Talking Kings prospects at the World Junior Summer Showcase with Jon Morosi on The Insider Show

Hey Insiders! The latest episode of The Insider Show includes a conversation with our newest contributor, Jon Morosi, who made the trip to Windsor, Ontario a few weeks back to view the World Junior Summer Showcase games being contested between top prospects from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the USA.

There, Morosi got his eyes on four Kings prospects, which included one representative from each of the four participating nations: Elton Hermansson, Henry Brzustewicz, Jimmy Lombardi and Vertti Svensk.

My conversation with Morosi for this week’s show includes a breakdown of what he saw from each of the prospects in attendance, as well as insight into other Kings prospects who will be World Junior eligible this year.

Other players discussed whose names could be chosen for participation in the tournament this winter include Vojtech Cihar, Jan Chovan, Adam Goljer and Tobias Krestan.

Cihar, who will be returning for Czechia after an MVP performance in 2026, as well as Chovan, who represents Slovakia, are returners for their respective countries, while Goljer, who captained the nation’s U18 team a year ago and Krestan, one of Germany’s standouts, could be newcomers at the event among the Kings prospect ranks.

As he has been in previous years, Morosi will be at the World Junior Championships in Edmonton and Red Deer this winter, contributing to NHL Network’s television coverage. His knowledge of hockey prospects is extensive, and his home location in Michigan is beneficial to seeing many of the top players each season. As he explains in our discussion, he is within short driving distance to see many top players each year, whether it be in the NCAA ranks, with Michigan, Michigan State and Western Michigan all a short trip, or the OHL, which has teams both in his state and nearby beyond the border in Ontario.

This has also allowed Morosi the opportunity to become familiar with each of the Kings top goaltending prospects in Erik Portillo, Carter George and Hampton Slukynsky, who all have played amateur hockey in that region.

Although Morosi’s primary beat is Major League Baseball, where he contributes to MLB Network’s coverage, his reporting on hockey is a nice addition to our stable of contributors here on LAKI!

Below are some highlights from our conversation, which can be watched and listened to in full on the Kings YouTube channel as well as on all major podcast networks on the LA Kings Insider Audio feed.

On Lombardi and his potential role for Canada
The first game I went to for Team Canada, Lombardi scores on his first shift and his family was in attendance, so really a fun story. Great family, really well-rounded young man who I think has an excellent chance to made this Team Canada for the World Juniors and certainly it’s going to be a really talented forward group for the Canadians, it almost always is. But I think you saw in the Summer Showcase the ability that Jimmy has to play a very strong depth role. Now there’s always the potential that some of Canada’s higher-end players might already be in the NHL which could potentially shuffle some of the forward lines, there’s always injuries of course, but Jimmy Lombardi has gotten better every single year that he’s played for the Flint Firebirds of the OHL, he had a really key role on that team this past year, I had a chance to watch him play a bit in the playoffs against the Windsor Spitfires and was really impressed by his game there. He’s an excellent teammate, he’s gotten better on draws, and this will be a theme I’m sure of many of our conversations about Kings prospects who are forwards is that he worked with yes, Jarret Stoll, on how to take draws and got better. If you’re not going to be the top line center who scores 40 goals, well then you better be able to take draws, win draws, be responsible in your own zone and Jimmy Lombardi checks a lot of those boxes.

On Brzustewicz and his outlook for next season
This is going to be a very crowded American defensive group, especially on the right side, which is maybe unfortunate from Henry’s standpoint in terms of making the team and making his role there because obviously Chase Reid has got to be a lock at this point, top-6 selection in the entire draft this past year and was really good on the team at last year’s World Juniors, as was Asher Barnett. I think it’s going to be a matter of watching Henry play during the course of the first half of the season. If he goes into the AHL and is playing let’s say top-4 minutes, because, in my opinion, and this is way above my pay grade, if it’s he’s not going to get a lot of playing time in the AHL, then it probably makes sense for him to be back in junior. You wouldn’t want him to be up in the American League and playing very little or being a healthy scratch. You want him to play. And he’s going to have to play to show that he deserves to be on the US team, because of how competitive it’s going to be. And of course he plays for the London Knights, usually a powerhouse, but they’re coming off what was not a typical London season, they ended up being sellers at the deadline in the OHL. So there will be a lot more opportunity for Henry I’m sure just to play a ton of minutes, he does play more of a physical, defensive style. I thought he looked excellent and I thought he played a very firm style of hockey on that right side. I think to me, in a tournament like this, can you defend well with your feet and can you be responsible with your stick and close down plays cleanly? And I thought that his overall mobility, stick positioning, the little subtle parts that are important in your game, I thought I saw those things pretty well and consistently during the course of the tournament. He has a lot of the fundamentals that line up to a profile that will put him on this team.

On Hermansson and what fans can expect to see from his play
Loud, loud shots coming off of that stick was what I heard. Watching him play, watching him move around the ice, there are those players that your eyes go to and he was one of them at this event. You just see how dangerous he is as the trigger man on the power play. He’s going to get a lot of opportunities, and when he gets those opportunities, quite often they end up in the back of the net. He just has that bravado of a great goal scorer and they carry themselves in a certain way to where they step on the ice and they believe they’re within shooting range, I love that about him. He has that confidence where if by some chance he takes nine shots and they’re not goals, the 10th one is definitely going to be. You need to have that confidence to where you want the puck on your stick in a key situation, late power play down a goal, he wants to be on the ice and you can tell that about him. Had a really nice conversation with him. Of course he helped Sweden win a gold medal at the U18 Worlds. I believe, I think of all these players that we’re talking about, he’s the one I feel most certain of both his place on the team at the holidays. The only thing that could push him down the lineup is if Sweden gets a lot of their players back who might otherwise be in pro hockey now because they’re such high picks. I think we’re going to see a lot of him in the month to come but get ready to wake up to some highlights of him scoring goals over in Europe because I think you’re going to be seeing a lot of that during the first part of the year.

On Svensk and his place on Team Finland
First and foremost, I do think because of the dynamics of the Finnish blue line, he’s got a very good chance to make this team as a left-shot defenseman. The skating and skill show up for one very obvious reason, which is he played forward for a little while last year. That’s the wild thing while he was playing over in Europe. So he’s got that ability to get up and down the ice, good vision, good passer. His game is not physical, rugged it’s more of a passing and skating game, but that plays in this tournament. I think Svensk with his ability to pass and manouver, I think he’s a creative offensive defenseman who because of his skating can get back and defend well with a good gap in the neutral zone. I was impressed by the way he played. As we know, the Fins have a really good track record of success in this tournament, they’re a hard team to beat, they’re the team that knocked the US out last year in overtime, and so I think Svensk for me, fits very well with the Finnish style and as a left-shot defenseman, I believe that he will be on this team, probably in the third pair is what my guess would be.

The Insider Show – Jon Paul Morosi