The LA Kings have had an offseason to forget. They’ve had multiple players get in trouble with the law and now they’ve taken the necessary steps in order to hopefully prevent further trouble in the future. GM Dean Lombardi confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the club has hired Brantt Myhres as the team’s player assistance director. Myhres will help players and will be an available resource should they get in trouble off the ice.
Myhres last played in the NHL in 2002-2003, before he received a lifetime ban by the league for multiple drug offenses. Now clean and sober for over seven years, Myhres is going to help the Kings in training camp and throughout the rest of the season.
“It just so happens Dean was the first general manager to be proactive enough to approach me on it.”
“This is an in-house program that we’ve structured. They’re going to have every resource available to them, whether it’s about drugs, alcohol or domestic violence or gambling. They’re going to have resources to be able to use at any point of their playing careers.”
Myhres knows how difficult it can be to struggle with drug problems, and he’ll be a great person to have to help out Kings players who are struggling with the same issues. This is a smart hiring by LA despite drugs not being a publicly known problem in the league It would be great if more teams took the Kings’ lead and created similar positions.
