The summer for the Los Angeles Kings has been one of the slowest in history. In this episode we talk about the signing of Alexei Ponikarovsky and the many players that have worn the 27 in the past. We also discuss the team moving into next season, look at some crazy Kings schwag on the market and say “See Ya” to a few former players.

Gann Matsuda of Frozen Royalty is slowly dolling out the interviews he did at this summer’s prospect camp. Here are his quotes from Oscar Moller who’s had several cracks at the NHL roster. Enjoy!

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Two seasons ago, forward prospect Oscar Moller made the Los Angeles Kings’ roster out of training camp and after putting in some effective minutes where he showed a good scoring touch, it appeared that he could be on his way to solidifying a spot at the National Hockey League level.

Fast forward to 2010 and Moller now finds himself just trying to make the Kings roster.

The 5-10, 186-pound native of Stockholm, Sweden started the 2009-09 season with the Kings and showed some ability to finish right from the start, including his first multi-goal game in the NHL against Calgary on November 1, 2008.

Moller, who played in forty NHL games that season, also captained Sweden’s team in the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championships, but suffered a fractured clavicle during the tournament, forcing him out of the Kings’ lineup upon his return to the NHL.

For all intents and purposes, that injury finished Moller’s season.

Last Fall, Moller, 21, was assigned to the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League, the Kings’ primary minor league affiliate, to start the 2009-10 season, a demotion of sorts. He played in 43 regular season games with the Monarchs, scoring 19 goals and adding 28 assists for 47 points with 26 penalty minutes.

Moller also scored two goals and tallied five assists for seven points in 16 AHL playoff games as the Monarchs advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.

“The first year, when I made the [Kings], the team wasn’t as good as it was this year,” said Moller, who was selected by the Kings in the second round (52nd overall) of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. “Then I got hurt at Christmas my first year and I didn’t really make the lineup after I came back from injury. The year after, I didn’t make the team out of training camp.”

“It was tough,” added Moller. “It sucks to get sent down after playing up pretty much all year. But that’s the business, I guess.”

Read the rest on Frozen Royalty.

Gann Matsuda of Frozen Royalty had an opportunity to sit down with new Kings assistant coach John Stevens at Development Camp this summer. Here’s his interview.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — While fans of the Los Angeles Kings are up in arms over their team’s inability to improve themselves to this point in the 2010 off-season, venting their frustrations in no uncertain terms on virtually every Kings-related forum on the World Wide Web, life does indeed go on.

With the departure of assistant coach Mark Hardy, who resigned on June 11 (see LA Kings Assistant Coach Mark Hardy Resigns), the Kings strengthened their reputation as “Flyers West” when they hired John Stevens as an assistant coach on June 24, 2010 (see Los Angeles Kings Name John Stevens As Assistant Coach).

Stevens, 44, earned a 120-109-34 record as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, a position he accepted on October 22, 2006, after the Flyers got off to a 1-6-1 start that season.

The native of Campbellton, New Brunswick began that season as an assistant coach and wound up leading the Flyers to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2007-08, before being fired on December 5, 2009, after the team was shutout in two consecutive games.

Coming from the Flyers, Stevens was familiar to Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi and Vice President/Assistant General Manager Ron Hextall, who both worked for the Flyers before joining the Kings.

Stevens should be able to mesh well with Kings head coach Terry Murray, who was a Flyers assistant coach under Stevens.

“Terry and I worked together for a couple of years,” said Stevens. “When you work with another coach for that length of time, you’re pretty comfortable with the way things are run.”

“It’s a great organization,” added Stevens. “Development Camp has been pretty neat for me to be involved with, to see how things are run. It’s only been a few days, but it’s been great.”

Although Stevens has only had a couple of months to get his feet wet with the Kings, so far, so good.

Read the rest on Frozen Royalty.

The auditions continue for the 2010-2011 Los Angeles Kings Ice Crew and the good folks over at Kings Vision have another video up. This important series of try-outs determine which hot bodies women get to pose for the bestselling LA Kings Ice Crew calendar. Enjoy the vid!

It’s that time of year again. It’s the dead of summer and the Los Angeles Kings are looking for hot nice girls to be a part of their Ice Crew. Enjoy the vid!

Gann Matsuda of Frozen Royalty had a chance to sit down with former #4 overall pick Thomas Hickey to talk about his development. Definitely worth a read on a guy who really needs to make the team this year.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — The 2009-10 season could not have gone much worse for Los Angeles Kings defenseman prospect Thomas Hickey.

After completing his career in Canadian junior hockey in 2008-09 with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League, turning in his best season in the WHL with 16 goals and 35 assists for 51 points in 57 games, the 5-10, 182-pound native of Calgary, Alberta graduated to the American Hockey League.

But once Hickey donned the sweater of the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL [the Kings’ primary minor league affiliate] this past season, his hockey career was put mostly on hold due to injury—a shoulder injury suffered in late November, 2009 that required surgery, keeping him off the ice until April 1, 2010, just four games before the Monarchs began their run in the AHL playoffs.

“I got into four [games] before the regular season was over,” said Hickey.

But Hickey’s bad luck was not yet over, as he wound up on the shelf once again just before the playoffs began.

“It was the day before the playoffs [began],” Hickey lamented. “It was sort of a freak high ankle sprain. It’s one of those aggravating things.”

Hickey would miss the first two rounds of the playoffs before returning to the lineup for the Eastern Conference Finals.

“It’s tough going down just before the playoffs, but I was thankful to get healthy just before we were finished in the last round when I got to play,” he said.

To say that Hickey’s 2009-10 season was somewhat of a lost season would be an understatement.

“It’s been really tough,” said Hickey. “It’s been frustrating more than anything. You’re anxious and you start to play good and then something happens.”

“It’s just been a series of [injuries] over the last two years,” added Hickey, who also suffered an ankle injury that required surgery after the 2008-09 season.

To be sure, the time lost this past season has delayed Hickey’s development. But the season was not a total loss.

Read the rest on Frozen Royalty.

Shot over 15 days, this documentary/short film captures the up and down roller coaster ride of the Ilya Kovalchuk saga with the Los Angeles Kings.

Gann Matsuda went over to the Toyota Sports Center to see some of the Kings top prospects (and new draftees) participate in the 2010 Development Camp. Check out Gann’s impressions.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — While many who follow the Los Angeles Kings were glued to the World Wide Web and Twitter to follow the news about what unrestricted free agents were going where, most notably, superstar left wing Ilya Kovalchuk (who is still unsigned as of this writing), the Kings were busy conducting their annual Development Camp for their young prospects, which began on June 28 and ran through July 3.

LA Kings 2010 first round pick Derek Forbort participated in the team’s
2010 Development Camp.
Photo: Harry How/Getty Images
Three days of the six-day camp were open to the public and the media, comprised of a scrimmage game sandwiched between two practice sessions, featuring prospects ranging from those who have been in the system for awhile to their most recent draft picks.

“I’ve been impressed with some of these players, and, certainly, everybody as far as the work ethic,” said head coach Terry Murray. “It’s been outstanding with the conditioning level and what they’ve been through over the past several days, on and off the ice.”

“A lot of focus, a lot of digging in, hungry and they want to learn,” added Murray. “Attitude. It’s really coming along well. As a group, it’s been tremendous.”

Murray also took note of his team’s five 2010 draft picks, who were all present at the camp.

“All the draft picks seem to be really good kids,” he said. “They’re good people with good character.”

For the 2010 draft picks, who were selected by the Kings just days before during the 2010 National Hockey League Entry Draft on June 25-26, 2010 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the camp was the culmination of a whirlwind couple of weeks that opened their eyes to what lies ahead.

“The draft picks who came—they had no idea what was going to happen,” Murray noted. “Surprise! You’re coming to a development camp and we’re going to do a lot of hard off-ice work, we’re going to have some games going on. They’ve really stepped in and have done an excellent job.”

“The tempo was great,” defenseman prospect Derek Forbort said about the scrimmages. “The guys out there are unreal hockey players. I was just doing my best to keep up.”

“[The camp has] been a great experience so far,” added Forbort, a 6-5, 198-pound defenseman out of the United States Under-18 National Team Development Program. “I’m starting to get the hands back after not skating for awhile. I’m starting to get used to how they do things. It’s been good.”

Read the rest on Frozen Royalty.