Memorial Cup field set (with Kitsyn)

In terms of the Kings and their prospects, Maxim Kitsyn is the last man standing, the last player in the organization still getting ready to play hockey these days. Kitsyn and the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors are hosting the Memorial Cup, the four-team tournament that crowns the kings of junior hockey. St. Michael’s lost to Owen Sound in the Ontario Hockey League Finals, but the host team automatically qualifies for the tournament, along with the OHL champions and the winners of the Western Hockey League (Kootenay Ice) and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (Saint John Sea Dogs).

It’s been quite a year for Kitsyn, a 6-foot-2, 183-pound winger who was drafted by the Kings in the sixth round last year. Kitsyn started this season in the KHL, then got out of his contract midseason and moved to North America. He had nine goals and 17 assists in 32 regular-season games with St. Michael’s and has had an even bigger impact in the playoffs, with 10 goals and nine assists in 20 games. Kitsyn ranks second on the team in playoff scoring behind Devante Smith-Pelly (21 points), who was a second-round pick of the Anaheim Ducks last year. The Memorial Cup starts Friday, when St. Michael’s plays Saint John, with the final to be played May 29.

Rules for Blog Commenting

  • No profanity, slurs or other offensive language. Replacing letters with symbols does not turn expletives into non-expletives.
  • Personal attacks against other blog commenters, and/or blatant attempts to antagonize other comments, are not tolerated. Respectful disagreement is encouraged. Posts that continually express the same singular opinion will be deleted.
  • Comments that incite political, religious or similar debates will be deleted.
  • Please do not discuss, or post links to websites that illegally stream NHL games.
  • Posting under multiple user names is not allowed. Do not type in all caps. All violations are subject to comment deletion and/or banning of commenters, per the discretion of the blog administrator.

Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.

Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.