Development Camp 2010 Wrap-Up

Today was the third and final scrimmage at the Kings annual Development Camp.

The teams have been the same all week...for the complete rosters click here.

While it was mostly "bigger names" that stole the headlines at Wednesday's scrimmage (i.e. Holloway, Jones and Weal), some of today's highlights belonged to non-roster, camp invitees.

Zach Harnden, an undrafted winger out of the OHL, started the scoring.  He beat highly-touted prospect Martin Jones to put Team Black up 1-0.  It was a nice shot, from his knee (ala Cammi) about 10' to the left of Jones.

About five minutes later, Samuel Groulx (an '08 pick by the Sharks), scored to make it 2-0 Black.

At half time (there are only two periods for scrimmage games), three things had become obvious:

1) Sean Bonar, a goalie who wasn't selected at last weekend's NHL draft, looked much better today.  As I reported on Wednesday, he looked dazed and confused in the first scrimmage - wasn't seeing the puck well, was giving up bad rebounds, etc.  Well, he bounced back in a big way today.  You could see he was playing with more confidence...and it grew as the game went on.

2) Oscar Moller came to play.  Right from the opening faceoff he was flying.  He was very fast and extremely creative with the puck.  One thing that's impressive when you watch Moller is, despite his size, he just keeps coming back for more and more punishment.  I'm sure he's heard the "you need to work hard every shift to make it in the NHL" mantra, yet I just don't see a place for him on the Kings.  He's not a top-6 guy and his size makes him a waste on the 4th line.

3) Nicolas Deslauriers is under-rated when most people talk about the Kings young defensive prospects.  Guys like Teubert, Hickey and Voynov may be the names on most people's minds.  However, don't overlook the '09 3rd rounder and former Luc Robitaille award winner.  He had a strong rookie camp last September and has looked sharp this week too...very smooth with the puck and reads the play well.

Other notes of interest:

Development Camp - Day One Recap & Photo

While the draft of this past weekend is only days old, most of the Kings newly acquired assets were on display in El Segundo bright and early Wednesday morning.

Four of the five newbies were on the ice for a scrimmage game, with second round pick Tyler Toffoli the lone absentee.  He was scheduled to play on Derek Forbort's team...however, he was a late scratch.

On paper, the offense of each side looked fairly balanced.  Guys from Manchester were equally spread out...for example, Team White (Group A) had Bud Holloway, Corey Elkins and Trevor Lewis...Team Black (Group B) had Dwight King, Oscar Moller and Justin Azevedo.

The same really couldn't be said for the defense though.  Team Black featured half of the d-core from the Monarchs - Thomas Hickey, Andrew Campbell and David Kolomaitis.  Yet, what Team White lacked in experience on D - with four of their six having played in the CHL last season - they made up for between the pipes in Martin Jones.

The complete rosters were:

Team White:
D - Muzzin, O'Conner, Forbort, Deslauriers, Mullen, Konan
F - Clifford, Vey, Turnbull, Holloway, Kaunisto, Czarnik, Pelech, Elkins, Lewis
G - Jones

Team Black:
D - Hickey, Gravel, Campbell, Grouix, Dy. King, Kolomaitis
F - Nolan, Moller, Weal, Kitsyn, Azevedo, Dows, Dw. King, Cresenzi, Roe, Harnden
G - Bonar

Brandon Kozun, Brayden Schenn (knee?) and Colten Teubert (hand) missed the game due to injuries.

Everybody knows that Jack and Doughty are the top two defenseman in the organization...and it will probably never work out this way...yet, just for fun, think about how big the other four defenseman could be in three to four years - Muzzin (6'2"), Teubert (6'4"), Campbell (6'4") and Forbort (6'5").

Tuesday's 10 Tidbits - Draft Wrap Up

As you probably already know, this is a busy week in Kings Nation...the draft has just finished, prospect camp is now underway and in one week from today the Kings roster should look quite different than it did just two months ago when the season ended.

There will be plenty of time to dissect and over-analyze the roster moves later this week and on into the weekend.

For now, here are 10 Tidbits to wrap-up the first ever NHL Draft held on the West Coast:

* In the second round the Kings selected the other Tyler - Tyler Toffoli. NHL Central Scouting and TSN had him projected as a first rounder.  After all the shuffling took place in the first round Friday and players started falling, Dean Lombardi and crew jumped on him mid-way through the second round on Saturday.  It cost them an extra pick to move up two spots though, as they packaged their second (#49) and fourth (#109) to get the #47 pick used on Toffoli.

* Expert analysis... TSN's Bob McKenzie said "The knock on Ottawa 67s winger Tyler Toffoli is that he’s not a great skater, but he didn’t have a big problem keeping up with his Team Canada U-18 linemates Tyler Seguin and John McFarland, two of the better skaters in the draft." and Director of NHL Central Scouting, E.J. McGuire, added “He's got an NHL release and incredible accuracy with his shot. An equal threat whether he's dishing the puck or shooting the puck himself.”

* Toffoli lists his favorite TV show as 90201, so he's ready for life in Hockeywood. 

* He's also been invited to Team Canada's World Jr Championships evaluation camp later this summer.  Joining him there will be a slew of fellow Kings prospects - forwards: Kyle Clifford, Brayden Schenn and Linden Vey; along with defenseman Nicolas Deslauriers and goaltender Jean-Francois Bérubé.

* Jordan Weal (pictured above), the Kings third round selection, was another player who most experts had pegged going earlier.  While some might say he had an outside chance at cracking the first round, everybody seemed to agree that the second round was a very realistic possibility.  TSN had him projected at #48 and The Hockey News had him slotted at #41, nearly a full round ahead of when Lombardi was able to grab him at #70.

* He already knows at least one other Kings prospect pretty well.  Jordan has been playing his junior hockey with Colten Teubert of the Regina Pats in the WHL.  Teubert had this to say when I asked him about Weal - "He's one of the most competitive little guys I know. He's got a knack for putting the puck in the net and he's a great playmaker."  And the stats back up Teubert's statements...Weal finished with 35 goals and 102 points, third best in the WHL this season.

Interview w/ Scott Norton - Dustin Brown's Agent

The "buddy movie" has long been a popular theme for television and movie scripts here in Hollywood.  From the large-group format, like Seinfeld...to the dynamic duo of the Blues Brothers.

So,when I hear the name Norton, I think of Ed Norton from The Honeymooners.  He was so good at playing the buddy, Entertainment Weekly voted him one of the greatest sidekicks of all time.

Scott Norton, on the other hand, is a sidekick of a different sort.  If you've seen Swingers, he's the guy behind the guy (...and if you haven't, my god, what are you waiting for...top five of all time!). 

Last week in part one of our exclusive interview with Scott we introduced you to his life as a sports agent.  He began as a recruiter for a small time agency in Chicago, then went on to buy the company.  Today he runs Norton Sports Management as a small, boutique agency designed to "maximize the earning potential of hockey players around the world - from the NHL to the AHL to the KHL over in Russia...both on ice, with their contract negotiations and off ice, with endorsement and appearance opportunities."

In part one of the interview we focused on the NHL draft and getting players ready for that moment in their career.  Today we spend some time talking about one of his highest profile clients, Kings Captain Dustin Brown.