Pavel Malyugin With their sixth-round pick in the 2022 NHL entry draft, the LA Kings selected defender Jack Sparkes with pick number 180.
Although he wasn’t projected to even be drafted by any big scouting names, Sparkes was still selected in the 6th round by Los Angeles and it was likely because of his size and physicality.
Rob Blake mentioned how he wanted the Kings to get tougher, and by drafting Jack Sparkes, the Kings did that. Playing hockey out of high school this year with St. Michael’s Buzzers, Sparkes tallied 5 goals and 12 points in 37 games. He notably had 72 penalties in minutes.
Sparkes weighs in at 234 pounds and stands at 6’8. Sparkes was ranked the tallest and heaviest prospect at the combine back in June. The Kings wanted to find a heavyweight player that opponents are scared of, and it looks like they found their guy.
Although scoring at a poor league was an issue for Sparkes, he had a few good looks here and there.
Skating is surprisingly one of his best aspects. Big players are usually known as slow and bad skaters, which doesn’t seem to be the case with Jack Sparkes whatsoever. For a 6’8 player, Jack Sparkes skates really smoothly. He isn’t fast but he’s got a fair pace. Like most heavyweight players, he doesn’t have that ability to be an explosive skater. He can’t jumpstart into a stride and zoom past everyone like smaller players can. His starts do need work because that’s how he gets beaten out in the defensive zone a lot.
Even though he may come off like a guy who stays at home to defend his house, Sparks loves to join the rush and he’s pretty good at it too. Again it’s impressive because he’s so big but he lowers himself into this position that makes him look so active and so quick which makes him look so much better when he joins the rush. He may attempt to try to do too much sometimes and cause turnovers, but he’s got that energy that shows that he wants to be involved and he wants to contribute.
Playing in the OJHL makes things hard because the OJHL isn’t a good league in the slightest. Sparkes is attending Michigan State University in the NCAA in the 2023-24 season, so that’s likely when we will see him against worthy competition. It’s really hard to judge Sparkes because we’re looking at him playing against players that will likely never get drafted.
Sparkes is a defensive, physical player. The ideal player for any old time hockey fan who just loves physical hockey. Sparkes uses his size for whatever he wants. When a player is rushing against the wall, he would rather run that player over rather than draw back and play the play safely. He loves to use his size when defending his net. You’ll never see him let another player get close to his goalie. Sparkes’ first and only instinct is to shove the guy out of the way and take full control of the net.
Although the physicality and his booming hits are such a rush to watch, there’s quite a massive issue with all this: his timing.
Too often, Sparkes acts too late on a hit, misses the hit altogether, and causes an odd-man rush the other way. He tried to do way too much physically and it ended up costing him greatly. It goes for his poke checks too. If he doesn’t go for the hit (which feels rare), he’ll go to play stick on stick. Again, the timing is an issue.
He’ll attempt to poke check the puck away or push the puck off the player and once he acts upon it, it’s too late. He gets beaten out way too easily and he gets outplayed so easily. As fun as he is to watch when he’s hitting and running over players like a truck, he’s a defenseman who cannot catch up and hurts his team.
There’s no reason to not believe that the Kings drafted him purely because of his physicality. Aside from him being an average skater and liking to play in transition offensively, Sparkes has far too many red flags and it really makes you wonder if the pick is risky.
Let’s be real, the pick is risky. They took a player in a lower-level league who’s had some issues previously just because of his physicality. He is committed to Michigan State, and it’s going to be a huge question mark for how he plays once he gets there, but if all goes right, he could possibly be a decent bottom-line defender one day.
The Kings have been looking for a physical, hard-hitting, scary player, and Jack Sparkes was the guy they were looking for. Maybe it is reasonable to say that the Kings are stacked up on prospects and that the pick they made was based on need, but Sparkes is really up in the air.
If he can figure out his timing, work on his starts and explosiveness, and drive ply far more comfortably and efficiently, then the Kings may get a pretty decent player with their 180th overall pick.