Los Angeles Kings - the 'All American' team

Final results from yesterday's poll are now in and things basically came down to three players capturing 75% of the voting totals - Dustin Brown, Tony Granato and Jonathan Quick.

While it's not totally surprising to see two current players do so well in the rankings, it's a least a little interesting that a few of the other players didn't get more recognition - especially considering their solid resumes.

In the end though, Brown and Quick tied for the top spot as the 'Best U.S. born player to play for the LA Kings.' Each captured 25%, Granato was a close third with 23%.

So, keeping with the theme, here's a look at the Kings' first team all-star group, comprised of purely American born players.

forward - Dustin Brown, Jimmy Carson and Tony Granato
defense - Jack Johnson and Mathieu Schneider
goalie - Jonathan Quick

Fortunately, on these type of lists you don't need a back-up goaltender - because the Kings, a franchise not exactly known for being rich in goaltenders, are even more thin when you start to mine the lists for American born netminders.

You'd probably have to hand the back-up role to Jeff Zatkoff, who has yet to even play in a single NHL game. The highly regarded prospect spent last season in Manchester, where he posted 20 wins with a 2.68 goals-against-average and .911 save percentage.

Once you get past the current Kings defensive core there aren't many blueliners with American roots either.  However, that could be changing in the years to come also, as GM Dean Lombardi and crew have added a number of talented U.S. defensemen to the organization recently - including Derek Forbort (first round 2010), Kevin Gravel (fifth round 2010), David Kolomatis (fifth round 2009) and Alec Martinez (fourth round 2007) and Patrick Mullen (free agent signing, 2009).

Forbort and Gravel are both scheduled for next week's Development Camp in El Segundo, CA.  They'll be two of the 11 defensemen in camp, a group that also includes six free agents.

Tomorrow I'll post an interview with one of those invitees, defenseman Pierre Durepos of the Memorial Cup champion Saint John Sea Dogs.

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RELATED ARTICLES:

Interview with JF Berube: pre-camp comments

Interview with Tyler Toffoli: pre-camp comments from OHL scoring champ

Interview with Jordan Weal:  pre-camp comments

Interview with Tony Granato - talking about his time with the Kings and Rob Blake

Interview with Derek Forbort - looking back on his freshman year and what's ahead

POLL: Who is the best U.S. born Kings player of all-time?

Happy 4th of July to all the MayorsManor readers and a special thank you to all the military personnel and their families. We appreciate all that you do to keep us safe and allow us to spend so much time thinking about hockey, instead of the horrible things people in other parts of the world deal with on a daily basis.

With that said, here's a little Americana themed poll for today - who's the best U.S. born player to ever play for the Kings?

The top 10 candidates are listed below in alphabetical order:

Dustin Brown - first round draft pick (2003), 305 points (141g, 164a) in 513 games played with the Kings

Jimmy Carson - first round draft pick (1986), 561 points in 626 NHL games, including 219 games for the Kings over four seasons (108g, 111a)

Craig Conroy - 542 points in 1,009 regular season NHL games, including 82 points in 130 games with the Kings

Exclusive Interview w/ NHLPA Head Donald Fehr

Negotiations on a new labor agreement are already underway in the NFL, with the NBA not far behind.

And right around the corner will be the NHL, as the current deal has one season remaining.

NHL players weren't happy with their previous leadership and ousted Paul Kelly from the Player's Association in rather controversial fashion back in August 2009.

After courting Donald Fehr, the former head of the Major League Baseball Players Association for several months, he finally agreed to come on board in December as Executive Director of the NHLPA.

Recently he's been touring North America hosting almost town-hall like meetings with player agents and the last stop was today in Los Angeles - where the agents for LA Kings' forwards Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown participated.

Below is part of an exclusive conversation I had Fehr immediately following today's activities...

MM:  I would assume most of the meetings held in various cities have had a similar overall tone and message.  Was there anything unique about the sessions today?

DF:  Well, the purpose of today was for me to meet the agents, to see them in a small group and get to the point where I could get to know some of them...and ask some questions and hear what's on their mind. Their concerns (today) are, in most respects, similar to what the agents voiced at the other meetings. There are always some particular things that come up because of individual clients though.

MM:  One person I spoke with earlier today noted they were impressed with how you've made such an effort to get to know the guys who have played just 20 games in the league as much as you have the big names like Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin.  Is that by design or is that just part of your make-up as a person?