About John HovenJohn Hoven is a member of the of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and co-hosts Kings of the Podcast. He is also the founder and editor of MayorsManor.com, which has been named Best Sports Blog in Los Angeles by LA Weekly and Hockey Blog of the Year by Yahoo Sports. Click "ABOUT OUR TEAM" above for a full bio.
Kings coach Murray – ‘Kozun needs to work on his game’
File this one under the peaks and valleys of life.
Just ten days ago, Brandon Kozun was the talk of training camp in Los Angeles. Today, he’s headed back to Manchester, New Hampshire to play in the AHL.
He was the breakout star of the two-game Rookie Tournament against the Phoenix Coyotes – scoring a pair of goals in the first game and setting up all three goals in the second one.
It was a performance that he proudly followed up with by stating ‘I kind of put the ball in their court,’
Readers of MayorsManor liked what they saw – voting him ‘most impressive’ in both games. And Kings coach Terry Murray agreed.
Kozun, a sixth round pick in 2009, then played nearly 13 minutes in the team’s first preseason game – generating zero points and one shot on goal.
After practice yesterday, Murray spoke about the decision to include Kozun in the most recent round of (training camp) roster cuts…
“He has the speed, he has the quickness. Obviously, he can score some goals. But, he needs to go and work on his game,” explained Murray. “He needs to go back down to Manchester, where there’s more time – there’s a lot more to the game than what I just talked about. Those are the areas that are going to take some time and are going to take some attention in order for him to nail that part of it down.”
So, Kozun will play right wing for the Monarchs this season. Who will be his center? That remains to be determined, as Andrei Loktionov remains in camp with the Kings. His short-term fate should be determined in the next few days. Stay tuned.
Kozun is currently ranked fourth on the Kings top ten prospects list. To view the full MayorsManor rankings click here.
Murray also spoke about another highly rated Kings prospect yesterday, Tyler Toffoli. For the coach’s evaluation of his camp performance click here.
The Mayor
www.twitter.com/MayorNHL
www.facebook.com/MayorsManor
RELATED ARTICLES:
Kings prospect Brandon Kozun goes high, low and yard
Brandon Kozun on challenges of physical game
VIDEO: Watch the third period, Rookie Tournament game-two – plus The Mayor on the post-game
Recent Articles
Kings Of the Podcast: Ep. Q for Quarantine – With Mike Stothers
There have simply been too many news stories of late. We only had one choice. It’s time for the return, so here you go – Kings of the Podcast, Quarantine Edition.
And we even have a special guest… Mike Stothers.
Listen to the show for free using the audio player below or check us out on all […]
LA Kings 2020 Prospect Rankings: The Top Three Players
Finally, we’re ready to reveal the No. 1 player on our annual LA Kings Prospect Rankings.
As noted in the previous article from this series, our original intention was to publish the entire Top 15 before the NHL Trade Deadline in February. Things happen. However, the final rankings were completed in January and have been […]
LA Kings 2020 Prospect Rankings: Players No.4-6
The wait is over, it’s time to pick up where we left off with our annual LA Kings Prospect Rankings.
As you’ll see below, this is an abbreviated version of what you’d normally get in our scouting reports. However, this is a weird time we’re living in and it seems everything is different these days. […]
Major News Items
LA Kings 2020 Prospect Rankings – Goalie Depth Chart
Before we get started here, some context… While normally our Midseason Prospect Rankings come out shortly after the World Junior Championships, we held off in anticipation of any deals the Kings may make prior to the … [Read More...]
More Prospect News