Kempe on Perry Signing, Playoff Expectations, Contract Talks, and More

With training camp right around the corner, NHL players are returning to their home hockey cities and slowly getting back into their usual routines. For Kings winger Adrian Kempe that involved recently returning to Los Angeles after spending much of summer in his native Sweden.

However, this week, he made a quick trip to Nevada for a visit with NHL Network Radio, all part of the league’s press tours in advance of the upcoming season. Kempe was one of several dozen players made available during a pair of events in Milan, Italy and Las Vegas. Below are select highlights from his conversation on Tuesday with Sirius XM’s Scott Laughlin, along with The Fourth Period’s Dave Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein.

After some opening pleasantries, chatting about the excitement of seeing all of his teammates again and getting to know some of the new guys, they jumped right into the deep waters.

Kempe on his contract status, and if he has a deadline in mind to get a long-term extension done with the Kings:

I just haven’t thought about it that much, only because we’re not in season. I would like to get it done as soon as possible, but I’m still not in a rush. I don’t want to rush anything. But I also don’t want to come around after Christmas, with the trade deadline starting to come up, and then I’m sitting there not knowing where we’re at or we’re not [close] on the terms of a contract. That, I wouldn’t be looking forward to. So, before Christmas would be great. Before camp would be great.

On if he would be comfortable playing the entire season without a deal getting done:

For me and the team, I don’t think it would be a good thing to do that. For me, I feel like, if I haven’t signed before the deadline, then you don’t know what’s going to happen. I love LA, my family likes it, so that’s the place I want to be. It has to be fair for me, and it has to be fair for the team, to come to an agreement. That’s what we’re working on right now. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, and I said there wasn’t [much of] a rush because we made a lot of moves in the summer. We got a new GM, and there are a lot of new pieces coming into place. So, I feel like those parts were important, and more important earlier on. Then, we’d get to my contract eventually. Hopefully we can come to a good deal for both parties.

On what he did to decompress over the summer:

It was nice. Most people know, we had our daughter right before the playoffs started; so, she’s kind of been the main focus this summer. We were back in Sweden for two months. We have a nice house there and spent most of our time there. We didn’t do too much traveling, just hung out with some friends and family, stuff like that. Most of our focus was on the baby. … The sleep routine is getting better, but it wasn’t the best during the summer. [Thankfully], I didn’t have to wake up super early, I can go work out later or skate later during the day. I definitely took like three weeks completely off after the season, where I didn’t feel like I had to do