Frozen Royalty: LA Kings Work Young Prospects Hard At 2010 Development Camp
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.”
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