Kings invite all 11 2026 draft picks to development camp
All 11 Kings draft picks reached camp, led by Elton Hermansson's 11 goals in Sweden and Henry Brzustewicz's return to the blue-line mix.
Los Angeles brought all 11 of its 2026 draft picks to development camp, giving the Ontario Reign pipeline its first real depth-chart read before the season moves toward training camp. Elton Hermansson, Henry Brzustewicz, Jared Woolley, Carter George and Hampton Slukynsky were the names that looked closest to pushing toward meaningful AHL minutes in 2026-27, while Jimmy Lombardi and Vojtěch Čihař stayed in the group as returnees with a chance to keep climbing.
The camp ran at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo with 39 players, including 21 forwards, 14 defensemen and four goaltenders, one more skater than last summer’s 38-man camp. Kings player development staff Mike Donnelly, Sean O'Donnell, Jarret Stoll, Matt Greene, Jeremy Clark, Bill Ranford and Adam Brown led the on-ice work, joined by guest coaches Tyler Naugler of Saint Mary’s University, Brad Fast of Michigan State University and Jason Tapp of Dartmouth College. The four-day format featured daily forward and defense sessions and scrimmage blocks on June 29, June 30 and July 2, and the practices were free and open to the public.
Hermansson, the 19th overall pick, arrived with the most obvious offensive resume. He spent most of the 2025-26 season with MoDo Hockey in HockeyAllsvenskan, where he scored 11 goals and 21 points in 38 games, then added nine points in 13 games with MoDo Hockey U20. He also tied for the U-18 World Championship scoring lead with 12 points as Sweden won gold, and he was named the tournament’s Best Forward and to the All-Tournament Team. Los Angeles traded down from No. 17 to No. 19 in the first round and picked up an extra third-round selection before taking him, and the MoDo connection matters too, because the Kings have already pointed to Adrian Kempe’s path through the same club and Hermansson’s father, Lennart, coaching Kempe in the MoDo system.
The rest of the draft class joined him at camp: Liam Lefebvre, Adam Goljer, Blake Zielinski, Yegor Rybkin, Thomas Vandenberg, Vertti Svensk, Giorgos Pantelas, Alex Kostov, Tobias Krestan and Lucas Ambrosio. Brzustewicz, the Kings’ 31st overall pick in 2025, remained the most advanced defense prospect in the group, and Woolley stayed in the same blue-line conversation after another development-camp invite. George and Slukynsky gave Los Angeles a clear look at the goaltending depth behind the NHL roster, while the 15 returnees from previous camps showed the organization already has a short list of prospects it wants pressing toward Ontario.
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