Just like that, it’s over. When Development Camp came to an end on Thursday afternoon at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, it also officially brought down the curtain on LA’s season. There will not be any sort of significant Kings hockey played on that ice for several months now.
To help put a bow on all the prospect action, we have our final 10 Tidbits to pass along from Dev Camp 2025.
1. Divide ‘Em Up and Play
The above image shows how this year’s prospects were divided for the third and final scrimmage. Unlike the other scrimmages, which were basically two shorter period games, this was designed to be a full-fledged, three period affair.
Also of note for those not following along on twitter, Liam Greentree participated in Dev Camp drills, but he did not actually play in any of the scrimmages due to recently having wrist surgery. More on that topic was covered here.
2. Your Wish Has Been Granted
As noted it that tweet, Grant Slukynsky had his wish granted when Kings goaltending guru Bill Ranford tipped him off coming into the rink on Thursday — ‘Hey, you and your brother are on opposite sides.’ That’s exactly what the older Slukynsky told us he was hoping for earlier in the week. He wanted to score on Hampton (aka Hammer) and hold bragging rights for the summer. Well…
3. Saving His Best for Last
Ryan Conmy. If you’ve even slightly followed along with our Dev Camp notes over the past two summers, you know he’s one of the small handful names to closely follow. One could even argue he was the MVP of LA’s 2023 and 2024 summer session.
Well, after a relatively calm couple of days — at least compared to his past standards — the Boston College forward turned up the wick for Thursday’s grand finale.
Soon after puck drop, Conmy found the back of the net when he tipped in a blast from Jack Sparkes (we’ll get to that part of the story in just a minute).
Conmy wasn’t done, though.
He had the entire crowd oohing and ahhing — and even saw a few pop out of their seats — with a play that highlighted his underrated skill in the offensive zone.
As Mark Yannetti has noted on several occasions during his visits to Kings Of The Podcast, when Conmy is on the ice, the play has a tendency to run through him. He’s just that guy.
4. Need a Nickname, Enquire Within
Like any good pro wrestling tag team, The Wolf and Bruiser are going to need a group nickname at some point. Kings defensive prospects Henry Brzustewicz and Jared Woolley found a way to grab headlines every day this week. If it wasn’t one of them showing off, it was the other. Combined, they scored in all three scrimmages, including Woolley putting Team Black up 4-0 on Thursday.
They’ll be paired together next season in London (OHL), so expect to hear a lot more about this duo.
5. There He Was, Again
As if on cue, there he was on Thursday. Fresh off being featured in our Tidbits article from the day prior, camp invitee Jake Crawford found the back of the net and will leave a distinct mark on Kings scouts as camp wraps up. Expecting him back for Rookie Camp in September and then we’ll have to see where this goes moving forward.
6. We Didn’t Forget, Don’t Worry
Back to Sparkes. He has shown off one key change to his game from one year ago, a huge bombing shot from the point. It’s often said that big guys can take a little bit longer to grow into their body and put all of their tools together. If Sparkes continues on this path, the 6-foot-8 forward can become a very interesting prospect.
Seeing Sparkes fire away this week has raised many eyebrows among the Kings Development Staff. Next season, he’ll return to Clarkson University for his sophomore season.
7. Don’t Forget the Russian Kid
After being selected at the 2021 NHL Draft, defenseman Kirill Kirsanov was finally in LA for his first Dev Camp, in advance of playing for AHL Ontario next season.
“It’s great!” said O’Donnell. “We’ve had our eyes on him for a while. You can watch as much tape as you want, but until you get to see what he can do — we knew size-wise kind of what he was, I didn’t realize he liked to jump up [into the play] so much. He didn’t do that as much in the games we’ve seen in across the pond. It was nice to see him here’ he’s a really nice kid. We’re looking forward to getting him to Ontario and seeing what we have.”
8. Structure, Systems, and Other Stuff
Following Thursday’s scrimmage, veteran NHL defenseman turned Development Coach, Sean O’Donnell, shared thoughts on striking the balance between teaching and evaluation — specifically during segments of the scrimmages, partially which were played four-on-four.
“Sometimes with five-on-five — I don’t want to say structured because it’s not; we’re not systems, we’re just playing,” began O’Donnell. “But anytime you get more space, you can see a little more creativity. There’s more open areas. So anybody with [high] hockey IQ can see plays developing, jump into a hole, wait for help, see a breakdown, etc. You can kind of see maybe their hockey IQ a little bit better four-on-four because that’s a chance to see more plays happen. You can see the players that can kind of take advantage of that.”
It allows them to see some of the defensive abilities on full display in those situations.
“If anybody has any footwork issues, that’s usually when it gets exposed,” O’Donnell added. “You play four-on-four in a game, so we want to see what these guys can do there. The only thing that we decided not to do was any kind of power play or penalty kill. We didn’t really think that was fair with guys [not having played together before], there’s no system, it doesn’t look very good.”
One more from O’Donnell…
“Offense is one part of the game, that’s kind of the sexy part,” he said. “But not everyone can play that way. You have to be a team that’s complete team. You’re here for a reason. If it’s to be a physical guy, then finish your checks; we didn’t want any fighting in these games. But, if your job is to play offensive or be a shooter, whatever it is, we want to see that. I know it’s not fair to some of the guys who are penalty killers or shut down guys. We’re still watching to see what their compete is like, their one-on-one battles, all those things that are non-negotiables with our guys. So, even if maybe it wasn’t the greatest setup for certain guys to show what they can do, we’re closely watching.”
9. Gearing Up for The World Stage
And there were even two more for Team USA…
10. So, What’s Next?
The guys listed above will head to World Junior camps in a few weeks. All non-college prospects are then targeted to return to Southern California in mid-September, where they’ll play in the highly anticipated Rookie Faceoff tournament against the Ducks and Sharks (details here). Many will stick around for the early part of Kings NHL Training Camp before returning to their respective junior clubs and the Ontario Reign. There’s plenty of hockey ahead soon enough. For now, summer begins — but, we’ve still got you covered. More articles and podcasts coming real soon.
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