It was somewhat surprising news when Mike Stothers was released by the Los Angeles Kings when his contract expired this summer.

Stothers had overseen Ontario Reign taking over as the Kings AHL affiliate, replacing the Manchester Monarchs (the reigning Calder Cup Champions at the time) who replaced Ontario in the ECHL.

Under the experienced Head Coach, Ontario finished first, third and third in the Pacific Division and made it to the Conference Final in their inaugural (AHL) season.

That was followed by a losing record in 2018-19 but not without good reason. The organisation went full-on into a rebuilding phase and that included the AHL team.

The 2019-20 Reign were battling for a playoff spot before Covid19 struck but it mattered not as minds had already been made up in the L.A organisation to head in another direction for coaching their top prospects.

This Head Coaching role in Ontario provides an exciting challenge for new man John Wroblewski but also a great deal of pressure.
He’s tasked with overseeing the development of the Kings top prospects including the likes of Alex Turcotte, taken fifth overall by Los Angeles in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.
Turcotte is a product of the United States National Team Development Program and the man heavily involved with that was Wroblewski.

He was head coach of the U.S. National Team Development Program U-18 team based in Plymouth, Michigan, and eight of his players were selected in the first round.

Jack Hughes (No. 1) to the New Jersey Devils, followed by Turcotte, forward Trevor Zegras (#9) to the Anaheim Ducks, forward Matthew Boldy (#12) to the Minnesota Wild, goaltender Spencer Knight (No. 13) to the Florida Panthers, defenseman Cam York (#14) to the Philadelphia Flyers, forward Cole Caufield (#15) to the Montreal Canadiens and forward John Beecher to the Boston Bruins (#30).

Wroblewski has crammed a lot into his coaching career following a relatively short time as a player.
He placed four seasons for University of Notre Dame, captaining the team for two of those.
He turned professional with Fresno Falcons of the ECHL and accumulated 125 points in 273 games, wearing the ‘C’ for one of those campaigns before choosing to hang up the skates and adopting the suit.

Now 39 years of age, Wroblewski’s resume is pretty impressive.

Seven years with the US National Program including four as Head Coach.

A one year stint as an Assistant Coach with the Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) before moving on to become Head Coach of Gwinnett Gladiators (ECHL) for two seasons

From there he progressed to the AHL as an Assistant Coach with the Rochester Americans for two years including when the Amerks were invited to the Spengler Cup.

The Wisconsin native added a year in the USHL to his impressive list as Head Coach of Youngstown Phantoms in 2015-16.

Since 2017, Los Angeles has selected twelve players inside the top 95 of the NHL Entry Draft.
In the 2020 draft, the Kings hold eleven selections including four in the first two rounds and the #2 overall pick.

It represents such a great opportunity for the Californian organisation to build an extremely competitive team for a long time and why getting the appointment of their AHL Head Coaching correct is so critical.

The key is the development of prospects and that has been the buzzword around John Wroblewski for a while.