Adam Kirshenblatt Los Angeles Kings Blogger • RSS
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Now that the draft has come and gone, let us take a closer look at the prospects the Kings were able to get their hands on.
With the Kings picking 20th in the first round, there are no expectations for these kids to be an impact player right away. The expectation is on development and continuing to improve every year.
With that said, the Kings clearly drafted based on what one of their current needs are and that’s speed and skill and they got that from their number one pick.
Kupari coming out of the Finnish Elite League had six goals and 14 points in 39 games this season. As a 17-year-old playing in a league against men, that’s not bad at all.
At the moment Kupari is listed as a play making center with a lot of speed and highly skilled. The player he is being compared to are Carolina’s Sebastian Aho where he has a similar skillset and body type.
Kupari is listed at 5-11 and 163 pounds which makes him undersized in his draft class. However, as it has been mentioned over and over again during the draft, the league is getting smaller, faster, and more skilled which are all tools that Kupari brings to the table.
At the 2017 Ivan Hlinka Tournament, Kupari made an impact with two goals and seven points in four games. However, at the World Juniors he was pointless in five games, but keep in mind he was one of the youngest players on that Finnish club.
Expect Kupari to stay in Finland for at least another year to develop in the Finnish Elite league before making the jump to North American ice with the Ontario Reign.
Round 2: 51st overall: Akil Thomas (Niagara Ice Dogs, OHL)
Thomas was projected to be a first rounder in pretty much every mock draft you could find but he ended up falling all the way down to 51 where the Kings grabbed him.
By all accounts everything I’ve read and heard about Thomas has been positive. Another small forward, good playmaker, strong skater, a little too unselfish. However, one of the knocks on him according to Mark Seidel of North America Central Scouting is that he didn’t play hard all time.
With that said, he’s known to be a super competitive kid and hearing that he doesn’t work hard all the time will put a burr in his saddle.
A couple of interesting things about Akil is that he has been a bit of a hockey nomad because his dad, Kahlil, was a career minor league player. The life of a minor hockey league player’s son brought him to Mississippi, Flint, Oklahoma, Orlando, Jacksonville, back to Orlando, then ending up back in Toronto.
Being around the dressing rooms of those teams and seeing what it takes to play pro hockey should help him.
Lastly, Thomas is already running his own business and has created a clothing line. His company is called Zale Apparel that he runs with his friend Ethan Low and got investors in his company. This shows that Thomas is a smart dude along with taking classes at Brock University last year.
In round three the Kings went overseas for a bit more size and a scoring touch. Shafigullin comes out of the KHL’s system sitting at 6-1, 163 pounds, which is a relatively normal size compared to many people in the draft.
In the KHL’s minor league system, he scored 20 goals and 36 points in 22 games, while in the 17 games he played in the KHL, he only had two assists. This shows he has the scoring ability but he still needs to fill out and get stronger in order to play with men.
Any time a team drafts someone from Russia you have to understand it may take them a few years to get to North America, if at all. A lot of teams shy away from Russians because of that, but there is a high risk high reward for trying to pick at their system.
Round 4: 113th overall: Aidan Duas (Owen Sound Attack, OHL)
In the fourth round, LA returned to North America where they took Aidan Dudas out of the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. Dudas is another small forward, sitting at 5-7, 165 pounds but showed a lot of skill leading up to his draft year.
This past season he scored 31 goals and 65 points with the Attack in 68 games. Notably this season, he had an outstanding performance at the CHL Top Prospects game where he scored two goals and three points.
In that game he showed that he has a wicked wrist shot and get to the open areas of the ice. Being a smaller player, defensively he will have some issues at the center position so it might be a better more for him to move to the wing.
Round 5: 144th overall: David Hrenak (St. Cloud State, NCAA)
The Slovakian goaltender came over to North America during the 2016-17 season to play in the USHL and then moved on to the NCAA ranks this past season to play at St. Cloud State.
With St. Cloud, Hrenak had a record of 14-7-2 over 25 games and had a 2.11 GAA with a .919 save percentage. Due to his outstanding freshman year performance he was named to the NCHC All-Rookie Team and was an NCHC honorable mention pick as a freshman.
At the World Juniors, Hrenak appeared in one game against Canada where he allowed six goals on 52 shots. It was the type of game where he kept his team in the game, despite the six goal loss.
Round 6: 165th overall: Johan Sodergran (Linkoping, SHL)
For the Kings first pick in the sixth round, they go back to Scandinavia and select 6-2 Johan Sodergran out of the Swedish Elite League.
Sodergran played 37 games in the SHL’s development league where he posted 17 goals and 33 points. In 20 games with the big club, however, he was held scoreless.
From the clips I’ve seen and from what people have said about him is that he is a good skater with a good shot, but he also has a nose for the net and the puck tends to find him. Some people have said that this could be a steal in the draft, others have said if he makes the NHL he will be a third or fourth line player.
Round 6: 175th overall: Jacob Ingham (Mississauga Steelheads, OHL)
With the Kings last pick in the draft, they head back to Canada to select another goaltender in Jacob Ingham.
In his first year in the OHL, Ingham was considered to be one of the best goalies in the OHL. As a rookie he went 17-6-6 in 31 appearances with a 2.69 GAA and .907 save percentage. He represented Canada at the U17 World Juniors where he played 5 games posting a 2.15 GAA and .927 save percentage.
Things were looking up for the young netminder but things fell apart during this past season. In 43 games this season, his record fell to 16-20-2 while his GAA jumped up to 3.65 and save percentage fell to .880.
So having one good year and one bad year means we don’t really know what this kid is yet. If he was eligible for the draft last season he would have ended up much higher, but this season some call this selection a reach.
The Kings are pretty set with goaltending at the moment with Jonathan Quick, Petr Budaj, and Jack Campbell in the system. They also ended up drafting two more goalies in this year’s draft so having a couple of projects won’t hurt anyone.
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