On top of his offense, the smaller details of Clarke's game have also stood out, including his team-leading 30 blocked shots. The coaching staff hasn't hesitated to play him against top-end forwards, and Clarke has more than held his own.
In 2:05 of ice time against Nathan MacKinnon in an 8-4 loss Sept. 30, he held the Colorado Avalanche center to one shot on goal. He was on the ice against Macklin Celebrini for 7:23 in a 5-4 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 3. While Celebrini had three assists during that span, only one was at 5-on-5 (one on a power-play goal, one on the overtime goal), and Clarke had an assist on a 5-on-5 goal.
In 5:29 of ice time against Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights, he held Eichel without a shot attempt while Clarke had one in a 2-1 overtime loss Oct. 10. And in 4:30 of ice time against Connor McDavid in a 4-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 13, Clarke held McDavid without, while he scored a goal and had two shots on goal.
It's likely Clarke will see significant ice time against Celebrini when the Kings host the Sharks at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT).
"He's always had the offensive part, and that's something I think our (defense) corps needed a little more of," Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson said. "So, it's nice for him to maybe get a little more leash to get some more minutes because he brings a different element that the majority of us don't do near as well. But again, even the last probably year and a half, two years, seeing him play on the defensive side, it's gotten a lot better. He seems more confident in what he's doing. He trusts his ability and how he's going to defend.
"Everyone will defend a little bit differently, but it takes a little bit to find how you can do it in the NHL just with the speed, the way guys think, the plays, everything that goes on. It's been fun watching him kind of round out that side, where again, he can play in every situation like he's done in the past."Naturally, that growth has taken time. Clarke was selected by Los Angeles with the No. 8 pick of the 2021 NHL Draft and was returned for a full season of development with Barrie of the Ontario Hockey League. He made the Kings roster to start the 2022-23 season but was sent back to Barrie after nine games.
In 2023-24, his first professional season, he played 16 games with Los Angeles and 50 with Ontario of the American Hockey League, where he tied for fourth among defensemen with 46 points (10 goals, 36 assists) in 50 games.
All along Clarke felt he was ready for more, but the Kings prioritized a slow development path rather than learning the NHL on the fly.
"Obviously you have times where you're like, ‘Yeah, I'm feeling good, I want to keep going, I want to expand what I can do here, I want to be thrown in different situations,’" he said. "And I wasn't really given that opportunity at points. But I also look around, and it's like, we have a great (defense) corps, we have great veterans that are playing and doing great stuff, and they're spotting me in situations just to kind of get my feet wet.
"So, it was kind of a learning curve in the NHL. It's like, ‘Hey, we have other really super-talented players here, so you have to be patient. Your time's coming.’”
Those rides to the rink with Kopitar helped him stay in the right headspace, as did learning from veterans like Doughty and Anderson, a 27-year-old in his seventh full NHL season.
"I had Alex Edler, Olli Maatta, so I had some guys that have been on some really good teams to learn from," Anderson said. "The big thing they always had was just the communication part, so, trying to talk -- not even hockey-wise, but just life-wise, how things are going. He'd come over every now and then and we'd have dinners or do whatever, just to check in on life. Off the ice, sometimes that's more important."
