Over the last three seasons, Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe has gone from a frustrating young player with flashes of skill, to one of the league's most lethal goal-scorers.
Two seasons ago, Kempe broke out with his first 30-goal season. After that people questioned his ability to sustain that level of scoring.
Kempe then signed a four-year, $22 million extension that was criticized by many who felt his 2021-22 season was a flash in the pan.
They pointed to a high-number of empty net goals, a contract-year bump and his poor defensive play as reasons this was an overpay.
How did Kempe respond? He cleaned up his defensive game and buried 41 goals, only three of which were empty netters.
He silenced his critics and made it clear he's an elite goal-scorer at this level.
At 27 years old heading into this season, having already been a late bloomer, surely Kempe has plateaued as a high-end goal-scorer who's solid defensively, right?
Wrong. Kempe has now taken another step, he is no longer just a goal-scorer, he's a complete player on both sides of the puck who creates and scores goals right now.
At the turn of the new year, Kempe has 12 goals and 21 assists for 33 points in 33 games. This puts him on pace to shatter his career high of 67 points, on pace for 30 goals and 82 points.
He's also a positive defensive player according to most analytics and, according to The Athletic's player cards, is currently playing at a market value of $8.3 million. Meaning the Kings are underpaying Kempe based on the numbers.
Perhaps the most impressive part of Kempe's season is his age. He's not old by any means, but most players are in the thick of their prime at 27 and are who they are.
You really only see marginal improvements around this age, not a player breakout as a true superstar for the first time.
Kempe touched on his ability to continue improving year-on-year and whether this is the best he's felt in the NHL after last Saturday's game.
"Yeah, I still feel confident, like I have in the last couple of years," said Kempe. "Obviously, I would like to see myself score more. I scored one tonight, hopefully that gets the confidence going and I can get on a roll here. I'm playing with really good players, Kopi's been hot this year, Q's been scoring a lot. It's nice for me to see that, takes some pressure off my shoulders this year."
Kempe's last point about the play of his linemates sticks out to me. The impact of not having to be the sole goal scorer on his line is huge.
He's mentioned in the past that he was always a playmaker before getting to the NHL, and now he's flexing those playmaking muscles again.
It also takes pressure off Anze Kopitar's shoulders. Kopitar doesn't have to drive 100% of the play on his line and can take a back seat at times to Kempe.
Kopitar's one pace for 35 goals and 85 points, totals that would tie his career-high in goals and finish as his second-highest total points season.
The emergence of Kempe has made that possible, Kempe is now the best player Kopitar has played on a line with in Los Angeles and they're reaping the benefits of it now.
McLellan also talked about Kempe after the Edmonton Oilers game, and he used it as an opportunity to preach patience with prospects.
"Well, I've said this before, he's a really good story for us because we've had to be patient with him," said McLellan. "I just made the comment about Arthur [Kaliyev], maybe Juice was that at one point, I wasn't here, so I don't know. But I know what he is now, and he has an impact on the game when he's not scoring. It's as simple as that. He sits on the bench, he goes out and plays a shift and he's determined and he makes mistakes, we try and help him with them, he goes back out and tries to fix them. You appreciate players like that."
While Kempe is a unique story and the majority of players won't break out at 25 and again at 27, Kempe is a good example of when patience pays off.
Kempe has now left no doubt, he's a superstar in this league and deserves to be talked about as such.