What the future holds for him is now up in the air, but he’s hoping he can keep his family — wife Jennifer and sons Kaden (7) and Kaiser (4) — on the Rock where they have settled in nicely in the capital city.
King, an original IceCap, spent two seasons as a player with the Winnipeg Jets American Hockey League affiliate in St. John’s before his playing career was cut short by concussions. He retired as a player early in the 2013-13 season, but has been with the IceCaps for all four of their seasons in St. John’s after stepping into an assistant coach’s role.
The Winnipeg Jets will move its AHL franchise to Winnipeg for the 2015-16 AHL season, but the capital city will still have an AHL team because the Montreal Canadiens have opted to move its AHL affiliate Hamilton Bulldogs to St. John’s to keep the IceCaps logo alive.
King is still working for the IceCaps, but his contract expires July 1.
He’s not sure what will happen moving forward but he’s been talking to IceCaps brass Danny Williams and Glenn Stanford about the possibilities of staying in the game with the new kids on the block and he’s also in discussions with personnel within the Winnipeg Jets organization.
He appreciates everything Williams and Stanford did for him and enjoyed working for them, but he also has the highest respect for the top brass within the Winnipeg Jets front office who gave him a chance to coach after he retired.
“It would obviously be really hard to leave. I’m really hoping and optimistic something is going to work out with the IceCaps,” King said Monday, noting it will be a month or so before anything moves on his future endeavours because of the nature of the business when it comes to pro hockey.
His family will play a key factor in any decision he makes. It was the same way when he seized a chance to play for the IceCaps four years ago after a short stint in Europe and two years ago when he agreed to the coaching gig that would keep him on the Rock.
“It’s never easy to uproot your family so it’s obviously a bit of a factor also,” he said.
He’s keeping his options open to find a right fit for him, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be in the coaching department.
“You never turn down any opportunity that’s presented to you,” he said. “When you’re dealing with this game there’s a lot of different avenues you can kind of look into so I’m kind of open to whatever. I have obviously really enjoyed coaching, but I’d be open to exploring any avenue within hockey at the end of the day.”
The 33-year-old will work away for his present employer with the same vigour as any other day of the week until he has a handle on what’s next up for him.