Well, tomorrow is clearly one of the biggest off-ice days of the year in the NHL world, the start of the free-agent signing period. Since the end of the season, I’ve been of the mind that the Kings will seek a top-six forward and a top-four defenseman, one through free agency and the other via [...]

Thomas Hickey’s time with the Kings has been a series of fits and starts. Impressive at times, held back by injuries at others, Hickey is still looking for his big breakthrough with the Kings. I caught up with him after today’s development camp game… —- Question: You’ve been to a handful of these now. You [...]

It’s fair to say that Brandon Kozun’s career is going in the right direction, Undrafted in his first year of eligibility (2008), Kozun was a sixth-round pick of the Kings last year, then went on to lead the Western Hockey League in scoring with 107 points. Kozun was part of the Canadian World Junior team [...]

Colten Teubert wasn’t on the ice for today’s development camp, and when I went to shake his hand, I found out why. Teubert has a soft cast on his right hand/wrist, the product of a broken bone he suffered late in the season while playing for the Ontario Reign. Teubert hasn’t had the easiest of [...]

Development camp has wrapped up, on ice, for the day. Coaches decided to skip the second on-ice session and have players do off-ice work. The scrimmage ended with a score of 5-1, as Bud Holloway and Robbie Czarnik each had two goals. Trevor Lewis had one and Jordan Weal scored on a penalty shot. The [...]

I’ll be heading out for the development camp momentarily, but first, here’s another set of the Open Forum questions and answers. Much more to come from camp!

The Kings’ development camp officially gets underway tomorrow morning in El Segundo and runs through Friday. Each day, the camp is split into two groups for practice, and there’s also a scrimmage. Each day, practices will run from 8-9 a.m. and from 10:30-11:30 a.m., with the scrimmage from 9:15-10:15 a.m. As you will see from [...]

With the start of the free-agent signing period coming up Thursday, it’s worth taking a look at who some of the top free agents are, by position. NHL.com did a nice breakdown of the top nine by position, with a few others listed. You’ll never guess who the top left winger is! Free-agent left wingers [...]

Maxim Kitsyn, the Kings’ sixth-round draft pick last week, was part of another draft today. The OHL’s Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors acquired Kitsyn’s rights during the CHL import draft. As written last week, Kitsyn is still under contract to his KHL team, but Kitsyn’s agent said he will attempt to get Kitsyn out of that [...]

I’m not sure how much widespread interest remains in this, but there’s no harm in posting it for those who might be interested… Craig Renetzky, the Woodland Hills-based attorney for former Kings assistant coach Mark Hardy, called to let me know that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., has filed a request to have [...]

To kick off the day, here’s the next set of Open Forum questions and answers…

The third set of questions and answers follows…

Here’s the second set of today’s Open Forum questions and answers…

Please feel free to continue posting questions over the next day or so, but right now I’ll start posting the answers. Great questions so far, and I hope I’m able to give them the solid answers they deserve! Here’s the first set…

Given that there are a couple days here between the end of the draft and the start of the development camp and the free-agency period, I figured it’s a good time for a mid-summer Open Forum session. Keeping in mind, of course, that I don’t know which players might be joining the Kings — and [...]

The draft is only a few hours old, and already focus turns to Thursday and the start of the free-agent signing period. ESPN.com’s Pierre LeBrun gets us started with a good blog item about the Kings’ interest in Ilya Kovalchuk, and a top-four defenseman. Pierre, as usual, hit it right on, in my opinion. Patrick [...]

After the draft, Michael Futa, the Kings’ co-director of amateur scouting, gave his impressions of what happened and his thoughts on the Kings’ five picks… —– Question: Could you talk about your impressions of the draft? FUTA: “You have to put it all together, and we’re ecstatic. I know how much Dean talks about getting [...]

Soon, I’ll have some extensive quotes from Kings co-director of amateur scouting Michael Futa, talking about the draft, but first, here’s a recap of today’s picks, as copied from the Kings’ news release. It contains relevant biographical info, stats and some quotes from today’s picks: center Tyler Toffoli (second round, 47th overall), center Jordan Weal [...]

Maxim Kitsyn, the Kings’ sixth-round draft pick, was actually at Staples Center for the draft. Kitsyn, 18, is a forward listed at 6-foot-2, 194 pounds. Entering the draft, he was ranked No. 6 among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting. Last season, in the KHL, Kitsyn had one goal and one assist in 21 games. [...]