Notebook: 2023-24 NHL Plans, Clarke/Fagemo & Upper Deck, Jack Hughes joins ATKM

Happy Thursday, Insiders!

Recapping a few noteworthy items from around the Kings world over the last week, as we patiently await news we’re all more interested in.

2023-24 NHL Plans
A couple of interesting notes came out yesterday regarding leaguewide initiatives.

The NHL and NHLPA are planning to bring back the World Cup of Hockey during the 2023-24 season, with current plans seeing the tournament organized in-season as opposed to preseason, as was the case in previous editions. Reports have the event being a best-on-best competition that would run during a 17-day stretch in the month of February, including 8-10 teams. Details were not available in bulk, but NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said that the NHL and NHLPA are moving “full steam ahead” around a tournament in February 2024 that is “on schedule” at this point in time.

The existing plan would be to split the tournament between North America and Europe, placing a pool in each, before playing the semifinals and finals in North America.

“We still want to play one pool in Europe, a preliminary round pool in Europe and a preliminary round pool in North America and move the semifinals and the final to a different city in North America likely,” Daly said, via NHL.com. “I think that short list would universally encompass more traditional hockey markets.”

Full details on the initiative are available HERE.

In a separate article, Daly also noted that he believes the salary cap could rise a year sooner than previously estimated. Initial reports had the cap potentially set to increase after the 2024-25 season, but Daly estimated that could come sooner, potentially after the 2023-24 season. Looking at how the Kings cap is currently structured, a possible bump would align quite well with that timeline, giving the team a ton of flexibility in two years time, should things move at that rate.

“I’ve seen some preliminary estimates recently which would make me more optimistic on the cap going up sooner whether that’s in two seasons or three seasons, I think it’s more likely than not two seasons rather than three,” Daly said in an interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek from European Media Day on Wednesday.

More details provided HERE on Sportsnet.

Clarke & Fagemo join Upper Deck
From earlier in the week, the NHLPA announced that LAK prospects Brandt Clarke and Samuel Fagemo will be a part of the leaguewide NHLPA Rookie Showcase, scheduled for September 6 in Arlington, VA. More than 30 NHL prospects are set to attend the event, the 12th annual edition, with the Kings one of five teams to have multiple representatives. The event was last held in 2019, when Kings (then) defensive prospects Mikey Anderson and Kale Clague represented the organization. Top Kings prospects Brayden Schenn, Tyler Toffoli, Tanner Pearson and Derek Forbort have represented the team over the years.

Per the official release –

This unique event provides Upper Deck – the official trading card partner of the NHLPA and the NHL – with an opportunity to capture photographs and videos of many of the game’s top young prospects and rookies in their official NHL team uniforms. The content collected will be used for upcoming Upper Deck trading cards and related promotional materials.

Jack Hughes ATKM

While not news per say, Kings second-round draft pick Jack Hughes joined the All The Kings Men podcast earlier this morning for a look at his busy summer. Hughes went from being selected by the Kings back in early-July to attending development camp with the Kings here in Los Angeles to taking part in Team USA’s summer selection camp, with his eyes set on the 2023 World Junior Championship. Hughes is set to return to Northeastern University for his sophomore season, with the Huskies set to open their 2022-23 season on October 1.

Hughes on the level of development camp versus the NCAA
Someone asked me if I thought that the scrimmage was a higher pace than it would be at Northeastern and there are a lot of good players in both places. There are guys [here] who have already played in the NHL and also guys who I played against who will play in the NHL one day. So I think in some aspects, it was a little bit of a step up, but it was also I think being able to play college hockey made that playing against those players kind of a smooth transition.

On his desire to play in the 2023 World Juniors and his participation in summer selection camp, held at the NTDP where he played for two years
I definitely want to be on that team. I’ve watched that tournament every Christmas since I can remember and it’s something I’ve always wanted to be a part of. The camp this summer was a little bit different, just because that tournament [was] going on in August, so that camp was also going on at the same time. [Having played at] the National Program and seeing you know, like the 04’s come up, playing with certain guys there, itkind of all comes back together, in that same rink too. There were a lot of the same guys, that came from different places that are really good players, so it was it was a cool week. It was fun to kind of see some those guys that I haven’t seen in a while and get get back on the ice with them.