“With the 31st pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, the LA Kings proudly select Henry Brzustewicz from the OHL’s London Knights.”
That’s not really where this story begins, it’s actually more the culmination of an intense process that started months earlier.
Just prior to the Draft getting underway in Los Angeles at the end of June, I had an extraordinary opportunity to sit in with Mark Yannetti, Kings longtime Director of Amateur Scouting, and his staff to get a never-before-seen view of what goes down just prior to the grand event hockey fans across the world see on TV.
In the spirit of transparency, this request had been in the works for more than four years. And in 2025, the stars finally aligned. To be granted this level of unprecedented access, to have the opportunity to be a fly on the wall, was truly the highest of honors. Thank you doesn’t even do it justice; eternal appreciation is in order.
With that out of the way, let’s dig into some fascinating elements from inside the LA Kings NHL Draft War Room.
Setting the Stage
To use a simple analogy, Yannetti – LA’s mastermind of this operation, in every sense of the phrase – works in a manner similar to a general contractor building a house. All activities begin with an end date, in this case, the league’s annual Draft scheduled for the last weekend in June. From there, schedules are built working backwards, all the way back to a blank plot of land more than a year in advance.
By the time Yannetti’s staff arrived in Los Angeles the week prior, most of the work had already been done. The foundation had been laid, the drywall and electrical had been completed. Now, it was about the final decorating touches, like carpet and paint – all while Yannetti continuously confirms and reconfirms that all of the previous work was done to perfection. It’s not so much that he’s a worrier, but more that he’s a perfectionist. He’s never going to be done or satisfied until the Draft is over and he can’t make any additional changes.
Despite all the meticulous preparation, he will probably replay what happened over and over to find any possible gaps in their process. We’ll save that for another article – maybe next summer.
For further illustration, Yannetti’s entire team assembled in El Segundo and Toyota Sports Performance Center became their home base for all activity the week of this year’s Draft. He has two main departments reporting to him, analytics and amateur scouts. The former group of number crunchers and data analysts work to support his scouts; allowing them to be both separate and cross functional. The scouts themselves operate in a traditional business hierarchy, with three main areas – the United States (headed up by Teddy Belisle), Canadian junior hockey (Chris Byrne), and Europe (Christian Ruuttu).
Under each of those three primary areas are teams of additional scouts, like Andy Johnson in the U.S. Nick Sinclair in Canada, and Petr Jelínek in Europe. Throughout the NHL regular season, Yannetti meets every few weeks with each area, including the area Director and all of the scouts covering that territory. In addition to the regular reports that each scout files, they begin to discuss and rank the players in that area. These meetings take place either in person or online. Additionally, a few times each year, scouts from all three areas and the analytics team meet in person to continue fine-tuning the list.
Yannetti is the general contractor in this story. He’s balancing the needs of the customer (i.e. LA’s General Manager), as well as the demands and desires of all his sub-contractors (the scouts).
Very few people on his team actually see every player live. Yannetti does, and that’s what has him hopscotching all over the globe throughout each season. He also watches endless hours of tape, refining his ever-evolving opinion of each player – with some of his notes going back two years on a player (commonly referred to as a player’s Draft year and D-1 season).
By the time Draft week arrived, the ‘final list’ had already been prepped and organized into tiers. As Yannetti has explained before, nearly any metric can be used to differentiate a player within a tier. For example, if there are five players in a tier and two of them are defensemen, with the other three forwards, perhaps the defensemen are ranked higher in that tier. Now, how does one of the D get ranked over the other? It could be height, right shot over left, projected number of years to reach the NHL, etc. Again, just about anything.
Holland and Yannetti
Using nearly any statistical measure, Yannetti has been elite in his drafting of players when judged against his peer group over the past 15-plus years with the Kings. How would new GM Ken Holland insert himself into the process, especially after joining the organization rather late in the planning?
“Mark and his amateur scouts have done a great job in the past,” was one of the first things Holland had told me immediately upon being hired. “They worked hard on [the list] this year too, I didn’t. So, I’m going to stay out of the way and let Mark and his team do their job.”
True to his word, Holland met with the staff during their in-person meetings in Los Angeles in late May, reviewing their work and observing the fine tuning going on. He then spent additional time with Yannetti and the scouts at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo the following week.
He had seen enough to be more than impressed by that point. So much so that when it came time for Draft week, Holland was comfortable getting periodic updates from Yannetti throughout the week, rather than joining the amateur staff for all of their meetings this time around. Although Holland was sequestered in a nearby office talking with other GMs by phone and meeting in person with agents like Pat Brisson, he was still connected to the process. Yes, his primary focus was on improving the Kings current roster of NHL players, but that didn’t stop him from also ensuring he was connected to what was going on down the hall.
“I’m going to rely on Mark and his staff heading into Friday,” Holland reiterated later that afternoon.
List Discussion
As I entered the room for pre-Draft meetings, the scouts were arranged in a giant u-shape (pretty much by group), with approximately six people on each side. Yannetti was at the front seat, with Belisle immediately to his right. Then came the Euro contingent, rounding the corner to Ruuttu at the top of the U. Next were most of the CHL guys, followed by Johnson as the U curved again, all the way around to Rob Vollman and his analytics team.
This portion of the meetings began with conversations about a small handful of potential draft candidates who had been flagged by the medical staff. Their concerns were categorized into various levels, from pretty much just an FYI to full-fledged, ‘we can’t select this player.’ There wasn’t much discussion around these updates, it was more informational.
As the talks moved into players placed into various tiers, one interesting tidbit was the value of a high-end 3C. Much of the talk centered on the value Ken Holland places on that role. It was one of the few times Holland’s name actually came up during the prep meetings.
Much as you’d probably imagine, the conversations went through a systematic review of their master list, from the top tier and went down from there. Considering this wasn’t the first time the scouts had seen the rankings – they had access to it at their meetings the month prior — there wasn’t a ton of discussion about every single tier. They reviewed the list and when they hit an area with questions, they’d hit it hard – covering things from all possible angles.
For example, there was a player a few tiers down where one scout wanted to talk about that guy’s puck moving ability vs. his defensive prowess. Yannetti said he knows he’s on an island with his thoughts about said player but welcomed perspective from others.
“I’m not in the overruling people business,” he reminded the entire room. “This is a democracy. I’m open to losing a debate here, but there’s also a floor I’m willing to go.”
While later attempting to defend his position, Yannetti admitted that he was openly valuing the second half of this player’s season more than the first half, a rare use of recency bias. It was then that more direct questions began from Byrne, one of his three key lieutenants.
As Johnson and a few others added additional fuel to the fire, Yannetti quipped – in his thick New England accent and sounding as if he was a wartime general from centuries ago – “I have two continents against me and my own country!”
Never one to pass up an opportunity to provide the kill shot, Ruuttu parachuted into the fray with, “The Swede is better than all of them.”
And just like that, there was a momentary pause in the action. With a third name suddenly added to a two-player debate, many in the room needed to quickly recalibrate what that tier looked like in their mind before continuing.
Similar comments from Ruuttu weren’t uncommon either. The former NHL player turned scout didn’t attempt to dominate any singular conversation throughout the meetings. Usually, he’s adept at waxing on poetically about a myriad of different topics, including the pros and cons of potential NHL draft selections. In this environment, it was almost as if he had said his peace during the pre-meetings and was content to only dive in when he vehemently disagreed with the general consensus. He found a balance between offering thoughts and keeping them concise, thereby making his comments more impactful.
Once the group had gone as far as they could with a different debate later in the hour, Yannetti put a bow on that chapter by stating, “I’m not rock solid on the placement, but I’m rock solid of the area code this kid is at right now.”
Another interesting exchange came when Byrne shared a bevy of comments about a particular player further down the list. Ruuttu loved this prospect and Yannetti shared that he thinks he’ll eventually play in the NHL. Where the conversation hit a speed bump was a disagreement on his relationship with coaches. Was he a good teammate? Of course, nobody had the final answer. It was more about sharing stories several had picked up along the way. It’s all part of the work the team puts in during the regular season, turning over as many stones as possible to get reads on things like character, effort, and communication. Areas that can be difficult to measure but can have a huge impact on a player’s development and potential of eventually making it in pro hockey.
These discussions involved small movements on the list. Nobody was going to move up three or four tiers based upon what was shared in the final week heading into the Draft. Even so, these points were still worth debating and reviewing. The potential to move just one spot within a tier wasn’t off limits. This was fine-tuning at its finest on full display, with Yannetti constantly working to pull observations and opinions out of his team. Getting Byrne or Belisle to talk was easy, as they served as his wingmen throughout the meetings.
However, there were few passengers, if any. This was a full participation party. If Yannetti was engaging with somebody like Ron Pyette, he might ask, “Is it?” as an immediate follow-up to an initial answer. Not necessarily because he disagreed with what Pyette had initially offered, but more in an attempt to drain every last ounce of info out of him. Yannetti craved it. He couldn’t move on until his cup was full and was a master at working the room to create opportunities for all to weigh in. Instead of asking for their input or even demanding it, he skillfully poked and prodded to get the proper level of interaction desired.
At times, he would turn to a guy’s neighbor and ask a softball just to keep the flow going. This could be as simple as saying something like, “What do you think?” to Stephan Vigier after getting a long answer from somebody else across the room. Everything was on the table too. Nobody was out to protect ‘their guy’ or their area. If Byrne disagreed with Bryan Denney on a specific point, there was an even exchange of point-counterpoint. United as one, the whole group worked in a singular direction, to get the best player available for the LA Kings.
Ultimately, Yannetti politely thanked the team for their feedback and confirmed, “I will take all of that into consideration.”
Even though he has final say on how the list is arranged, the Ivy Leaguer seemed to relish in the push and pull of various views on each player debated. He openly craved maximum engagement, at one point even declaring, “I don’t ask questions I don’t want answers to.”
Combine Testing and Evaluations
Matt Price, who heads the Kings Strength and Conditioning department came in as a guest speaker. He had already shared his findings with Yannetti, so this was his chance to present to the larger group.
He had a tough task ahead of him too. Price had prepared some in-depth radar plot graphs – something rather foreign, even to the most tenured scouts in the room. Essentially what he was trying to communicate was a predictive index that showed how individual players tested at the Combine compared to the average of their peer group. They were reviewing areas like structure, fitness, and strength vs. power.
We can’t give away any trade secrets but found the conversation about short legs vs. long legs, as well the impact of wingspan to be quite interesting. It was almost as if you could see the inner gears of several scouts cranking up. They would ask questions to better understand how some of this new age data was applicable to potential draft picks being considered as well as applying it to other players LA had taken at the past few Drafts.
One area that can be a challenge to project is forecasting how likely a player is to reach 200 lbs over the five years post Draft. That doesn’t stop experts like Price from taking a stab at it, as that’s what they get paid to do. However, it’s a concept compounded by the fact Price and his team typically don’t get to really work a player until they’re around 21 years old, three years after being selected at age 18. Thus, even with some very specific reasons for believing why it would be more likely for Player A to reach his goals over Player B, it’s still just a projection when it comes to things like future height and skating ability.
If you’re curious, examples from the past included reference to players like Alex Turcotte, Trevor Moore, and Tyler Toffoli. All were model citizens when it came to putting in the necessary work year-round.
Again, we can’t share too much about the in-person interviews conducted at the Scouting Combine, but there was at least one comment that stood out. LA interviewed a player who Yannetti categorized as one of the all-time best of the thousands of interviews he’s conducted. The Kings didn’t select this player at the Draft, but that interview alone did help elevate him up a bit on the final list, and created a great debate of the value of a single interview vs. the multiple interviews and interactions that take place with potential selections throughout the season at their local rinks.
Mock Drafts
Perhaps of all the items on the meeting agenda, this was the area I was most interested in. On the surface, it sounded like the most entertaining. Indeed, it was fascinating, yet it just wasn’t very meaningful. Saying it was largely just for fun likely minimizes what took place. Instead, let’s say it was more informative regarding the overall process than impactful on the actual final list of players and their tiers.
In this moment, now it was time for the analytics team to shine. If you’ve ever heard Yannetti talk on Kings Of The Podcast about the various scenarios they go through when attempting to trade up or down, this was the magic sauce.
It begins with a bunch of lists being added into the hopper, using rankings supplied by various Draft experts and NHL Central Scouting. Then, the computer does a mock draft for the teams ahead of LA. When it’s time for the Kings to select, it shows their list by tier and allows for either (a) somebody to select a player from the first available tier manually or (b) let the program auto select a player – similar to how a fantasy football draft might work.
Yannetti and his scouts run through a myriad of various scenarios. They tried both the manual vs. auto selection process, carefully comparing the end results. They also ran scenarios where they traded down (and even traded up) at certain picks, which can dramatically change the end result. Curiously, there were times where trading up may have helped them at that one singular selection, yet negatively impacted several of their following picks. It was something that Byrne made sure everybody picked up on by saying, “Overall, it came out more favorable when we didn’t move that time.”
This entire process is what gives Yannetti confidence to say things like, “We likely need to get to pick 50” when they’re set to pick at 67. The analytics team can rather accurately peg exactly where a player or an entire tier of players will be taken in advance. Conversely, it helps the team identify how far back they can trade down and still expect to get a player from their tier. This is a process that has successfully worked in the first round each of the last two years, when they traded down to take Liam Greentree in 2024 and Brzustewicz in 2025.
It’s also through this work where they start to analyze how much they might have to ‘overpay’ to move up and take a player five or ten spots higher than their original selection. How much of a tax could it cost and will it statistically be smart to make such a move? Where should they take a goalie, how early is too early?
To further aid in what could (or most likely would) happen at the actual Draft, analyst Hayden Speak shared the most common results of 1,000 mock drafts simulated by their model. Using each of their selections as of that point in time, he displayed a chart showing the likelihood players in various tiers would be available. For example, Player A had a 35% chance of being available at pick No. 24, Player B had a 15% chance, and so on.
Yannetti doesn’t operate in a world or emotion or feelings, rather he prefers formulas to help determine if he and his staff are making smart decisions. They measure nearly everything possible and then will spend post-Draft time confirming if they were correct or need to tweak their models even further. It’s an ongoing process of evaluation and evolution.
Mock Drafts wrapped up with an exercise admittedly done just for fun, and it was an activity many of the scouts admitted they look forward to each year. Yannetti divided the room in half, composing two competing teams. They performed a mock draft 50-players deep. Yannetti kept score and would ultimately determine the winner, i.e. the team with the highest cumulative value of players. He tried his best to get them to agree to something substantial as a prize. Pride was all that was needed in this battle of scouts.
Byrne headed one team, and they decided to select players one by one, meaning they’d rotate through their team with each scout having solitary authority to pick any player they wanted when it was their turn. Team B, headed by Niklas Andersson, went a different route. His squad used a consensus model, where they would literally huddle each time it was their turn to make a selection. They’d discuss who to take next as a group and then Andersson announced their pick. Yannetti didn’t have to use any of his voodoo mind tricks to coax the scouts into engaging. Everybody was into this as if their job depended on it. Meanwhile, like some sort of a carnival barker, Yannetti sat there keeping score and shouting out chirps of encouragement or mocking surprise after nearly every selection.
With Byrne and Belisle on opposing teams, Ruuttu abstained from participating in an attempt to keep the teams even. As usual, though, he provided perhaps the funniest line of all while Yannetti mulled over which group came out on top, “Both of your teams will need to play without a goalie!” None were taken with the first 50 picks.
Like a true peacemaker, Yannetti ultimately complimented both teams – saying one had the better picks early, while the other team came on strong at the end — before declaring it a tie. Everybody left with their chests puffed out just a tad bit more than an hour earlier. Each side believed they won and wore their newfound pride as a badge of honor.
Final Thoughts
Seeing Yannetti at work in this environment is part art, part genius. When he’s not serving as maestro over the group, he often goes into deep reflection during a break in the action. While many others grab a snack or use the restroom, he’ll sit there and almost talk to himself out loud, replaying both sides of a disagreement. When somebody tried to join in on his one-man band of conversation, he’d typically reply with something like, “We’re talking about micro changes now, these guys are so, so close.”
When one closely debated segment concluded with, “You convinced me” a noticeable energy reverberated through the room. A victory for the scouts. Their long days of travel, sitting in cold rinks, ranking and re-ranking kids all year long was all worth it in that one moment. They won.
To be clear, Yannetti never concedes just to give somebody a moral victory. When they win, it’s a hard-fought battle. All done in a professional way, with dignity and respect. But a victory all the same.
When Thursday evening concluded, with all their final touches competed, this year’s house was not only finished on time but decorated to perfection. Clearly defined tiers had been established, with an overall road map outlined, covering multiple scenarios for each of the seven rounds.
Less than 24 hours later — and almost as if they had planned it that way — a trade was announced midway through the first round of Friday night’s Draft proceedings. LA was moving out of pick No. 24 to No. 31. Brzustewicz was in their top tier coming into the day, and seven picks further down the board from where they began, LA got their man (and scooped up a second-round pick in the process). Just as they prepared for all along.
After another six more rounds the following day – and two more trades — the prospect pipeline had nine new players: a fresh crop of talented recruits. Mission accomplished.
There’s little time to rest, though. The next plot of barren land has already been identified and Yannetti is organizing his sub-contractors; he’s ready to begin building again as soon as possible – foundation, walls, plumbing, electrical. They have less than 12 months before it’s showtime all over again; leaving mounds of work to still be done.
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