In his media availability after being selected 37th overall at Sunday’s NHL Draft, Valentin Zykov’s confidence and personality were illuminated along with the skill set that allowed him to score 40 goals in a CHL rookie of the year campaign with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, the runners up of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
As it turns out, Zykov’s character was already well known by the organization, which had developed a level of comfort with the power forward through extensive scouting and pre-draft interviews.
Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti:
“There was a comfort level we had with Kyle Clifford. There was a comfort level we had with Drew Doughty. There was a comfort level we had with Nic Dowd, a seventh round pick. And you start to learn what they are as kids – you learn what they are in terms of character, and character can mean a lot of things. For me, character is the will to win. Being a nice kid – hey, that’s nice. But character for me is the will to win. So he shows that, and it comes out naturally.”
LAKings.com: Comfort Level
Other LA Kings Insider features on LAKings.com:
Getting There
Will to Win
Buying In
Fine Tuning
Battle Tested
Smooth and Selke
Up, Up and Away
In Their Eyes
Work in Progress
Committed
Scuderi’s Actions Speak
Brown’s Model a Path for Doughty
Rules for Blog Commenting
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.