Prospect Report: Kings had #1 player, now ranked #1 team

Last month, The Hockey News crowned Brayden Schenn the number one prospect in hockey. Earlier this week, Hockey's Future announced the Los Angeles Kings as the top National Hockey League organization, in terms of their overall prospect pool.

Last Fall, the Kings were ranked as second-best by Hockey's Future. Now, for their Spring rankings, the Kings move to the top of the list on the overall strength of their top five prospects - Schenn, Jonathan Bernier, Andrei Loktionov, Tyler Toffoli and Derek Forbort.

Breaking things down by position, the defensemen listed were Forbort, Viatcheslav Voynov and Nicolas Deslauriers. The top forwards listed were Schenn, Loktionov and Toffoli. The top goaltenders listed were Bernier, Martin Jones and Jeff Zatkoff.

In other prospect news this week, the Kings singed goalie JF Berube and forward Linden Vey (both were selected in the fourth round of the 2009 NHL Draft) to three-year entry level contracts.

Deslauriers, who just appeared in the QMJHL Chamionship Finals - and led all Quebec league defenseman in post-season scoring - is also expected to be signed before the June 1st deadline.

Finally, Maxim Kitsyn and the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors continue their quest for a Memorial Cup title when the take on the Owen Sound Attack tonight. After earning more points than any other team during the OHL's regular season, Mississauga lost the Championship in overtime of game seven of the OHL Finals to Owen Sound. So, payback will certainly be on their minds.

The winner of tonight's game will advance to Friday's Memorial Cup semi-finals, while the loser will face the Kootenay Ice in tomorrow's tie-breaker game. The tie-breaker winner will become the other participant in the semi-final game.

If you want to watch Kitsyn and the Majors, check out the game on tape delay tomorrow morning via the NHL Network.

Many of the above listed prospects are scheduled to participate in the Kings annual Summer Development Camp, expected to take place in late June. More information will be available at a later date.



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Recent MayorsManor interviews with some of the top junior prospects (click to read):
Brayden Schenn * Linden Vey * Tyler Toffoli * Nic Deslauriers * JF Berube

Recent MayorsManor interviews with several players from the Manchester Monarchs (click to read):
Bud Holloway * Thomas Hickey * Martin Jones

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LA Kings Roundtable on Trades, Kopitar and Penner

Part three of the recent roundtable discussion on the Los Angeles Kings is now available.

The conversation continues with Dennis Bernstein of The 4th Period, Jon Moncrief of the Examiner, Dave Joseph of ESPN and several others.

The group was pulled together by the guys over at KingsCast and in this segment we talk in-depth about what the Kings should do in the off-season - including deals involving Brad Richards, Rick Nash, Jonathan Bernier, Philadelphia Flyers, etc. - possible future line combinations, Anze Kopitar, Dustin Penner and much more.



Part one of the roundtable featured discussion on Drew Doughty - click here to watch now.

Part two of the roundtable featured discussion on the power play and prospects - click here to watch now.

More videos will be released by KingsCast in the days to come.



The Mayor
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Kitsyn and the Majors are on the board

After dropping their opening game on Friday night to the Saint John Sea Dogs 4-3, Maxim Kitsyn and the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors picked up their first win of the Memorial Cup tournament yesterday.

Sunday's game pitted them against the Kootenay Ice, champions of the WHL. Cody Eakin (Capitals draft pick) put the Ice up first. Then, Kitsyn tied things up with his first point of the tournament. Rob Flick (Blackhawks draft pick) scored the final goal of the game half way through the third period and the Majors went on to win 2-1.

Mississauga was the top team in the OHL's regular season. However, they were defeated in the OHL Finals by the Owen Sound Attack - who they'll play in their next game (Wednesday night). The semi-finals will be played Friday and the 2011 Memorial Cup Champion will be crowned after the final game on Sunday.

It's been quite the year so far for Kitsyn, who wasn't even playing in North America when the season began. His Russian team won the Super Series in November - a tournament featuring a Russian all-star team vs. two games each against the WHL, OHL and QMJHL. He topped that by winning a gold medal at the World Junior Championships in January. Then he joined the Majors and finished the regular season with 26 points (9 goals, 17 assists) in 32 games. He also had 19 points (10g, 9a) in 20 OHL playoff games.

Kitsyn is the lone Kings prospect still playing. After higher ranked prospects and draft picks, like Brayden Schenn and Tyler Toffoli, were eliminated, Kitsyn - a sixth round pick in the 2010 NHL Draft - finds himself just a few wins away from junior hockey's ultimate prize.

That would be quite a hat trick...of hardware.



The Mayor
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RELATED ARTICLES:

Interview with Maxim Kitsyn

Interview with Brayden Schenn

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All three Kings prospects earn medals at World Junior Championships