News Clips 7-20-17
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News Clips 7-20-17 FROM LA KINGS INSIDER: Tuesday, September 12, and 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 13. July 19, 2017 But between September 9-12 at Solar 4 America Ice By: Jon Rosen at San Jose, the Sharks’ practice facility, San Jose, Odds And Ends: Olympics, Prospect Arizona, Anaheim and Colorado will gather for a Tournaments, Simpsons four-team prospect round robin tournament in which each team will play three games. In a report published Wednesday by the CBC, NHL teams learned this week that AHL players on two- It will be interesting to see if the Kings ultimately way NHL contracts will be allowed to participate in join such tournaments in the future. Los Angeles the 2018 Winter Olympics. previously participated in the Pacific Division Shootout, a four-team rookie tournament held Via Tim Wharnsby: between 2003 and 2006. That 2006 tournament featured a variety of names one would expect, such In a memo sent to the 31 NHL teams this as Anze Kopitar, Trevor Lewis, Jonathan Bernier, week, the league outlined AHL players can Bud Holloway and, um, Yutaka Fukufuji. be loaned to national teams for the 2018 Olympic Games. But these players only can The book-ending 2003 and 2006 tournaments were be made available between Feb. 5-26, 2018. held in El Segundo, while the 2004 and 2005 events The Winter Olympics men’s hockey were held in Anaheim and San Jose. Though former tournament begins on Feb. 9 and concludes GM Dave Taylor saw the value in the tournaments’ with the gold-medal final on Feb. 25. ability to evaluate its prospects in game settings, Dean Lombardi, who followed Taylor, preferred the This turn of events may not have much of an two-off exhibitions against teams in Los Angeles’ impact on Canada’s roster. Hockey Canada immediate geographical proximity. This was due, in is close to finalizing a series of exhibition part, to the team’s belief that development would be games in Russia next month with a roster better facilitated through their own practices and comprised of Canadian professionals playing development days rather than a number of games in in Europe. a short amount of time. With new executives atop hockey operations, it will be interesting to see if that As Wharnsby notes in the article, those exhibition evolves at all in future years; the structure for this games will give an early leg up on competition to year’s tournament was being laid before the Kings national team prospects currently playing in Europe, had made changes atop their organization. where preseason training is already underway. It is probably a wise move to hold off on purchasing From a September, 2002 LA Times article reporting your Kevin Gravel Team Canada jersey. that the former tournament was being planned: __________________________________________ “I would be interested as long as it would be _______________ done the right way,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “We have a pretty good rookie Four Pacific Division teams are taking part in a camp here in July that has created a lot prospect tournament that will feature a format interest…. I would rather have the kids somewhat similar to the prospect tournaments held around [veterans] for 10 days like we do. I in Traverse City, Mich., London, Ont., and think the way we do it is pretty good, but if Penticton, B.C. The Kings are not among the teams they have a little tournament, say at the end scheduled to participate and will instead host the of the first week of camp, that would be fine. Vegas Golden Knights for a pair of rookie games at Some of these rookie things can get to be Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo at 5:00 p.m. on pretty goofy.” Today’s game between the Ducks and Kings Top Prospects: Spencer Watson, Nikolai will be played without fighting. Prokhorkin, Michael Amadio, Alexander Dergachyov, Jacob Friend, Jacob Moverare, “That’s the only way you can play that kind Adrian Kempe, Kale Clague, Gabriel Vilardi, of a game,” Andy Murray said. “Otherwise Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Markus Phillips these kids are going to pound on each other. On the Rise: Spencer Watson – 2016-17 We want to see who can play the game. OHL: 41GP – 28G, 53Pts There’s no sense in them fighting. We know who’s tough.” Despite capturing two Stanley Cups within the past decade, the Los Angeles Kings are a Still, tough guys Kip Brennan (Kings) and franchise with a very uncertain future. Cam Severson (Ducks) will play, even if on- Having missed the playoffs on two occasions ice shenanigans are not allowed. over the past three seasons, the Kings are, unfortunately, transitioning from a “Guys will do anything to make a hockey legitimate contender to a mediocre pretender team,” Bryan Murray said. “If we let them before our very eyes. fight, then guys are going to go out and do that to try to catch management’s eye.” Further, the team underwent a great deal of upheaval following their elimination from Those who’ve watched these rookie games contention, as both Darryl Sutter and Dean understand that they tend to get quite testy, and that Lombardi were fired and replaced by John players will do what is necessary to make sure Stevens and Rob Blake. Although the team’s they’re noticed, as referenced above. That’s a fancy main core continues to perform well, Los way of saying, “they fight a lot.” Angeles has been plagued by a lack of scoring from their young players and __________________________________________ especially those drafted in recent years. _______________ In fact, dating back to the 2012 NHL Draft, Speaking of prospects, here’s a ranking of the 31 only Tanner Pearson has developed into a prospect pools. The Kings are right where they reliable scorer at hockey’s highest level for should be, but this is not a very good list. In the Kings, as many other promising players – fairness, these lists are extremely difficult to put Brayden Schenn, Jordan Weal, and Valentin together if you’re not a nationally credited, plugged Zykov, in particular – have either been in writer who communicates regularly with scouts, traded or have failed to progress as agents and reporters. But, like, Cal Petersen isn’t individuals on the ice. Fortunately, Los even included in Los Angeles’ notable prospects, Angeles fared extremely well in the 2017 Jordan Weal is listed as having a “sensational” NHL Draft, as the club was able to nab season even though he is 25 and will no longer lethal young talent in the forms of Gabriel technically be a rookie this year, whereas San Jose Vilardi, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Markus forward Kevin Labanc, who recently scored eight Phillips. goals in his 21-year-old season, is not listed. Troy Terry, who had seven points in the WJC and was Yet, despite the addition of these excellent well above a point-per-game pace in his sophomore prospects, the Kings could possess an season at Denver, is not listed under Anaheim’s top incredible steal in Spencer Watson. A guys. It’s easy to pick apart outliers in lists like seventh-round choice in 2014, Watson these, but it shouldn’t be as easy to do so within 15 enjoyed yet another fantastic OHL campaign seconds of glancing at it. in 2016-17 and, having concluded his major junior career, is ready for professional Anyway, while we’re here, Brett Slawson’s view of hockey. With innate scoring abilities, Watson the Kings: could be an excellent solution to a persistent The Kings will be offering travel packages at a later problem in Los Angeles. time. Additional information will be shared once it is made available. Meanwhile, as expected, Jacob Moverare was named to Sweden’s U-20 World Junior summer Why is the NHL going to China? development camp roster. __________________________________________ _______________ July 18, 2017 By: Jon Rosen Meanwhile, an off-season Kings update was written Player Evaluation: Andreoff at NHL.com by former Times scribe Lisa Dillman. ANDY ANDREOFF __________________________________________ This season: 36 games, 0 goals, 2 assists, 2 points, _______________ 70 penalty minutes, -2 rating, -1.8% CF%Rel, 10:56 time on ice A non-hockey offering: The good: He wasn’t able to build off a 2015-16 That’s a great question, and it’s impossible to pick season that showed promise, but Andy Andreoff just one. (My daughter has a Pray for Mojo onesie.) deserved better than a goalless season. The versatile (Thank you, Lefty.) forward, capable of moving between the center and wing as influenced by match-ups and in-game Apart from “pray for Mojo,” I find these Simpsons performance, was likely to see regression from 10 lines highly entrenched in my own vernacular and goals on his first 60 NHL shots, and the law of those of my friends and coworkers: averages hit him hard. He actually finished with more than one shot on goal per game for the first “I like the way Snrub thinks!” time in his career, but the pucks just weren’t finding “Increase my killing power, eh?” their way into the back of the net. There were areas “Here’s your turtle back, alive and well.” in his game that showed improvement. He wasn’t “I’m so hungry I could eat at Arby’s!” hemmed back into his own zone to the same degree “It’s a perfectly cromulent word.” that he had in previous years as his CF% leapt from 50.5% to 53.8% (an improvement that smoothed out This was not a scientific study.