While last Sunday may have brought the final Kings-related hockey game in SoCal this season (when the Reign were eliminated from the AHL playoffs), there is still one LA prospect fighting for a championship.
Kaleb Lawrence — who is either 6-foot-6 or 7, depending who you want to believe — has a shot at winning the 2024 Memorial Cup. After starting his 2023-24 campaign with the Ottawa 67’s, he was traded to London just before the OHL Trade Deadline in January. The Hunter Bros. serve as GM and coach over one of junior hockey’s best franchises and they felt Lawrence could be a nice addition for their championship aspirations. While their hunch ended up proving correct, as the Knights won the OHL title, Lawrence has missed quite a bit of time during their current postseason run due to two separate five-game suspensions.
That’s all behind him now… hopefully.
When the OHL, WHL, and QMJHL champions meet up in Saginaw for this year’s Memorial Cup, Lawrence is hoping to pick up where he left off.
Although he’s known for his size and toughness, the towering NHL prospect has also been filling the net this season. He had 20 goals across 58 regular season games and has already added another five goals in eight playoff appearances.
Originally selected in the seventh round of the 2022 NHL Draft, Lawrence is ready to suit up again when this year’s big junior hockey event kicks off tomorrow. Technically, London doesn’t play their first game until Saturday, though. They’ll also play preliminary games on Monday and Wednesday, before the championship games take place later next week. All games can be watched live on NHL Network.
In addition to playing in the Memorial Cup, Lawrence has signed an Entry Level Contract with the Kings. As we noted a few weeks ago, the expectation was his deal would be signed by the May 31 deadline.
Looking ahead, he is expected to join AHL Ontario next season. Scouts say when he plays with an edge he is hard to contain. Like many young players, his biggest challenge has just been playing that way consistently.
Not only is he the latest skyscraper to be added to LA’s prospect pool, he’s proving to be more than just a one-dimensional physical player. Even further, he’s the second of LA’s recent seventh round draft picks to have signed an Entry Level Contract this week, joining Aatu Jamsen.
That makes the team’s last player picked in each of the last six years as legit prospects, not just late round flyers taken on random guys: Jacob Ingham (RD6, 2018) is proving to be a solid goaltender, Andre Lee (RD7, 2018) will challenge for an NHL spot in training camp, Jamsen (RD7, 2020) just signed, Kirill Kirsanov (RD3, 2021) likely coming to Dev Camp, Lawrence (RD7, 2022), and Ryan Conmy (RD6, 2023) is coming off a season where he was one of the top freshmen in all of college hockey.
According to some OHL scouts, Lawrence has gone through a bit of a transition since late 2022. After the Kings drafted him that summer, he started the season out by making a point of being very physical and hitting hard, even fighting quite a bit. Since then, his game has started to become something else, leaving some curious to see how he develops further at the pro level.
From the quirky facts file, he was teammates with former Kings prospect Aidan Dudas early in his junior career. Currently, he’s teammates with Landon Sim, son of former Kings forward Jon Sim. Lawrence also played with Brandt Clarke one of Canada’s U17 teams.
Perhaps the most intriguing nugget on Lawrence was this one:
The Kings wanted Lawrence. Not only did they make sure they secured his rights at the Draft, they now have him under contract for the next three years.
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