It’s going to take every ounce of my self-restraint to not say something like “I believe the children are our future.” Not because I don’t believe it to be true, but because we have a pretty firm rule that Whitney Houston has no fuckin’ clue when it comes to hockey. But that doesn’t change the fact that the future of every team is dependent on the prospects in their system. No organization exemplifies this more than the Kings. When you finish at (or near) the bottom of the Western Conference standings for 3 consecutive seasons and miss the playoffs 6 straight seasons, then all the team can do is sell hope for the future. That’s where the Kings Development Camp comes in…
There are a few observations that we had about the 2009 version of the Development Camp. By no means is this going to be an all encompassing review—this is just a quick rundown of things that really struck me over the 2 days that I was at the camp.
Pictures like this should reminds us: Hickey's pretty good.
1. Thomas Hickey’s greatest attribute on the ice is his poise. When he was drafted, it was assumed that he was going to be an offensive defenseman. As he continued to develop, he has rounded out his game to be an extremely effective and efficient defensive defenseman as well. By no means is he a one-dimensional player at all. But the most impressive aspect to his game is the way he is able to control the game when he has the puck. He’s able to carry the puck into the offensive zone, but that’s not what I’m talking about.
No, I’m talking about when he grabs the puck in his own zone. So many times you’ll see defenseman rush to make a play when they have a little more time than they thought. Young defensemen especially have a problem adjusting to quick forwards or a heavy forecheck. Every single time Hickey had the puck in the defensive zone, he made the right play. If he was attacked by two forwards, he would make a quick chip along the boards to a forward that was wide open. If there was one forward that was peeling off, he’d simply hold the puck until his team was able to make a clean break from their own zone. Neither are the highlight-reel plays that some King fans might expect froma former #4 overall pick, but they are the type of plays that would make him an effective NHL player.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Hickey, but he exceeded any expectations I may have had. Best player on the ice every time he was out there.
2. Brandon Kozun is an electric player for a 6th round draft pick. Have you ever watched a game—and you keep noticing the same guy over and over? That was Kozun in the Friday practice, Friday scrimmage and Saturday scrimmage. He was all over the ice, creating offensive chances and showing off spectacular hands and vision. There’s a reason that guy scored 40 goals and 106 points in Juniors last season.On their own, those are pretty impressive numbers; but take into account that the WHL is a defense first league, and the statistics are even more impressive.
The only reason that I can see that he slipped to the 6th round is his size. Apparently 5’8 and 162 pounds isn’t the prototype for a forward in the NHL. But Theo Fleury, Martin St. Louis and Patrick Kane have all worked out pretty well.
3. Quite possibly the most impressive forward in the camp was Justin Azevedo. His story from OHL all-around scoring badass to 6th round draft pick has been well documented. Just as a reminder, his final season in Juniors he was the most outstanding player in the OHL, most outstanding player in the OHL playoffs, top scorer in the Memorial Cup playoffs, the leading scorer in ALL of Juniors and the MVP for the CHL (that’s the OHL, WHL and QMJHL). He was the Chuck Norris of the Ontario Hockey League stat sheet. He just looked at the scoreboard and it started to fill up with goals.
The reason that he fell in the draft was because a) he’s 5’7” and b) he put up those impressive stats as an overager. Its one thing to put up the astronomical stats as a 16 year old (like Stamkos or Tavares), but it’s something else to do it when your 19. A lot of us were curious/intrigued/excited to see how he’d adjust to playing against people his own age and older. Were his numbers a product of playing against kids or was he just a late bloomer?
I don't care how small he is-- he can score!
Last season, he got off to a quick start with the Monarchs in the AHL. He suffered a wrist injury the summer before the season, yet at one point of the season he had 33 points in 40 games before he went down with a high ankle injury on the last day of November. If he’s healthy, how good can he be? Judging by the Development Camp, pretty damn good.
4. Brayden Schenn has much better “ice-vision” than I thought he would. For some reason, I got the impression throughout interviews with scouts and some of the highlights that I’ve seen that Schenn was strictly a north-south type player. Nothing could be further from the truth.
On one particular sequence, he was able to lead the rush, stick-handle into the zone, carry enough speed to back off the defense, stop up at the half-wall to let the play develop and deliver a cross-ice pass onto a streaking player coming through the backdoor. On top of the unexpected vision, he was delivering checks all over the ice. On the forecheck, on the back check, along the walls in his own zone and even an open ice hit in the neutral zone. Sounds like a Brian Burke kind of player, doesn’t it? Either way, he was impressive.
5. Bud Holloway REALLY wants to avoid the ECHL next season. Sometimes we forget that he was a 3rd round pick, albeit in 2006. Playing on the same line as Azevedo (look up to #3), he was all over the ice and potting goals like a guy that’s too good to go back to the Ontario Reign.
In both scrimmages I saw, he had that “noticability” factor in the offensive zone. He was always around the puck and had a knack of creating loose pucks. As one of the oldest players at camp, he played the way he SHOULD have played if he wanted to still be considered a legitimate prospect. If nothing else, he should have EARNED a look when the NHL camp starts in September.
6. You might think that these were just normal scrimmages in the middle of the summer, but you would be wrong. The physical play from each and every prospect was in full effect. Guys like Brayden Schenn, Kyle Clifford and Colten Teubert all set the tone dropping body checks and taking the body every chance they had. Sometimes a prospect camp can look a little more like an All-Star game with the lack of physical play. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I’m not sure if the Kings coaching staff made it clear that this was an important week for their career or if it’s just a different type of personality the players in the Kings organization play with—but there was a lot more hitting in the past. I loved watching the passion that these kids brought to the camp; if they care this much in July, how much will they care in October? Or dare I say it, in the playoffs one day?
On a side note, the training camp was freaking cold and EARLY. There’s nothing like sitting in an ice rink for 4 hours, then walking out into 95 degree heat. Ah, the joys of hockey in the summer time in California. I guess there’s nothing they can do about that. However, the time thing they definitely have control over. Mrs. Cheap Seats and I caught the practices that started at 8:30am on both Friday and Saturday—which means we had to leave our house at 7:30am. It’s one thing for me to go watch hockey first thing in the morning, but it’s quite another thing to have my wife watch hockey that early in the morning. Not all the coffee in the world was going to help us make it to the 3rd day! So please, on behalf of any Kings fan that is married, please start these things a little later!
The prospects over the last 2 seasons have looked really good in the camp. Last year, we watched Drew Doughty, Oscar Moller and Wayne Simmonds all participate in the camp in July only to MAKE the big club in October. I think it’s asking a lot to expect 3 players from THIS year’s crop to make the big team this season—but the overall play was a little better this year. The games were much more physical and the battles on the ice were much more intense. If that carries over to the Manchester and Los Angeles teams, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch hockey this year.
Matt Reitz is the Editor-In-Chief here at ViewFromMySeats.com and former NHL Writer for ProHockeyTalk on NBCSports. When he’s not shoving a mic in the face of NHLers or explaining why home teams should wear white, he’s usually trying to figure out what song to play next on his iPod. It’s a never-ending job.
