Recapping the Day 4 scrimmage as Kings development camp comes to a close

Development Camp has come and gone.

The LA Kings gathered a group composed of draft picks and camp invitations for a four-day event at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. The event included three sets of practices, split by position group, and three scrimmages, ending with the most organized of the group here on Day 4.

Today’s scrimmage was structured into timed periods. The first period was played 5-on-5 while the second period was broken into two periods of 4-on-4, with the goaltenders swapping out midway through. The third period, the final period of development camp, was played at 5-on-5 for 20 minutes.

On the goaltending front, the first 30 minutes saw top prospects Carter George and Hampton Slukynsky in opposite nets, before 2025 draft pick Petteri Rimpinen and camp invitation Max Hildebrand played the second half of the scrimmage.

The first period saw Team Black score twice to open up a 2-0 lead. Defenseman Jack Sparkes scored the first goal of the day, though it may have been deflected on the way through. The shot came from the right point, with a ton of traffic, and made its way past Slukynsky for the first goal of the day. Forward Noah Morneau made it 2-0 at the end of the first period off a play that was created by forward Ryan Conmy. Conmy made a between-the-legs dish off the rush, which set up a Slukynsky double save, though Morneau finished off the scramble to make it 2-0.

The second period was broken into two, 10-minute sessions to ensure equal time for the goaltenders.

Playing 4-on-4, Team Black scored twice to open up a 4-0 advantage. Forward Grant Slukynsky scored his team’s third goal, past his brother Hampton, to take a 3-0 lead before defenseman Jared Woolley made it 4-0 as he crashed the net from the left point and buried a rebound for his first goal of the day.

Team White finally got on the board through forward Kenny Connors, who scored during the second 4-on-4 session, moving the score to 4-1. Team Black got the goal back pretty quickly, however, as camp invitee Jake Crawford beat Rimpinen clean with an uncontested shot from the slot, a breakaway situation, to make ti 5-1. Forward Koehn Ziemmer had the assist, as he deflected a stretch pass with his skate to Crawford, who scored from between the hashmarks.

Sparks made it two goals on the day early in the third period as he beat Rimpinen, once again capitalizing on the traffic in front of the net, to make it 6-1 in favor of Team Black.

So what should you take from this?

Nothing, frankly.

Development Camp is not an evaluation. As a wise man once told me, the only thing worse than looking good at development camp is not looking good at development camp. You’d obviously rather leave with a positive impression than a negative one, but from that standpoint “oh wow Player A looked great” means very little.

A good week doesn’t mean enhanced NHL prospects. A bad week isn’t an indication that a player won’t succeed. There’s a lot to be learned this week and I do believe it’s an important experience for the players involved. What it is not, though, is something to draw impressions from. You want to see players take the week for what it is and come away with things to take back to junior hockey, collegiate hockey or perhaps into their professional careers for the group who will be in that position this fall. It’s important on that front, no doubt, but beyond that, there’s not much more to be taken away.

Much more to come, but for now, a couple days off for July 4. Talk soon, Insiders!