It was on Wednesday that Phillip Danault spoke with JiC and told him that leaving for California was the best decision of his career. Indeed, the Quebecer loved playing in Montreal, but the opportunity he has now is just perfect. Danault really believed in his abilities: <q>« Until you do, you don't believe it. But I believed in my ability to generate offense. I believed that I could be better exploited on the ice and used differently. I had Anze Kopitar in front of me. I wasn't just taking faceoffs in defensive territory. I was being exploited extremely well. They saw the same thing I saw in myself. Everything just clicked. »</q> So the Kings' promises to him have been fulfilled, even though his role in Montreal was bothering him: <q>« From the beginning of the season, I knew it. There was nothing going on in the negotiations. We had no feedback and things were coming out in the media. It was hard mentally for the first 20 games. Plus, my offensive production wasn't there. I had been in Montreal for six years. At some point, it starts to sink in mentally. For sure, it was magical to play in Montreal and I loved it, but there were other things about my game that I had to exploit elsewhere. »</q> Danault then did not miss the opportunity to express his thoughts when he knew that Marc Bergevin was joining him in Los Angeles: <q>« I wasn't jumping for joy. He was the one who kicked me out of Montreal. He didn't believe in the side of the game that I wanted to continue to develop. He was going in a different direction. We talked again. We had an ice cream and everything is fine now. »</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/TVASports/status/1575266884336902144?t=j7q-x3ycVE_HSkoP6PMFpg&s=19'> </a></blockquote></div> In addition to continuing his strong defensive performance in his first season with the Kings, Danault had a career-high 27 goals and his second-highest point total of 51. In Montreal, his highest goal total was 13 on two occasions.