Kings, Ducks or Sharks: Who has the best prospects in three years?
The Athletic
Los Angeles Kings
Forwards
Samuel Fagemo-Gabriel Vilardi-Rasmus Kupari
Alex Turcotte-Quinton Byfield-Arthur Kaliyev
Carl Grundstrom-Blake Lizotte-Tyler Madden
Jaret Anderson-Dolan-Lias Andersson-Akil Thomas
Others: Aidan Dudas, Johan Sodergran and Bulat Shafigullin
2020 draftees: Kasper Simontaival, Alex Laferriere, Martin Chromiak and Aatu Jamsen
Defense
Tobias Bjornfot-Mikey Anderson
Kale Clague-Helge Grans
Kim Nousiainen–Brock Faber
Others: Jordan Spence, Cole Hults and Jacob Moverare, Markus Phillips.
2020 draftee: Ben Meehan
Goal
Matt Villalta
Jacob Ingham
Others: Dávid Hrenák and Lukas Parik
2020 draftee: Juho Markkanen
Dillman: The fanciful thought did cross my mind – how about two Kings’ 23-and-under teams? Team Robitaille and Team Blake?
The sheer number of prospects in the pool wouldn’t make it overly difficult.
Perhaps a project for another day.
For the purpose of this exercise, the most difficult task was how to deploy the numerous centers in the Kings’ pipeline of prospects. This team is so deep down the middle – starting with Vilardi (first round, No. 11/2017) and Byfield (No. 2 overall, 2020) – it led to some tinkering.
The likes of Kupari, Turcotte, Madden and Anderson-Dolan might end up on the wing, anyway. It will all work itself out eventually.
Plus, it’s a far easier switch to go from center to wing than from wing to center.
Take Madden, for example. Putting him on the wing would allow him to open up more offensively and he appears to have better energy on the forecheck in that position. Granted, his wall play will have to improve but his high hockey IQ suggests that shouldn’t be a lingering problem.
Andersson, acquired from the New York Rangers earlier this month, also could be moved out of the middle, but he is staying at center because of his puck distribution ability and how well he competes at both ends.
As for the defense, Mikey Anderson has added value by virtue of his ability to play both sides. In college (University of Minnesota-Duluth), Anderson played on the right side because the Bulldogs didn’t have a lot of right-shot D.
Nousiainen, a fourth-round draft choice (No. 119) in 2019, is a power-play specialist. The two youngsters the Kings drafted earlier this month, Grans and Faber, have differing strengths. Grans, who was taken in the second round (No. 35) is playing for Malmo in the SHL and is the youngest player among its regulars. He is offensive-minded and will need to work on cleaning up his defensive game. Faber was also selected in the second round, 10 spots after Grans, and is starting his freshman season at the University of Minnesota. He has strong defensive principles and will have a good opportunity to round out the offensive side of the game with the Gophers.
It would be interesting if his D partner ended up being Ryan Johnson (first round 2019/Buffalo), the son of Kings development staffer Craig Johnson, or Jackson LaCombe (second round 2019/Anaheim). Keep eye on Faber when it comes to Team USA’s selections for the upcoming World Junior Championships.
The outlook is not as clear cut when it comes to the goaltenders. Organizationally, it looks wide open after NHLers Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen. After that, the rest of the 23-and-under prospects have similar skill sets.
Following the trade of Jack Campbell to the Toronto Maple Leafs – which triggered Petersen’s move up from the AHL to the Kings in February – the workload fell squarely on the shoulders of Villalta with the Ontario Reign. Ingham has been in Germany training with Eisbären Berlin. Hrenák, taken in the fifth round (No. 144) in 2018, is well regarded internally and thought to be in the mix.
Parik (third round, No. 87/2019) has a larger than life personality and is scheduled to return to Spokane once the WHL season eventually starts. Parik, of course, drew a ton of attention when he scored a goal for the Chiefs right before the pause. Parik’s feat led some to quip that the Kings prospects are so good that even their goalies were scoring.
Wheeler: The fact that the Kings’ roster doesn’t include players like Aidan Dudas, Bulat Shafigullin, Kasper Simontaival, Martin Chromiak, Jordan Spence and Cole Hults, among others, almost makes this entire exercise a little unfair for the Sharks and the Ducks. It’s reminiscent of the conversation we have ahead of every best-on-best international tournament with Team Canada (be it the Olympics or the World Cup) where it’s: “Why is their B Team as good as my A Team?”
On star power alone, the Kings have a stronger U23 core than the Ducks and the Sharks (especially the Sharks). But it’s an even wider gap on both of their rivals on depth, where the Kings lap the field. The Kings have Tyler Madden, who’d be a lock for either of the Sharks or Ducks’ top-six, on their ‘third line’ here. I’m not convinced there’s a single Sharks forward prospect I’d rank ahead of Madden and he might not even be in the Kings’ top-five if I ranked theirs today.
Before I pump the Kings’ tires too much though, it’s also worth saying this: as great as their prospect pool is (the best in the league right now if you’re asking me), they don’t have a defense prospect with the talent level of a Jamie Drysdale or a Ryan Merkley, nor a goalie prospect with the upside of Lukas Dostal.
That feels like nitpicking though.