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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