from his wedding at Springfield, Mass., on this Sunday, Kudelski is pulled aside by Ed Maturo, a trainer when Kudelski was at Yale.

Kudelski knows that the Kings had traded second-line center Todd Elik the day before. Maturo tells him that he has seen a West Coast paper quoting King officials as saying that their new second-line center is . . . Kudelski.

The position once held by high-scoring Bernie Nicholls is to be Kudelski’s.

In two months, he has gone from utter depression to total joy.

“I was pleased and shocked,” Kudelski said this week at the team’s preseason training camp in this San Bernardino Mountain community. “I figured they might go out and get someone, but I think I can do the job.”

It took him a while to convince the Kings of that. But he is not concerned about moving into the middle full time.

Kudelski was a center in college and a productive one at that. In his senior year at Yale, he had 25 goals and a total of 47 points in 30 games. Overall, in his four years at the school, he scored 75 goals and had 152 points in 110 games.

Kudelski worked at his offense, developing a strong, deadly shot--on the roof of his dorm, of all places.

“My coach (Tim Taylor) gave us these lead pucks to work with,” Kudelski said. “We would hit them against this wall we found on the roof. We’d take about 200 shots each with them, five days a week.”

And Kudelski carried his shooting skill into the pros. In his second full season with the New Haven Nighthawks of the American Hockey League, the Kings’ minor league affiliate, he had 32 goals and 51 points in 60 games.

But on the big league team, nobody mistook him for Wayne Gretzky.

“You get characterized in this league,” Kudelski said. “I became known as a good defensive (forward), a third- or fourth-line player. I was someone you wanted on the ice to stop the other team from scoring, someone to kill penalties. When you get into that role, you can have a tough time breaking out of it. But when you get your opportunity, you have to take advantage.”

Kudelski got his chances last season:

--When wing Tomas Sandstrom got hurt, the Kings needed someone to play alongside Gretzky, a delicate and sometimes difficult role.

Kudelski came through, both as a scorer and a man who could get Gretzky the puck.

--When Elik went into a slump, the Kings needed someone to center the second line, skating between high-scoring Luc Robitaille and veteran Dave Taylor.

Kudelski came through again, scoring his first hat trick in his first game as the second-line center.

Eyes were opening. Minds were changing. And so was Kudelski’s role. Little did he dream of it at the time, but he was auditioning.

“When he first came to us, he didn’t score a goal in 26 games,” General Manager Rogie Vachon said. “We knew he could be a good defensive forward.

“But last season, when we put him with the first two lines, he put points on the board. When we put him with Wayne, he looked pretty good. He seems able to adjust to whatever situation he’s in.”

Kudelski has also impressed Rick Wilson, who is running the Kings’ preseason camp along with fellow assistant coach Cap Raeder while Coach Tom Webster remains involved in the Canada Cup tournament.

“The last two years, his biggest strength has been his versatility,” Wilson said of Kudelski. “He knows our system, he plays defense well, he has the size and strength and he’s a good shooter. He may be one of our top two or three in that department.”

Thanks to those lead pucks on the roof.

Kudelski scored 23 goals and had 36 points in 62 games during the 1989-90 season, his first full year with the Kings. He had the same totals last season, playing in 10 more games.

But this year, the Kings say, watch out.

“His potential has not even been tapped,” Wilson said. “We’ve had him bouncing around, on a wing here and a wing there. He did not play on the power play and there were a lot of times when he was on the checking line. He had to make sure the other side did not score. After that, he could take advantage of what was there.”

That will still be the case, to some extent. Kudelski will be asked to be a defensive force up front while supplying the scoring and playmaking required on the second line.

All this from a guy who couldn’t even win his arbitration hearing last season, settling for the Kings’ offer of $175,000.

Twelve months later, he has won the starting job on the second line and suddenly finds himself, on a team long noted for its offensive firepower, as the only offensive center other than Gretzky.

Kudelski can only shake his head when he thinks back to that night in April.

“I knew I was going to be all right when I was able to get back to riding the (exercise) bike just three days later,” he said. Kudelski knew he had made it all the way back earlier this week when he collided with teammate Tim Watters. They went down in a heap, Watters landing on Kudelski’s right knee.

Kudelski merely smiled. No harm, no foul.

His nightmare is finally behind him. Except perhaps, he says, for his next meeting with Muni.

“People tell me it was a dirty hit and that he has done that kind of thing before,” Kudelski said of Muni. “He’d better keep his head up the next time he sees me coming.”