SUNRISE, FL - JUNE 27: Mike Futa, Vice President, Hockey Operations and Director of Player Personnel of the Los Angeles Kings, looks on from the draft table during the 2015 NHL Draft at BB&T Center on June 27, 2015 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Dave Sandford/NHLI via Getty Images)

Michael Futa is one of the the hottest non-general manager management names in hockey.

Since he arrived with the Los Angeles Kings in 2007 as the team’s co-director of amateur scouting, Futa has helped acquire one of the top groups of young players through the draft.

He helped select Drew Doughty, Kyle Clifford, Dwight King, Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson. Former Kings Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds were also selected by L.A. under Futa’s watch.

Also Futa helped identify Jake Muzzin to sign him as a free agent.

People with lesser drafting/scouting resumes have assumed general manager roles in the NHL.

Futa is currently the Kings vice president of hockey operations and director of player personnel. He has been considered by both the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres for vacant GM roles in the past, but has stayed in Los Angeles.

“I know where I stand with the Los Angeles Kings,” Futa said. “It’s the only team I’ve ever been a part of and if it’s the only team I’m ever a part of, I’ll be satisfied.”

Futa and his scouting staff had the interesting task of pivoting strategy to a degree as the team’s success has grown.

Doughty was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2008 Draft and was slam-dunk clear-cut future superstar. Pearson was selected with the 30th pick in 2012 after the organization’s first Stanley Cup and had gone through the draft already.

Instead of finding that franchise cornerstone, like when you’re picking high early in Futa’s Kings tenure, now it’s about finding guys who can fit in the structure created by high-end players picked in earlier years. And from a scouting perspective on down to player development, Futa’s group has done just that.

L.A.’s AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, just won the Calder Cup. Doughty, Toffoli and Pearson are all 25-and-younger. Clifford has fit in seamlessly on the Kings' checking line. Schenn and Simmonds would look pretty nice in Kings black and silver if they weren’t traded for Mike Richards before the 2011-12 season.

While other teams with recent success have opted for major changes (see Bruins, Boston) Futa's ability to keep unearthing talent have prevented the Kings from taking such a drastic step. Even after missing the 2015 postseason following the org's 2014 Stanley Cup victory.

We talked with Futa about the Kings' culture, how he scouts and what makes the team such a player production factory.

Q: Once you started having that higher level championship success, as a scouting staff, how does that put more pressure on you to find guys lower in the draft?

FUTA: There’s an understanding that you’re not worried about taking kids that have gone through a draft. We showed that the first time we picked 30th in 2012 after our first Cup, taking Tanner Pearson, who was somebody that had already gone through and wasn’t an easy pick to make because you passed on the kid earlier. You realize you see a more finished product that is going to put in the work to make himself better.

We have been fortunate that way that we as a group go into rinks and we look for things now that we like, if we covet, whether it be hockey sense, or character or NHL assets. And then you look at things and areas of game that need improvement, we have such a good feeling for what our development team can fix. So we’re more looking for kids that are willing to fix and willing to put in the work because we know the synergy we have with our development teams is off the charts as far as what they can bring and the different parts of the game they can improve upon.

That being said if we look at kids where maybe puck protection is a bit of an issue or their release is a bit of an issue, we just know our development team is going to step in and take charge and I think that’s incredible. It’s the synergy between our amateur staff and handing them over to our development team who works hands on with our AHL staff and works with our college kids and works with our ECHL team.

Our development team is going to be there to help

And then you pass off a more finished product to the big team. This year was a tough learning curve or lesson for all of us. We’ve been very used to the success we’ve had. This year we found out if you’re not as focused off the ice and get distracted, you go through some periods where you’re not at you’re ‘A’ game that this league is too good and you find yourself on the outside looking in the playoffs and I think that has been a huge motivating factor from the day the last game of the season finished and we found ourselves as the outside as ex-champs and realizing how hard we had to work to get back to there.

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