Los Angeles Kings Prospect Report

It’s been another busy week for the LA Kings prospects. This time around, we have an almost broken foot, some expanding facial hair, a Russian invasion and much more. Take a look…

Manchester Monarchs

It was another rough weekend for the Monarchs, as they went 1-2 in their back-to-back-to-back games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The lone victory came on Saturday in a 2-1 win, with goalie Martin Jones in net and Brandon Kozun picking up a goal. Sunday’s loss came via the shootout, so they still picked up a point.

Then, last night, Linden Vey (last year’s WHL scoring champion) picked up his third goal of the season late in the game and gave the Monarchs a win in the rematch with Portland.

Left wing Ray Kaunisto, who sat out a pair of games over the weekend after fearing he broke his foot while blocking a shot on Friday night (no break, just swelling), was back in the line-up last night ans scored his second goal of the season.

Brett Hextall, a Phoenix Coyotes draft pick and son of Kings asst GM Ron Hextall, scored for the Portland Pirates in both games against the Monarchs this week (an interview with him can be found at the bottom of this article).

– Other notes: Goalie Jeff Zatkoff was in goal last night for the win, it was his second victory of the season…Grinder Jordan Nolan continues to play well, he now has seven points in 14 games – he was also suspended for two games this week, due to an elbowing incident on November 4…Andrei Loktionov leads all forwards with 14 points (3goals, 11 assists) and Jake Muzzin is tops among defensemen with eight points (3G, 5A) in 13 games played.

Ontario Reign

Goalie JF Berube picked up his first professional win last Saturday, as the Reign went to Colorado and swept a two-game series vs. the Eagles. More on him at the end of this article.

Junior Hockey

– Tyler Toffoli (Ottawa 67’s, OHL): continues to play at a goal a game pacing, netting 16 in his first 16 games played…he also has 13 assists, giving him 29 points, only second best on his team…he’s also in sixth place in the OHL scoring race…Toffoli will play for the OHL in tonight’s Super Series game vs Russia (and serve as the team captain), then he’ll be on MayorsManor tomorrow to talk all about it

– Andy Andreoff (Oshawa Generals, OHL): continues to play at about a point-per-game basis after missing the first part of the season while it was being decided if he would go back to junior hockey for his over-age year or play as a rookie in the AHL…through 13 games played he has 12 points (six goals, six assists) and over the last week, improved his plus-minus rating from minus-8 to minus-5

– Michael Schumacher (Soo Greyhounds, OHL): after picking up 13 points (nine goals, four assists) in his first 16 games, the 6-foot-4 power forward from Sweden has been a scratch in the last three games due to an upper body injury…in news related to his junior team, the ‘Hounds GM Kyle Dubas made a huge trade with Warren Rychel‘s Windsor Spitfires last week, acquiring Team USA gold medal winning goalie (and Dallas Stars first round draft pick) Jack Campbell

– Jordan Weal (Regina Pats, WHL): now has points in twelve straight games, and a total of 28 points (eight goals, 19 assists) through 18 games played…he has points in every game the Pats have played except one, when they were shutout…Weal will play in the above mentioned Super Series later next week

– Christopher Gibson (goalie, QMJHL): the Kings top draft pick from this past June continues to be an average performer…has a 7-6-1-1 record, with a 3.14 goals-against average and 0.889 save percentage

College Hockey

– Michael Mersch (University of Wisconsin): has two assists last weekend vs fellow Kings prospect Kevin Gravel and the St. Cloud State Huskies…his team lost the first game and tied the second one…they’ll host Minnesota this weekend, the top-ranked team in the country

– Joel Lowry: made the most of his second weekend playing college hockey…had two goals in Cornell’s 6-2 win at Yale (who didn’t lose a home game all last season) Friday night

– Kevin Gravel: picked up his second assist of the season in St. Cloud’s aforementioned defeat of Mersch and Wisconsin…that’s two points for Gravel when playing fellow Kings prospects, after he had an assist against North Dakota a few weeks back

– Derek Forbort: his North Dakota Fighting Sioux are having a fast fall from grace…after being one of the top teams in the country last season and entering this year with high expectations, they lost back-to-back games in Minnesota last weekend and have fallen to #20 in the polls

For more information on the Kings top prospects – including the MayorsManor rankings of the top ten prospects in the organization – click here…or feel free to check out some of the related articles linked below.

Finally though, how about an update on Movember…

Here’s an exclusive pic of the Super Yooper himself, Ray Kaunisto (left) and a ‘week two’ shot of JF Berube aka Hollywood (on the right)…