Los Angeles Kings Late Season Prospect Rankings Update

The King's announced several entry level signings recently, how do these players stack up among other Kings prospects in NHLe?

What is NHLe?

Through the efforts of hockey analytics big-shots Gabe Desjardins & Rob Vollman (among others) we are able to approximate a prospect's NHL equivalent point totals. Each league has different equivalency numbers which you can adjust according to a players age. Obviously, NHLe has it's limitations, but it is a useful way to do a quick & dirty analysis. It is basically just a way to put all prospects spread out in various leagues on the same playing field so that you can compare them against one another. If you have any questions about the process, fire away in the comments.

• The Kings recently announced the signing of Michael Mersch and Nic Dowd to entry level contracts. Dowd is the 6^th and Mersch is 8^th among Kings prospects in NHL equivalency ratings. Dowd has been named as a finalist for the Hobey Baker award. It’s unlikely that Dowd will win as Johnny Gadreau has it all but locked up. Still it’s a big accomplishment for Dowd, who was originally a 7^th round pick, to even benominated. SBN's College Hockey site even has him ranked as the 15^th best prospect in college hockey.



Here is Dowd scoring a big OT winner against Notre Dame in the NCAA West Regional semifinals last weekend (1:00 minute mark):





• Nikolay Prokhorkin’s season in the KHL recently came to an end as CSKA Moscow was swept by SKA Saint Petersburg in the playoffs. Prokorkin, at just 20 years old, had a breakout year. Coming into thisseason, he had just 5 points in 35 KHL games. This year he recorded 37 in 52. He also moved from wing to center and centered the team’s top line and lead the team in goals.



Here is Prokorkin being awesome:





• Jordan Weal is finishing strong for the Monarchs. Since our last update, he has 13 points in 9 games. With Weal, Prokhorkin, Dowd and along with Linden Vey and Jonny Brodzinski, the Kings system is very deep down the middle.


• The Kings also signed Patrik Bartosak to an entry level contract recently. Bartosak was a 5 ^th round pick last year and had a very strong year on a weak Red Deer Rebels team in the WHL. In 65 games this season, he had a 33-26-5 record with a .924 save percentage and was named team MVP.