Mark Yannetti talks 2023 NHL Draft, as the Kings make five selections in Nashville

Pretty good haul if you ask Mark Yannetti.

Things didn’t necessarily go according to plan, but Yannetti and the Kings were nimble to adapt. In this case, adapting meant making the picks in order. The Kings made each of the five picks they entered the day with, not making a single trade as they perhaps expected to. There were several opportunities throughout the day to move up or down, as Yannetti described, but the Kings wound up making each of the picks they came to the draft with.

The possibility to move began even before the day began. The Kings had a potential opportunity yesterday evening to move up into the late 30’s in the second round, a move that would have guaranteed them a player in their highest remaining draft tier. Yannetti said they crunched the “analytics” overnight, which led to the conclusion that one of the three players they had remaining in that tier would likely be there at 54. It was a “calculated risk” in Yannetti’s eyes, but one the Kings felt comfortable making.

What resulted was Jakub Dvorak, one of the three players in that tier, being available for the Kings when they were scheduled to select.

“We had three players from a top tier left and right or wrong – it turned out to be right – we thought there was a potential for one of those three to be there,” Yannetti said. “We didn’t know which one, we had an idea, so decided not to move up and took a calculated risk. Either luckily, or proper planning, Dvorak was there and we didn’t waste an asset to move up and get a player who fell to us.”

The third-round pick is not one that was really in discussion, at least from Yannetti’s availability, but the Kings drafted a player who was widely ranked better than the high 70’s on many external draft boards.

The Kings wound up selecting Koehn Ziemmer, a winger from Prince George of the WHL and a player who would not have been out of the realm of possibility when the Kings selected at 54. Yannetti looked as Ziemmer in a similar lens to players like Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli from past drafts. Someone who has a lot of encouraging traits and skills but lacks as a skater. A few reasons that make this selection an exciting one in terms of upside should things come together and Yannetti walked away happy with where that pick landed.

Feeling good about today 😌

Mark Yannetti addressed the media following the 2023 NHL Draft 👇 pic.twitter.com/vnnj81Z5k6

— LA Kings (@LAKings) June 29, 2023

Rounds 4 and 5 wound up being where the Kings were the most active here on Day 2.

Round 4 was where the Kings were the most active, as they were engaged in discussions on moving both up and down. They ultimately wound up selecting goaltender Hampton Slukynsky with the 150th overall selection, which filled the goaltending position the Kings knew they would likely add to with at least one pick.

In terms of potentially moving up in Rounds 4 and 5, Yannetti said the Kings made 12 calls……12 CALLS……to try and move up to take a player that the Kings had rated higher, who was coming more and more into range. That deal did not come to fruition as Yannetti said the Kings were rebuffed on all 12 attempts. The closest the deal came to fruition was with Nashville, but the Predators wanted an additional pick next year on top of what the Kings were offering, which they were able to get elsewhere. Long story short, a whole lot of conversations that ultimately did not amount to anything.

Yannetti also spoke about several possibilities of moving down from either their pick in the fourth round or the fifth round, but ultimately chose not to do so. Yannetti felt that the Kings list was very on point with the flow of the draft over the first few rounds, but saw several players go off the board in a run during the fourth round. With that in mind, he didn’t feel trading down would be a worthwhile exercise, because of what he believed to be a drop off of several tiers, meaning having more picks later wouldn’t have made sense for the Kings.

What that meant was staying put.

The Kings made their selections, as scheduled, in Rounds 4, 5 and 6 to complete their draft-day haul. Joining the picks made in the first two rounds of Day 2, the Kings walked away with five players they’re happy with.

Included below are Yannetti’s reports on Dvorak, Ziemmer and Mania, all of whom came with very intriguing skills and intangibles.

Yannetti on Dvorak – Huge, giant wingspan. I wouldn’t say elite skater but he’s on the higher echelon of skating [amongst defensemen], he’s probably a second tier skater in this draft as far as D goes, he’s not far off……his injuries this year hurt him a little bit in terms of development, playing in that big league they don’t get as much opportunity to showcase his offense and his skill, so he’s got to work on the offensive part of the game but that’s not really what we grabbed them for. We still think, with the way he moves the puck, he can transport it with his feet, he can make quick, first-option reads and he can use his feet to get himself a little bit of time, maybe a second. So, there is some second option sort in his game, although that first option is quick puck movement, skating out of trouble to move the puck is his primary thing, but there is enough sense and game with the puck that he can find a second options. He’ll kill penalties all day long at the NHL level. He just has to get a little more physical, but even [Erik Cernak], who we knew would be a physical force, he didn’t show that physicality in the men’s league. [Dvorak] isn’t going to be Cernak in terms of physicality, but it’s not uncommon for the physical aspect not to show in the men’s league.

Yannetti on Ziemmer – As a player, he’s simple, he’s a monster point producer. He’s got a wicked shot, he’s balanced, he can score and he can pass the puck, so his offense is balanced, it’s not one dimensional. He’s a big bodied kid, but in terms of the body composition, it was one of the lowest we saw at the combine. He was one of the guys we targeted at that combine, Matt Price gets a list from us and he focuses on them and they really looked at body composition with [Ziemmer] because his biggest issue is his skating, it’s just not quite good enough yet. Similar to Tyler Toffoli, why did Toffoli fall to 47, why did [Ziemmer] fall to 78……not quite the same level player but not dissimilar either. So, his skating has to get better and one of the things we look at is how much room is there left to go physically and when he’s one of the lowest guys at the combine out of 100 guys physically, in terms of growth, in terms of his body composition, he’s a 200-pound guy who has it distributed all wrong, but he’s a kid. His training has to get better, there’s a lot of things that have to get better, but if those things get better, you’ll find steps in skating. Tanner Pearson went from such a bad skater he doesn’t even get drafted to the light bulb going off, working on some of the physical stuff and getting drafted in the first round Draft plus-two. So, if that light bulb goes off in a similar way to Tyler and Tanner, now the skating goes from a detriment to average-ish. He scores, he gets to hard areas, when he hits guys he makes a big impact. Not that we care about it, but he had five fights last year. This is a guy who potentially has a power forward’s body hiding in a young, undeveloped body. If he makes a commitment, people are going to be really, really happy with him.

Yannetti on Mania – He’s offensive. He’s an incomplete player, his offensive element is extremely developable, I think he had 10 goals on an older blueline there and he played first power-play minutes, so it wasn’t like he was just getting all the easy assignments. He’s a power-play guy, his skating is excellent, so you have a very, very high level development course as an offensive defenseman. On one side, the defense has got to get better, the compete has got to get better, but if he had high-level compete with high-level offense, he’d be going in the second round, but that’s the element that our development staff seems to develop [well]. Look at Pinelli, Pinelli’s compete was why he fell, but if you look at him now, compete is not an issue. These guys seem to get that element fixed, so we’re going to give them a higher skill guy now. It was worthwhile, instead of a safe, solid pick in the fifth, he’s a guy with high potential that needs to have some things worked out.

Yannetti also seemed pleased with the selections of goaltender Hampton Slukynsky and forward Ryan Conmy, both of whom are college-bound prospects who are set up on longer development curves, but both of whom carry a lot of potential for the future.

Assume we will see this full collection of individuals at development camp next week, which kicks off on July 6 at Toyota Sports Performance Center. That presents the first opportunity to speak with all but Ziemmer and we’ll cover those in full here on LAKI.

Introducing your newest LA Kings 👑

📲 https://t.co/BYFfMqcwQG #GoKingsGo | @WinmarkResale pic.twitter.com/KtkRE7A2ZN

— LA Kings (@LAKings) June 29, 2023