DRAFT 2010: Interiew with Taylor Aronson

It only seems appropriate that the draft be held in Los Angeles this year. While the NHL's signature event is usually reserved for cities in the northeast, the league has spent the better part of two decades tyring to establish a strong footprint in the southwest.

It seems to be working - with kids from Arizona, Texas and Nevada expected to be drafted this weekend. Even more impressive is the strong representation of players with ties to Southern California - including forwards Emerson Etem (Long Beach), Beau Bennett (Gardena), Jason Zucker (LA Selects) and Jake Fallon (former LAHC player). There's also a pair of defenseman Brandon Underwood (San Diego) and Taylor Aronson (Placentia) among others.

Yesterday we posted an interview with Underwood (available here). Today we're back to share a conversation between The Mayor and Taylor Aronson.

He's a kid that's ranked #88 by NHL Central Scouting, not bad for a player from California - where some people say the hockey choices are limited for youngsters.

Aronson has found no shortage of opportunities to date though, including being a first round selection in the USHL junior hockey draft last year.  He ultimately passed on that opportunity, as well as U.S. college hockey, to head north and play for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL.

That's an important part of his story, as he played this past season on a 'Hawks team that was the darling of many scouts and media, due to having five players ranked in this draft's top-100.  One could even argue that perhaps he'd be getting more attention if it weren't for the stellar play of his teammates Nino Niederreiter and Ryan Johansen - who are both expected to be long gone by the time the Kings pick at #19 in the first round.

Taylor will probably go a few rounds later.  Yet, whichever team gets him can thank the Kings, in small part, for helping...he says the Kings and Wayne Gretzky inspired him to start playing when he was younger.  See what else he has to say...

Talk about growing up playing hockey in California. What are some of the challenges in playing a non-traditional SoCal sport? And what motivated you to keep playing when most of your classmates were probably playing baseball or football?

Triple Header on TV Today

The Kings may be off, but there is plenty of hockey worth watching on TV later today. In fact, several of the guys suiting up could one day be Kings. Three games with NHL Draft implications are available for viewing or recording:

Everrett Silvertips vs. Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
This game will be on later than the other two listed below - however, it's the marquee match-up of the day when it comes to Draft Watch 2010 as eight guys ranked by the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau will be playing.

Swiss superstar-to-be Nino Nierderreiter (RW) leads a loaded Winterhawks team that features five kids ranked in the top 100 - Nino (ranked #14), center Ryan Johansen (#16), defenseman Troy Rutkowski (#43), left wing Bradley Ross (#69) and defenseman Taylor Aronson (#90).

The Silvertips have three players of their own ranked as well - Kent Simpson (#7 ranked goaltender) and two defenseman, Alex Theriau (#74) and Radko Gudas (#131). If that last name sounds familiar to some of you, Gudas participated in the Kings rookie training camp back in September, wearing jersey #73. He is a year older than most draft eligible players and some scouts say he could be NHL ready next year.

The game can be seen on FoxSports Northwest (channel 687 on DirecTV).

Boston University at Boston College
As I wrote about a few weeks ago when these two teams played outdoors at Fenway, this is the best rivalry in college hockey and is almost always a great game. They've been battling each other for nearly 100 years! They've also won the last two NCAA Championships, Boston in 2009 and BC the year prior. Both are top five schools when it comes to producing future NHL players, including current Kings Rob Scuderi and Peter Harrold.

...and if you've been keeping up on the Kings news this week, Boston schools are favored by Kings GM Dean Lombardi. Shhh, don't tell Jack Johnson.

Scuderi and Harrold both played four years at Boston College. Scuds won a championship with the team in 2001 and Harrold served as team captain his senior year, 2005-06.

This year's BC roster features several potential NHL stars of the future. For example, Chris Kreider, who won a gold medal with Team USA at the recent World Jrs, and three of his teammates have already been drafted by NHL teams. Never to be outdone by their rival, BU's roster features the Colorado Avalanche's first and second round picks from 2007 - Kevin Shattenkirk and Colby Cohen.

Click here to read the recent BC vs BU article detailing the rivalry and all the connections to current and former Kings.

The puck drops at 4:30pm PST on NESN (channel 628 on DirecTV)

Denver Pioneers at Wisconsin Badgers
Another college hockey game, this time featuring two of the top ranked teams in the country - #1 Denver visits #3 Wisconsin. The Badgers have lost five straight games to the Pioneers, including the last two by shutouts. This season they're the second-highest scoring team in the nation though (with a 4.05 goals-per-game average), so they're hoping to reverse their fortunes tonight at home.

In an interesting twist, Denver head coach George Gwozdecky is a former Badger teammate of UW head coach Mike Eaves.

Players to watch: UW Junior defenseman Brendan Smith has been mentioned among the leading candidates for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award.

Jordy Murray, former Kings coach Andy Murray's 'other' son, also plays for UW. As most of you know, Jordy's brother Brady was drafted by the Kings and is still team property. Jordy injured his shoulder in December, however he has come on strong lately -scoring goals in three of the last four games, including a goal in both games last weekend versus #8 Colorado College.

John Ramage, a 6'1" defenseman for Wisconsin, is ranked #187 and will be drafted this June.

Current Kings defenseman Davis Drewiske played four years for the Badgers, winning an NCAA Championship in 2006 (beating Peter Harold and his Boston College teammates).

Read the interview with Andy Murray, where he talks about his sons, by clicking here.

This game can be seen on the NHL Network starting at 5pm PST (channel 215 on DirecTV)

Finally, back in October I wrote an article about the Kings being ahead of the curve in the NHL with their make-up of guys from the college ranks (available by clicking here). It was updated a few weeks later when another former college player, Scott Parse, was called up from Manchester. You can read the 10 Tidbits on Scott Parse article by clicking here.

Read. Watch. Enjoy.

The Mayor
www.twitter.com/Mayor119

CHL Prospects Game wrap-up

Last night was another showcase event for players looking to be drafted by an NHL team this June in Los Angeles. The CHL - comprised of all three major Canadian junior leagues - put on their annual Prospects Game in Windsor, Ontario.

Nearly all of the players on both rosters are ranked in the top 100 by the NHL's Central Scouting, including the top three ranked North American players: LW Taylor Hall (first), C Tyler Seguin (second) and D Cam Fowler (third).

Another guy on the roster was the kid that should be called 'number one with a bullet' the way his stock is rising, Swiss superstar-to-be Nino Nierderreiter. He had another strong game, netting one of the two goals for Team Orr (Bobby Orr).

You can catch Nino on TV again this Friday. He'll be playing for his regular junior team, the Portland Winterhawks, when they host the Everrett Silvertips (Oscar Moller's old team). The game can be seen on FoxSports Northwest (channel 687 on DirecTV).

Team Cherry (Don Cherry) won the game with four goals from Ryan Spooner (ranked #38), Emerson Etem, Jordan Weal (ranked #45) and Louis-Marc Aubry (ranked #89)

Although Hall was held to just an assist in the game, he was named player of the game for Cherry.

Jeff Skinner (ranked #47) scored the other goal for Team Orr and was voted his team's player of the game. He also won the breakaway contest in the prior night's Skills Competition.

"It's just an honour to play for Bobby Orr and it was a great game," Skinner said. "It was a tough one to lose but I think our team battled hard and it was a lot of fun."

Seguin ended the night with zero points and a minus-2 rating. Fowler, also held pointless, was a much better plus 4 in the game.

Click here to see the official game story and game sheet.

Click here to see the current player rankings by the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau.

The draft will be here before you know it. Read up!

The Mayor
www.twitter.com/Mayor119

WJC Recap: Saturday's Quarterfinals

The best tournament in the world for NHL prospects continued in Saskatchewan on Saturday.

The U.S. will live to play another day and the hoped for rematch with Canada is still alive. However, it will take a strong game from the entire team to beat a loaded Sweden squad on Sunday. Plus, Switzerland is trying to steal the headlines as a possible Cinderella team.

Highlights from the two Quarterfinal games:

United States 6, Finland 2

American goaltender Mike Lee was the player of the game - looks like he is the #1 goalie for the remainder of the tournament. Jordan Schroeder passed Jeremy Roenick with his three assists, giving him the most points all-time for a U.S. born player at the WJC.

A trio of Original Six draft picks - Chris Kreider (NY Rangers), Jerry D'Amigo (Toronto) and Danny Kristo (Montreal Canadiens) - had big games as well. Kristo and Kreider remained uber hot for the USA team, each scoring another goal. They both have five goals overall - just one shy of Slovakia's Richard Panik, who currently leads the WJC this year with six goals. D'Amigo had two goals in the game, his second and third of the tourney.

Switzerland 3, Russia 2
It took overtime to decide this one and somehow the Swiss were able to upset the team many people predicted would be playing for gold on Tuesday. Swiss goaltender Benjamin Conz played lights out in goal, finishing the game with 50 saves. Meanwhile, his teammate Nino Niederreiter had two dramatic goals. First, he tied the game with just 33 seconds left in regulation. Then, about 10 minutes into the OT he scored the game winner. He's expected to be a first round pick at the 2010 NHL Draft and right now his stock is probably rising.

Semi final match-ups for Sunday:

Switzerland vs. Canada - 1pm PST

United States vs. Sweden - 6pm PST

Both games will be shown live on the NHL Network. The winners will meet for the Gold Medal on Tuesday, while the other two teams will play for the Bronze.

The Mayor

www.twitter.com/Mayor119