(First, the process leading up to using the No. 2 selection on Drew Doughty, who had grown up a Wayne Gretzky fan -- and by extension a Kings fan when Gretzky played in LA)

"All the ability was checked out. I talked to him, went to his house, and one of the questions I asked: the franchise hasn't won in 40 years. Why should we trust you to help turn this around? Why do you want to come to LA? He said, 'Oh, I want to be a King.' I didn't believe him at first. C'mon. Then I went to his room, I saw that jersey. It was legit. He actually had a Kings phone.

"That wasn't the reason we took him. A lot of kids will tell you that. Some of these kids, by the time they're 15 they've got the political stuff all down. But I saw that Gretzky jersey, kid sized and all yellow and everything. And I saw that Kings phone on the desk, and it was ancient. I said, man, this kid really did want to be a King.

"I told him: This is a great place ... But as good a player as he's gonna be, he's gonna do us no good unless he comes here with the attitude that that guy who wore 99, that jersey that he has ... that guy almost came through (with a Cup), here. And I think that's the thing about Gretzky: Gretzky came here to win first, and he was great for the bigger picture, obviously. But that's what they've got to learn.

"I get all emotional about that."

(What is it about Doughty that makes him special?)

"Hockey sense, pure and simple. It's the Jimmy Johnson theory of the Dallas Cowboys. He makes plays. It's hard to teach hockey sense. You can make it better.

"And the other thing, too: he showed he competes. So he's got a gift. And what I saw in the world junior tournament, as a draft-eligible junior, that's very hard because it's an older kids tournament. There's enormous pressure on Canada. They're kind of like Brazil and Italy in soccer. For a young guy, in his draft year, to do what he did, and respond ... you could see, in the Sweden game, they were struggling a little bit.

"And there's a feel you get in scouting sometimes, and every scout will tell you. It's not just what you see (in ability), but watching a guy respond to pressure. And what I saw in that game, it was, 'OK. I know I'm the young guy here, but I've got to step up here if we're going to win this.' And he wanted the puck. He made mistakes, don't get that wrong. But it told me he's gonna take charge.

"He showed me he could be a winner. And that's one of those intangibles in scouting. You can evaluate it and whatever, but it's a feeling. You hope you're right. But (it's) those two things: hockey sense and what he showed there as far as competing and wanting to win. And that was the big thing. We met with that kid, our staff. We went to his house. We met him during the season, after games, when it wasn't clear who we were picking. We went through a couple of things at the combine. We met him before the draft. But the central theme, as I told him: We need a winner.

"It's the hockey sense, and I think he understands he has a chance to be a winner. That's a huge difference.

"But to go back to your original premise, if we don't develop them right, if we don't have the right atmosphere down here, if we're running a beach club, (it all goes) right out the window."

(One last thing going back to the coaching search: You said you'd had a formal interview with Mike Johnston. You've had a lot of inquiries about that job.)

"About 30."

(Did you have to weed some of those out because they, too, were attracted by the LA weather and lifestyle?)

"I think it's more an issue of fit. You try and do things you know ... You've got some people you can talk to and get some background information, get a feel. I think there's a lot of very good coaches out there. But it's just like a player. As you're building you look and say, 'OK, (Anze) Kopitar, (Dustin) Brown, whatever. What fits?'

"Where this franchise is at, it's more an issue of which coach fits with where we are, what needs to happen this year and where we're going. I think it's become clearer and clearer the direction we're headed. We talk about the timing issue of it. And I think, just like anybody else, you, me or anybody, we got strengths and liabilities. And some coaches are better suited for this situation, some better for others. So that's how we sift through.

"I don't worry about coaches telling me they want to be here because of weather. I haven't had that one.

"But I think the central theme of everybody who's recommending themselves, or recommending themselves through other people, is: he loves your young players, he likes where you're going, he's good at developing. Probably everybody knows what I want to hear. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out those are the qualities. But hopefully finding it ... that's another issue."

(Is it a mixture of NHL assistants, AHL coaches, etc?)

"We broke 'em into four categories: NHL experience as a head coach, NHL experience as an assistant coach, AHL coaches and other, which would be your juniors and major colleges. Colleges don't seem to be producing any real candidates like they used to. Ten years ago you had Gino Gasparini, Don Mason, Shawn Walsh, they were always candidates. I guess now they make so much money in college, why jump into this game? So, in terms of the unproven, it's mostly your junior market.

"At the most we'll interview four guys. Hopefully we'll find that fit. If not, we'll expand it, but I'm not looking to carpet-bomb and interview 10 people, like when I was a young, dumb general manager. I interviewed eight people once. But that's one of those things you learn from experience."

(Did you get the guy you wanted then?)

"Ironically, my first one, I didn't. My first coach, in charge, I hired Al Sims, a proven NHL coach. Great interview, everything else. Eight hours. I think I interviewed eight guys. Here, young GM, conducting my first coach search, I've got a freakin' list of questions and everything else. And then you start realizing, they all sound the same. I really didn't pick it up until after.

"And it just didn't work out. Very early I knew. The whole thing about interviews: you know what you want and you hope you know what you're getting. But you can be smoked in an interview. It's really hard. Let's face it. If I sit down with you for two hours, I can fool you if I want to make believe I'm Donald Trump or something.

"You just hope. Everybody's on guard.

"So my next coach, I'm trying to go through the same thing again. I gotta get it right this time. All right, I'm a young GM, but my first one is done in one year. Holy smoke. So I start the process again, five, six guys. Some great interviews.

"And then my father-in-law (ex-Kings coach Bob Pulford) calls me on Darryl Sutter. Darryl, I didn't really know him, but there was always something about Daryl and his reputation, no (BS), straightforward honesty, no politician. Everybody knew that. And then my father-in-law had had him. He says, 'Get the right man. This is your type of guy' ...

"So I interviewed him. I went up to outside of Suttertown (Viking, Alta.), where all six of them live. But he had the worst interview ever. Just gave you one word answers. He had a phone, and he was almost like nervous. Remember the little phones with the antennas? He was going (back and forth, pulling) the antenna the whole time. And if you went by the interview he would have had no chance. But there was something about him, the look in his eyes. And a big part was my father-in-law. He says, 'This is the right man.'

"To me it was just a home run, what we had and we built. Oh, we had our battles - did we have our battles. But the difference is, they were battles where we looked each other in the eye, and a couple of times we almost went at it, but there was a respect that developed. He was with the plan. The whole goal was to get better every year. We were getting better every year and we were getting younger every year. That was the other thing that was really hard ... If I went off the interview I might never have (hired him). To this day, we've got a bond. Not that we're going to do each other any favors, but there's a bond that will never be broken."

(Sometimes it's gut feeling.)

"Exactly. I think that comes with experience. And that's why I say, going through this process, I've tried to come up with another approach to establish the gut feel, versus, say, the way I ask questions and what I'm looking for. But it's kind of funny. It's a science. And I can see why they've got personnel departments that do this. It's a full-time job. I never understood those human resources departments. But if you think about it, and realize - man, can you imagine doing this? This is a full-time job, finding good people."

(Or like a corporate headhunter. I guess there's an art to it.)

"I believe that. I really believe that. I just cant imagine doing it for a big company where you've got to do 10 a day or whatever the hell they do. But there's an art, there's a feel. And in our business, obviously, what you get in an interview might be very different when a guy's lost four in a row. The pressure's on. The bullets start flying. Somebody writes an article in the media. How do they respond? Do they stay the course or do they start flipping out?

"That's all my stories that are fit to print. I gotta go."