Tyler Madden signs three-year entry-level contract

More to come. Via LA Kings PR:
The LA Kings have signed forward Tyler Madden to a three-year entry-level contract, according to Vice President and General Manager Rob Blake.

Madden recently completed his sophomore season at Northeastern University (NCAA), posting a team-leading 37 points (19-18=37) in 27 games with the Huskies. His 1.37 points per game ranked fifth in the country while his 19 goals tied for 11th overall.

The Deerfield Beach, Fla. native registered 65 points (31-34=65) in 63 career games, which was the most points on the Huskies during that span. His two seasons with the program saw Madden contribute to a Hockey East Championship (2019) and back-to-back Beanpot titles (2019, 2010) while also earning several individual accolades, including being a two-time nominee (2019, 2020) for the Hobey Baker Award, a Hockey East First-Team All-Star (2020) and Hockey East All-Rookie Team (2019) member.

Madden, whose father, John, is a three-time Stanley Cup winner, was acquired by the Kings in a trade that sent Tyler Toffoli to the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 17, 2020. He was originally selected by the Canucks in the third-round (68th overall) in the 2018 NHL Draft.

Internationally, Madden skated for the United States at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping the U.S. to a silver medal finish.

Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti on Madden, from February:

He’s an excellent skater. Multiple gears, change of pace. He’s really smart. He’s a smaller guy, but he’s really good at finding open ice. He’s good on the rush, he shows flashes of a dynamic skill element. Real confident with the puck, really good offensive game. He plays to his strengths really well. He can really skate, he’s really smart, and he’s done nothing but improve since the day he was drafted – or even before he was drafted. He was a guy who really wasn’t on any big radar when his draft year started, and then from right about December-January on, he just started going higher, higher and higher, and all he’s done is get better and better and better. He’s a Hobey Baker finalist, he’s one of the four leading scorers in colleges. Really good skill, his skating is his strength, Really good agility. Good east-west game, acceleration. What he does is he really uses his change-of-pace, change-of-direction in concert with his skills. There’s a lot of guys that can skate fast and they don’t handle the puck at the same speed, and there are a lot of guys that handle the puck really quickly but don’t skate fast with it. He doesn’t slow down with it, and even with his size, he has the ability to make plays in traffic. Good hands in tight, shifty. Again, he needs to get a little bit bigger and a little bit stronger. He’s never going to be a big-body, big-frame guy, but he competes like he has a frame, you know what I mean? I think when Rob had said one of three things he wanted to build with was culture, I think he’s one of those secondary culture guys and he might have a chance to develop into a primary culture guy. Even at a young age, he’ll help affect the culture.”

— And, because we can never have too much Yank, here’s his explanation of how Madden aligns with an organizational philosophy that favors competitiveness:

“Rob was there at the middle-of-the-end of our mini-dynasty or whatever you want to call that, that four-year period. That team that won three Game 7s on the road, it’s never going to happen again and it shouldn’t have happened. It just doesn’t happen. People use the word ‘compete,’ and 50% of the people don’t know what that means, and then the other 50% all have different definitions. As soon as you say ‘compete,’ everyone thinks, ‘oh, hard player, gets in, battles, hits everybody, fights.’ There’s so many ways. This kid, first and foremost, competes with pace, and people talk about the ‘new NHL,’ I don’t think the NHL is as ‘new’ as everyone thinks it is. I think the way people compete has evolved. You see teams compete through space now, like Tampa Bay. Like, Madden competes in the traditional sense, but he competes with pace. That means getting the puck back fast, that means getting it up the ice fast, that means making plays and executing with speed. There are so many things that go into competing with pace. It’s not just ‘skating fast.’

One of the things we were doing best when we were winning is there wasn’t a team in the NHL that got the puck back faster after they lost it than we did, and he has some of those attributes. He plays at Northeastern. The job they’ve done at Northeastern – Northeastern was a team with no culture for a long, long time. A long time. And it wasn’t entirely their fault. It’s the ‘little brother’ of the Harvards and BCs and BUs, but they’ve carved out an identity in the last six-to-eight years. They’ve built a culture there that’s impressive. Again, he’s a kid that I think competes and he can help affect our culture and he’s learning from a place that has an established culture. It’s unique and it’s fun to see. It’s really cool – he’s coming from a school that didn’t have culture or a history of it that has it now, so hopefully he can help, because we’re going to be doing the same thing.”