Kings announce roster for 2024 Rookie Faceoff

Introducing the roster for the 2024 Rookie Faceoff.

Headlining the list are the two most recent first-round draft picks – Brandt Clarke and Liam Greentree. Clarke, the team’s first-round selection in 2021, is set to participate in his second Rookie Faceoff. Clarke missed the 2021 event due to illness, played in 2022 and missed in 2023. He is on the roster again this season, before what is assumed to be a full-time season with at the NHL level. Not expecting Clarke to play in all three games, as the Kings see him on the NHL roster for Opening Night. Still, assuming he is there to play, it’s a chance for him to be a leader among lesser-experienced teammates and start the season off with a couple strong performances. Bigger things ahead, though. For Greentree, it’s the first opportunity to see him in a Kings jersey during a game setting. There were impressive flashes over the summer at LA Kings Development camp, during scrimmage settings, but Rookie Faceoff is different. Greentree is a player to watch for the Kings up front.

In total, 11 Kings draft picks are on the roster for the event, including Greentree, goaltender Carter George and defenseman Jared Woolley from the 2024 NHL Draft. Also included is goaltender Erik Portillo, who was a Buffalo draft pick and recently signed a three-year extension with the Kings, as well as defenseman Cole Krygier, a former Florida pick who played his rookie season in the AHL with the Ontario Reign in 2023-24. Several try out players make out the remainder of the roster, including Bryce Brodzinski, who signed an AHL contract with Ontario last week. Brodzinski is the younger brother of former Kings/Reign forward Jonny Brodzinski and is coming off a collegiate career at the University of Minnesota.

Listed below is the roster both for forwards and defensemen for the event –

Looking at this group, there are a few players of interest that I’ll be looking at, beyond just guys like Clarke and Greentree.

First is forward Aatu Jamsen. A seventh-round pick in 2020, Jamsen has been a fascinating prospect to me since the Kings selected him. He was pretty much an unknown commodity when he was brought in from the U-18 league in Finland. He’s steadily risen through the ranks, becoming a .75 points-per-game guy in Liiga in Finland, the top men’s league in the country. He’s scored in the Champions League as well, with seven points from five games played this past season. Jamsen signed his entry-level contract this summer and could begin his North American professional career in Ontario. He’s a proven European scorer but it’s a different game over here. He’s a guy you want to see control the play in these games, at a lower level of competition than he faced against grown men in Finland.

Second for me is Jakub Dvorak. Dvorak had a winding road last season. He started playing men’s hockey in the top division in Czechia but made the jump to North American midseason, heading to the WHL. In Czechia, he was generally a third-pairing defenseman as an 18-year-old, but in the WHL, he was a high-level, top-pairing defenseman. Dvorak is a big-bodied blueliner who the Kings view as a good skater for his size. It’s the defensive attributes that they forecast to translate to the next level, but he was around a half point per game in the WHL. He is among the youngest skaters on the blueline for the Kings but has two seasons of European pro experience. A good measuring stick tournament against other rookies for Dvorak.

Lastly, I am looking at forward Kaleb Lawrence. He’s an interesting prospect and is set to begin his professional career this fall. Lawrence is huge. He’s 6-6. At development camp this summer, he stood out as a man amongst boys from a size and strength perspective. He stood out in a similar way in the OHL and took a couple big strides forward as a player after joining the London Knights. He probably took himself from an unsigned free agent to an entry-level contract with the growth he made in London. Lawrence doesn’t project as a 40-goal scorer, but he has some skill to compliment his size and nastiness. You could tell he was holding a gear back during development camp, playing against his teammates. Would love to see him full systems go in this event to get a sense of where Lawrence is as a player.

I am also looking forward to seeing Carter George play, but I’m not putting much stock at all into goaltending performances in this event. Players who are not familiar with defensive systems and players who are not used to playing with each other leads to mistakes made. That makes goaltenders susceptible. While a guy like George is among the higher-profile prospects at the event, goaltending statistics at a rookie event aren’t all that important. Ignore this when I post an article on Carter George’s Game 1 shutout.

From the team’s official release –

The LA Kings announced the roster for the 2024 Rookie Faceoff that will take place from Friday, September 13 through Monday, September 16 at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, Calif. The complete 30-player roster, which features 15 forwards, 10 defensemen and five goaltenders, can be found here.

Leading the Kings contingent is defenseman Brandt Clarke, who became the first rookie defenseman to score an overtime goal in Kings history last season with his first career NHL goal on Feb. 17 in Boston. Clarke also earned AHL All-Rookie and All-Star Team honors after finishing the year second among all AHL rookie blueliners in scoring with 46 points (10-36=46) in 50 games.

In total, 11 Kings draft picks will be participating in this year’s tournament, including a trio of 2024 selections with forward Liam Greentree (26th overall), goaltender Carter George (57th overall) and defenseman Jared Woolley (164th overall). The Kings will also have members from its 2023 NHL Draft class participating in defensemen Jakob Dvorak (54th overall) and Matthew Mania (150th overall), and forward Koehn Ziemmer (78th overall).

Seven members of the roster suited up for all or parts of last season with the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, including forwards Quinn Olson and Francesco Pinelli; defensemen Brandt Clarke, Cole Krygier, Jack Millar and Luke Rowe; and goaltender Erik Portillo, whose 24 victories last season were the most by a rookie netminder in Reign history.

Due to limited capacity at Toyota Sports Performance Center during the 2024 Rookie Faceoff, a restricted number of passes have been offered to select season-ticket members for the Kings and Reign. The facility will be closed to the public and passes will be required to gain entry. Fans are encouraged to watch each game of the tournament live online in each market. All three Kings games will be streamed at LAKings.com.