Los Angeles Kings

Los Angeles Kings

Team Depth Chart of NHL Prospects
Strengths
  • Quality and quantity of goaltending
  • Great overall depth at defense
Weaknesses
  • Well below average in right wing prospects

About Prospect Scores and Probability

Prospect Criteria

Legend of Players' Leagues
Pro
Playing in N.A. Pro (NHL, AHL, ECHL, etc.)
CHL
Playing in CHL (OHL, QMJHL, WHL)
NCAA
Playing in NCAA
Europe
Playing in Europe
Junior
Playing in Junior 'A' (USHL, BCHL, AJHL, etc.)
N/A
Not Categorized Yet

Goaltenders

 League Prosp. talent Prob. of success
1. Jean-Francois Berube Pro 6.5 C
2. Martin Jones Pro 6.5 C
3. Christopher Gibson CHL 6.5 C

Right Wing

 League Prosp. talent Prob. of success
1. Linden Vey Pro 7.0 C
2. Tomas Hyka CHL 7.0 D
3. Brandon Kozun Pro 6.5 C
4. Stefan Legein Pro 6.5 D
5. Brian O'Neill Pro 6.5 D
6. Nic Dowd NCAA 6.0 C

Left Wing

 League Prosp. talent Prob. of success
1. Tanner Pearson Pro 7.5 C
2. Nikolai Prokhorkin Europe 7.0 D
3. Maxim Kitsyn Europe 7.0 D
4. Michael Mersch NCAA 6.5 C
5. Joel Lowry NCAA 6.0 C
6. Michael Schumacher CHL 6.0 C

Centers

 League Prosp. talent Prob. of success
1. Tyler Toffoli Pro 8.0 B
2. Nick Shore Pro 6.5 C
3. Jordan Weal Pro 6.0 C
4. Andy Andreoff Pro 6.0 C
5. Robert Czarnik Pro 6.0 C

Defensemen

 League Prosp. talent Prob. of success
1. Derek Forbort Pro 7.0 C
2. Jake Muzzin Pro 7.0 C
3. Nicolas Deslauriers Pro 7.0 D
4. Nick Ebert CHL 7.0 D
5. Paul LaDue Junior 7.0 D
6. Kevin Gravel NCAA 6.5 C
7. Colin Miller CHL 6.5 C
8. Alex Roach CHL 6.0 C
9. David Kolomatis Pro 6.0 C
10. Kurtis MacDermid CHL 6.0 C

Pavel Rosa- Goaltending Key?

by pbadmin
on

Pavel Rosa is considered one of the top prospects in the Kings organization. He is 11th in the IHL in scoring and has had success on the NHL level. Rosa’s promise is undeniable. The bad news is that his considerable potential will likely never be in a Los Angeles Kings’ sweater.

Pavel Rosa started the season in Long Beach for the second year in a row. Rosa has shown his skills there, posting 23 points in 25 games (8 goals, 15 assists), but has yet to crack the big club’s lineup. The reason? Pavel Rosa may be the key to keeping Storr and Fiset.

Pavel Rosa is coveted by many teams and may well be packaged with one of the goalies for a big name star. The reason he cannot stick with the Kings? Size. Size in terms of height and heart. Rosa is notorious for taking shifts off- something that you can get away with in the minors but not in the NHL when you are 5’10″ and 188lbs. His size is even more glaring if you look down the pipeline. If Rosa were to stick, he would likely be on a top line that the Kings are hoping would include Justin Papineau. That lack of size would spell doomsday for the Kings.

I personally like Rosa, but he has no real position. He is not a center, and is really too small to play forward in the evolving NHL. Sure there are a lot of smaller players prospering right now, but they all have the speed and skating ability that Rosa lacks. His lack of defensive awareness also figures to hamper him in Andy Murray’s system.
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The Legend of Jere Karalahti

by pbadmin
on

Today may seem like a normal day for Kings’ fans, but according to the hype, the greatest player in the history of hockey, Jere Karalahti, will arrive in LA today to lead the Kings to the first of several Stanley Cups. Karalahti is 7’3″ and weighs a svelte 356 pounds. His slap shot has been clocked at light speed and he had 85 goals in 36 games last season. His hip checks have nearly ended the careers of dozens of players and he posted 1,456 PIM’s last year.

While these numbers are false, Jere Karalahti comes to LA amid so much hype that it is difficult to discern fact from fiction. This column will attempt to separate what is rumor and what is truth.

Jere Karalahti was drafted by the Kings with the 146th pick in the 1993 NHL draft. This 6’2, 210 pound defenseman is now 24 after playing in the Finnish Elite League and the hockey World Cups since 93. Much of the hype surrounding Jere came a couple of years ago when Sports Illustrated disclosed that nearly every potential King trade that season hit a snag when teams would demand that this European defenseman be included in any deal. While that may have been true, Karalahti was exposed in the Nashville expansion draft. There are several reasons for that, the most likely is that Dave Taylor made side deals (Marian Cisar and Vitali Yachmenev) with the Predators so they would not take certain players, like Karalahti.
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Kings: Muscle in the System

by pbadmin
on

The Los Angeles Kings are playing their best hockey in years, but one glaring weakness is their lack of a true enforcer. With Matt Johnson being swiped by Atlanta in the expansion draft and Steve McKenna being rendered useless with a bad eye, the Kings need to find someone who can protect their new superstars. After seeing teams like Washington, Boston and San Jose take runs at the Robitaille, Stumpel, Palffy line, the Kings will likely find a stopgap until the nest “Matt Johnson” comes around.

While Matt Johnson is not the best enforcer in the league, he was liked by his teammates and did a great job patrolling the ice. He was just 20 years old when he broke in and seemed poised to protect the Kings for years to come, but as many publications pointed out, he was the slowest player in the NHL. He made tremendous strides, but the next Kings’ enforcer will need the now necessary blend of size, skill and muscle. Here are the two most likely contenders to be the Kings’ enforcer of the future:
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Kings Prospect Watch

by pbadmin
on

While all seems well on the mother ship, Kings prospects have kicked off the 99-00 season with some strong performances. Here is who’s news in the Los Angeles Kings farm system right now:

1999 Draftee Andrei Shefer has started off red shot, leading Halifax with 16 points in 11 games (7-9-16). He is a +7 and leads his team in virtually every category. Shefer is teammates with top prospect, goalie Alexei Volkov who is 4-2 with aa 3.37 GAA average.

Justin Papineau is tearing it up again, racking up 8 goals and 2 assists in 6 games for Belleville. Papineau is already a +7 and has 4 power play goals. Another member of the Bulls is goaltender Cory Campbell who the Kings took in last year’s draft. Campbell is 3-3 with a 3.36 GAA and a .891 save percentage.

Defenseman Joe Rullier was named player of the week in week 2 for Rimouski of the QMJHL. Rullier racked up 5 assists in two games and was a +6 after two weeks.

Jason Podollan is at it again in th AHL. He has 2 goals and 2 assists in 5 games for Lowell. He was recently joined by Sean Blanchard who was promoted to Lowell after scoring a goal and three assists for Kentucky.

Pavel Rosa has a goal and 5 assists in 4 games for the Long Beach Ice Dogs. Rosa has been flat since arriving.

Scott Barney is still nursing an injury.

Richard Seeley is playing well for Lowell of the AHL, including a scrap that he won on Monday. He has one assist and nine penalty minutes.
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Young Kings solid

by pbadmin
on

Coach Andy Murray has the Kings playing a hard-working brand of hockey that seems to allow each individual the chance to excel in a specific area, thus allowing the team to prosper. Many of the young Kings have shown flashes in the first two games. Here is a quick rundown of some early impressions:

Frantisek Kaberle- This young defenseman has been a pleasant surprise. While Jere Karalahti’s Visa problems have kept him in Europe, Kaberle has taken advantage of the situation and provided the Kings with an offensive defenseman without sacrificing the other end of the ice. Kaberle is smooth with the puck and makes good passes. He never seems to be in a hurry to dump the puck, instead he waits the extra second to find the open man. His defense is not stellar, but he has combined with Garry Galley to provide a solid tandem that is talented with the puck.

Aki Berg- Aki Berg has returned as a physical player who is alot smarter with the puck than he used to be. Berg is paired with Sean O’Donnell who is an adventure every time he has the puck, including a direct pass to Pavel Demitra on Monday for a goal. Berg has shown a little more offense, but the teeth of his game is in the corners where he has made it a point to punish opposing players. Aki seems to still be adjusting to the NHL game after the year off, but clearly has potential to be a top defenseman.

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Top Prospects

  1. Tyler Toffoli
  2. Tanner Pearson
  3. Derek Forbort
  4. Linden Vey
  5. Jake Muzzin
  6. Jordan Nolan
  7. Martin Jones
  8. Michael Mersch
  9. Nick Shore
  1. Kevin Gravel
  2. Christopher Gibson
  3. Colin Miller
  4. Brandon Kozun
  5. Andy Andreoff
  6. Jordan Weal
  7. Alex Roach
  8. David Kolomatis
  9. Nicolas Deslauriers
  10. Paul LaDue

Notable Prospects

  1. Jean-Francois Berube
  2. Robert Czarnik
  3. Nic Dowd
  4. Nick Ebert
  5. Tomas Hyka
  6. Maxim Kitsyn
  1. Stefan Legein
  2. Joel Lowry
  3. Kurtis MacDermid
  4. Brian O'Neill
  5. Nikolai Prokhorkin
  6. Michael Schumacher
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