3 LA Kings prospects who impressed on Day 1 of development camp

The highly anticipated start of development camp for the Los Angeles Kings kicked off on Monday morning (June 29) at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo, CA.

What should be an exciting and action-packed four days for development camp for the Kings this week started off with a bang from what we've seen and heard reported from the first 24 hours since Monday afternoon.

Opening day of development camp gave the Los Angeles Kings a first look at several promising young prospects

This is really the only time that Kings' fans and the media will get to see and hear about Kings' prospects, draft picks, and college free agents invited to development camp all practicing and scrimmage together on the same sheet of ice.

Each day of development camp for the Kings will feature one practice session for each position group, and most of the days will have a scrimmage to cap things off in the afternoon.

Here are three Kings' prospects who impressed the development staff on the first day of development camp on June 29.

Brendan McMorrow, W

There might be another Kings' prospect that we heard better things reported about coming out of the first day of practice and development camp for Los Angeles than forward Brendan McMorrow. The speedy winger and Denver University commit turned heads from the staff and the media present at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo yesterday.

It sounds like McMorrow was doing a nice job of consistently generating offense and showing off his vision, speed, and compete level in transition and the offensive zone in the scrimmage on Monday. Kings' development coach Jarrett Stoll even mentioned that McMorrow scored a breakaway goal in the scrimmage yesterday.

"He works. He has some pretty good hands to go with those feet. He had that nice breakaway goal. Definitely got some separation just by how powerful his strides are."

Jarrett Stoll on Brendan McMorrow

It looks like the Kings may have gotten great value out of picking McMorrow in the seventh round (196th overall) of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft. McMorrow's strong start to development camp early this week is another encouraging stride in his progression over this past few months.

Hayden Stavroff, F

From what's been reported and discussed in this past 24 hours or so, it sounds like the NCAA's reigning leading goal scorer and Dartmouth Big Green forward Hayden Stavroff has lived up to the hype early in development camp this week.

Stavroff is participating in the Kings' development camp this week with his former linemate and Dartmouth and fellow forward Hank Cleaves.

Mayors Manor reported on June 30 that both Cleaves and Stavroff made "big impressions" on the coaching staff and the media on their first day in practice and scrimmaging in development camp this week.

This report mentioned that the two Dartmouth standouts are primed to generate "buzz" in development camp in the coming days this week. Stoll said that both Stavroff and Cleaves were impressive on their first day at development camp on Monday.

"I noticed him right away in the morning. He’s very, very into it. He wants to learn, get involved. You can tell he’s a character. I love working with him, I love being around him. And then during the game, he gets chances. He works. He has a great shot. Him and Cleaves, they go good together. You can see why they play together so well and had a good season. He’s not the biggest guy, but hey, he plays big. "

Stoll on Stavroff and Cleaves

Liam Lefebvre, C

All 11 Kings' draft picks from the 2026 draft class this past weekend debuted in development camp early this week in practice and the scrimmage yesterday. Among the highlighting new draft picks for the Kings that the fans, media, and development staff got their first look at yesterday in development camp were winger Elton Hermansson, center Liam Lefebvre, and defenseman Adam Goljer.

On the first day of practice in development camp this week, Lefebvre reportedly scored a nice goal to beat Kings' top goalie prospect Carter George on a shot that went top-shelf. Lefebvre showed off his skating and offensive skills with the forward group in practice yesterday morning and in the scrimmage yesterday afternoon.

Stoll also heaped plenty of praise on Lefebvre for what he showed the development staff and the media on the first day of practice and the scrimmage yesterday.

"I like him a lot, you can tell his skill level right away. Great shot, really good release. You can see why he has the stats that he has in junior hockey. He’s been a really good kid, too. We met him at the Draft right away."

Stoll on Liam Lefebvre

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow