Week 24 of the LA Kings Prospect Tracker marks playoff season. The CHL regular season is officially in the books, the NCAA Tournament kicks off this week, and Rimpinen is already battling in a Liiga first-round series. The headliner? Kristian Epperson, who scored the championship-winning goal in double overtime to clinch the NCHC title for Denver — entering as the 13th forward and leaving as the hero. This week also brings final reports on Ryan Conmy, Will Sharpe, and Jack Sparkes, whose seasons have come to a close.
Housekeeping note: Once a prospect’s season has concluded and their final report has been filed, they will no longer be featured in the weekly Prospect Tracker. Players no longer featured: Caeden Herrington (Vermont).
The following reports cover games played through the end of day Monday, March 23rd.
Ontario Hockey League (OHL)
Henry Brzustewicz, London Knights, RH Defenseman (31st overall in 2025)
2025-26 Stats: 19 goals, 35 assists, minus-15, 57 PIM in 59 games played
Brzustewicz wraps up the regular season with a first-round playoff date against Carter George and the Soo Greyhounds — a King-on-King matchup that will be must-watch TV for LA fans. He closed out the year with a goal, an assist, a plus-one rating, and eight shots on goal across London’s final three games as the Knights went 2-1-0. LA’s 2025 first-round pick finished seventh among OHL defensemen in points (54) and tied for third in goals (19). An extremely successful regular season by any measure.
Jan Chovan, Sudbury Wolves, Center/Right Wing (184th overall in 2025)
2025-26 Stats: 28 goals, 27 assists, minus-26, 14 PIM in 60 games played
Chovan’s season has been a story of growth. Sudbury opened the year as one of the worst teams in the OHL and he began on the wing, but when moved to center his play — and the team’s — accelerated. He led the team in goals, points, power play goals, and power play points, and finished with a 50% win rate in the faceoff dot. Not only did he lead his team on the powerplay, he tied for third in the OHL in goals with a man advantage. The Wolves clawed their way into the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, and Chovan was the engine behind that turnaround. Now they’ll face a daunting opponent: top-ranked Brantford in the first round. Given the Bulldogs have nearly double Sudbury’s point total, it will be an uphill climb for the Wolves but — as Kings fans know all too well — an eighth seed upset is never totally out of the question.
Carter George, Soo Greyhounds, Goalie (57th overall in 2024)
2025-26 Stats: 2.73 GAA, .907 SV%, 4 SO, 1 goal, 2 assists, 25 wins in 46 games played
George closed out the regular season 1-2-0 in his final three starts, finishing 11th in both GAA and save percentage across the full season. Using only his numbers with the Soo, he would rank tied for seventh in save percentage and fifth in GAA. The Soo had a chance to clinch home ice advantage for the playoffs but dropped their final game of the season, sliding from fourth to fifth and handing London home-ice advantage for their first-round matchup. It’s a team George knows well — perhaps too well. He is 1-12-5 against the Knights in his career, with his lone win coming on the night he scored his famous goalie goal earlier this season. He’ll need to rewrite that history starting Friday, if he wants to close out his OHL career with a Memorial Cup win.
Jimmy Lombardi, Flint Firebirds, Center (125th overall in 2025)
2025-26 Stats: 36 goals, 36 assists, plus-29, 69 PIM in 65 games played
Lombardi capped off his regular season with three points in three games as Flint went 1-2-0, including a 4-3 loss to Owen Sound — who they will now face in the first round. The fourth-round pick beat his point total from last season by nearly 30 points, finishing 10th in the OHL in goals and 20th in assists. The Firebirds have been one of the best stories in the league this season, climbing from 13th overall last year to sixth, and breaking franchise records along the way. Now they’ll see if that story has another chapter in the postseason.
Jared Woolley, Kitchener Rangers, LH Defenseman (164th overall in 2024)
2025-26 Stats: 12 goals, 24 assists, plus-32, 74 PIM in 66 games played
Woolley’s offensive numbers dipped slightly after the trade — sliding from 20th to 22nd in points among OHL defensemen — but the context tells a different story. Kitchener jumped from seventh to second in the OHL standings since acquiring him, and his increased defensive responsibilities were a big reason why. The Rangers head into the playoffs as the top seed in the West, and they’ll open against Saginaw — a team Woolley has faced only in his time with Kitchener. The result? A 7-4 victory. Hopefully he and the Rangers can bring that same offensive output over a seven-game series.
Western Hockey League (WHL)
Vojtech Cihar, Kelowna Rockets, Forward (59th overall in 2025)
2025-26 WHL Stats: 12 goals, 19 assists, plus-18, 14 PIM in 31 games played
Cihar had a goal and an assist as Kelowna dropped both games of a back-to-back against Penticton to close the regular season — a modest finish after scoring his first WHL hat trick last week. The Czech forward wrapped up his first season in North America with exactly a point-per-game pace, finishing with 31 points in 31 games. The Rockets now enter the playoffs as the fourth seed with home ice advantage against Kamloops — a team they have beaten four straight times. Can they make it five, or even eight? With Cihar on the ice, the odds are in their favor.
Will Sharpe, Vancouver Giants, LH Defenseman (216th overall in 2025)
2025-26 Stats: 5 goals, 23 assists, minus-14, 44 PIM in 57 games played
With Vancouver failing to secure a playoff spot, Sharpe’s season has come to a close. It could be argued he got the short end of the stick, watching his former team Kelowna advance to the postseason without him. But the trade had minimal impact on his level of compete and he maintained a roughly half-point-per-game pace throughout the season. The numbers around him tell a clear story — a plus-1 in 31 games with Kelowna compared to a minus-15 in 36 with Vancouver. That’s a reflection of the team around him rather than his own play. For a seventh-round pick in 2025, Sharpe has shown plenty of promise and resilience, and that bodes well for his future.
COLLEGE HOCKEY (NCAA)
Ryan Conmy, Boston College, Right Wing (182nd overall in 2023)
2025-26 Stats: 9 goals, 18 assists, minus-1, 10 PIM in 35 games played
Conmy’s season has concluded, and in heartbreaking fashion. After making it past Maine in the Hockey East quarterfinals, Boston College lost in the semis to UConn in overtime. The only solace is that LA’s 2023 sixth-round pick is the reason they were in overtime in the first place, having scored the tying goal in style. The play kicked off with Conmy firing from the point, where his teammate picked up the rebound and threw it to the net. UConn then had a failed clearing attempt that Conmy hammered home from the high slot. Despite the unfortunate end result, he had a very solid season, and coming up clutch when the lights are brightest may be his defining characteristic.
RYAN CONMY CLAPPER
SENDS THE SEMIFINAL GAME TO OT!!! #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/fIEyhwU55x
— Alexander Legget (@LeggetNHL) March 21, 2026
Kristian Epperson, Univ. of Denver, Left Wing (88th overall in 2025)
2025-26 Stats: 11 goals, 7 assists, plus-5, 14 PIM in 36 games played
Epperson is a household name among college hockey fans this week, and for good reason. After missing two weeks and entering the championship game as the 13th forward in the lineup, he scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to clinch the NCHC championship for Denver. The play developed below the goal line, with Epperson reading it perfectly — slipping behind three defenders to get wide open in the slot, and burying the pass to walk off the game. Denver now heads to the NCAA Tournament, facing eighth-ranked Cornell on Friday. Win that, and it could set up a rematch against Hampton Slukynsky and Western Michigan in the next round.
Brendan McMorrow, Univ. of Denver, Left Wing (196th overall in 2025)
2025-26 Stats: 2 goals, 6 assists, plus-7, 6 PIM in 23 games played
McMorrow picked up an assist in Denver’s NCHC championship win over Minnesota Duluth, delivering the breakout feed on a rush chance that led to the second goal. He logged 17 minutes and didn’t record a shot attempt, but an assist in a championship game is nothing to sneeze at — especially for someone who missed two months with a broken finger and is still rounding back into form.
James Reeder, Univ. of Denver, Right Wing (198th overall in 2024)
2025-26 Stats: 10 goals, 21 assists, plus-17, 4 PIM in 39 games played
Reeder was the lone Kings prospect not to record a point in the NCHC championship, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t contribute. In a game that went to double overtime, he played the most minutes of any Denver forward coming just eight seconds shy of 25 minutes in ice time. With Denver entering the NCAA Tournament, Reeder still has a shot to get on the scoreboard when it matters most — on the path to a national championship.
Hampton Slukynsky, Western Michigan Univ., Goalie (118th overall in 2023)
2025-26 Stats: 2.26 GAA, .916 SV%, 4 SO, 2 assists, 26 wins in 37 games played
After falling to Denver in the NCHC semifinals, Slukynsky had a week of rest before the NCAA Tournament gets underway. Western Michigan enters as the fourth-ranked team in the country and the top seed in their region, opening against 14th-ranked Minnesota State on Friday. Should the Broncos advance, a rematch with Denver could be waiting in the next round, and with it, a chance for Slukynsky to flip the script on the Kings prospects who knocked him out of the conference tournament.
Jack Sparkes, Clarkson Univ., RH Defenseman (180th overall in 2022)
2025-26 Stats: 0 goals, 2 assists, minus-1, 42 PIM in 37 games played
Sparkes and Clarkson couldn’t keep the magic going, falling 4-0 to Dartmouth in the ECAC semifinals to close out the season. The 6-foot-8 shutdown defenseman averaged just under 10 minutes of ice time on the year and finished with two assists — modest numbers, but a near-even plus/minus reflects a player who understood his role and executed it. It’s a promising foundation for a player still developing his game at the college level.
EUROPEAN LEAGUES
Petteri Rimpinen, Liiga-Kiekko-Espoo, Goalie (152nd overall in 2025)
2025-26 Stats: 2.30 GAA, .911 SV%, 5 SO, 14 wins in 38 games played
Rimpinen started all three of Kiekko-Espoo’s playoff games this week, posting a 1-0-2 record with a 2.36 GAA and .909 save percentage. The club dropped the first two games to Assat in overtime before bouncing back with a 5-2 win Monday, leaving them down two games to one in the best-of-five series. The series is very much alive, and Rimpinen has shown all season he’s capable of stealing games when Kiekko-Espoo needs him most.
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Lead photo of Epperson by Michael Ciaglo/Clarkson Creative Photography
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