John Hoven is the founder/editor of MayorsManor.com – a multi-award winning site, including being named Best Sports Blog in Los Angeles by LA Weekly and Hockey Blog of the Year by Yahoo Sports. He can regularly be heard on NHL Network Radio (SiriusXM) and on numerous sports stations throughout North America. Check out a free replay of some of his latest on-air spots by clicking here.
Co-host of Kings of the Podcast, a top-10 ranked sports show on Apple Podcasts.
MayorsManor is an official content partner of the LA Kings and Hoven contributes to LA Kings Insider.
A former member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, Hoven has traveled extensively to take in the greatest game on ice, from junior hockey in Canada to college games in the U.S., twice to the Winter Olympics (2002 and 2010), the 2004 and 2016 World Cup of Hockey, NHL All Star Games, Stanley Cup Finals…and for games in nearly every NHL city. Over that time, he has become the recognized authority on LA Kings prospects, providing detailed progress reports on the team’s future players, as listed here.
Besides his work in hockey, Hoven has written extensively about Mixed Martial Arts, a passion which grew from attending his first live UFC event in September 2003 to being cageside for more than 100 live MMA events – including UFC, Bellator, Strikeforce, WEC, World Series of Fighting, IFL, WFA, King of the Cage, and many more.
Dubbed ‘The Mayor’ nearly 20 years ago by several people from his inner circle – largely because wherever they went, Hoven always seemed to know somebody – he has also covered athletes and celebrities from the worlds of Major League Baseball, NHRA drag racing, and a wide variety of musical acts; as well as attended multiple Super Bowls, the NBA Finals, the World Series, and the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.
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About Our Other Writers
Scott Coffman, our Senior Editor, is much better at playing hockey than fantasy football. If given a choice, he’d change our logo to all different shades of yellow. In addition to his writing and editing duties, Scott also posts information appearing on our social media channels. If that’s not enough, he also shares old LA Kings video content.
Andy Tonge, our Associate Editor, is a goalie at heart – having been one since the age of seven. His love for the sport began when he started watching games with his dad a few years before lacing up his first pair of skates when he was five. As the first senior writer for MayorsManor, he provided daily coverage of the Kings AHL affiliate when they were in Manchester for two years, up to and including their 2015 Calder Cup Championship. Along the way, he also has provided coverage at the NHL Draft, written for The Hockey News, and been a guest on several podcasts. For some reason, Andrei Loktionov is his spirit animal.
Dan Adkisson provides readers with ongoing coverage of the NHL and AHL. A native of California, Dan took to the ice for the first time at the age of eight years old and never looked back. His on-ice career includes over 15 years of playing both club ice and roller hockey, a season of junior hockey, coaching and officiating the game, as well. The cyclical nature of hockey and relative shortage of stoppages is what attracts him to the game most.
Harry Ouzounian – Our resident history expert. Nobody knows more stats, facts, tidbits, and quirky details about the Kings than Harry. He keeps readers engaged with articles focusing on the history of the players, coaches, and personalities that have touched LA hockey over the past 50+ years.
David Hofreiter was born in San Diego, yet that didn’t stop him from falling in love with hockey at an early age, where he quickly found his way to roller hockey rinks. Long before Dean Lombardi preached building from the net out, Hofreiter was first a goalie, before later playing on the blueline and up front as a forward. An Information Technology guy by trade, he began following the Kings soon after Wayne Gretzky arrived in Los Angeles. Through the years, he’s gravitated towards the NHL Draft, prospects and the overall development process. In 2006, he attended his first Kings Development Camp and that’s been his center of gravity ever since. He’s continued to learn along the way, often joking that in 2008 he preferred Zach Bogosian over Drew Doughty – “So I learned that I needed to watch more games to form a more educated opinion because I still had a lot to learn!” He also added, “The biggest issues with highlight reels is it gives people false expectations that every shift will be a highlight reel. You really need to study a player to understand their skills and ability.” In recent years, he’s tracked the development of Kings prospects for MayorsManor. Hofreiter readily admits to having a bias towards two-way play and utility. You’ve been warned.
Tristan Baker is a former junior hockey player, splitting five years between the Fresno Monsters and Gillette Wild. After 16 years of hockey, he decided to hang up the skates to pursue other dreams of his while going to school. Tristan also loves graphic design and running various social media pages on Instagram and Twitter. He’s the rookie at MM, so he’s still fine-tuning his skills with our development staff.
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Daniel Stopani
Stopani decided to take up sports photography after discovering collegiate hockey in and around Los Angeles. in an attempt to bring more awareness to these programs, Stopani started attending games and shooting photos to post on social media. He later joined MayorsManor by first shooting the Kings annual summer Development Camp, and then later the NHL’s Vegas Rookie Faceoff tournament, and eventually AHL games in Ontario. Stopani often says he strives to provide our readers with visuals to match the superb articles.
Michael Zitek
A relative newcomer to the world of hockey, Zitek can’t get enough of the on-ice action after having first developed a passion for the sport a few years ago. He joined our team prior to the 2018-19 season as one of our AHL photographers, allowing him to take a life-long love of photography and parlay that with the fast paced action and emotion of hockey. He not only covers games in Ontario, but also has made several roadtrips to capture pics of the LA Kings prospects, as part of our ongoing coverage.