Pavel Malyugin The LA Kings selected centerman Kenny Connors with the 103rd pick in the 4th round in the 2022 NHL entry draft.
An over ager (2003 born, eligible for the 2021 NHL entry draft), Kenny Connors played with the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the USHL this past season and recorded 56 points in 61 games played.
It’s no secret that this pick was completely off the board. Not only did Kenny Connors go under a point per game in the USHL as a 19-year-old, but he went completely unranked by NHL central scouting. So it seems as if the LA Kings saw something in the Glen Mills, Pennsylvania native that nobody saw.
So who is Kenny Connors, a player who wasn’t on anyone’s radar? Was this pick a reach? What made Connors stand out for the LA Kings’ scouting system? Today, we’ll take a look at one of the Kings’ newest prospects.
One of the things I’ve noticed with watching Kenny Connors is how talented he is defensively. He’s earned the trust of all of his coaches in that area of need and it may be a big factor into why the Kings chose him. Kenny has been given the role as the first-line penalty killer on Dubuque this season and he’s obviously had his good moments, and some tough ones too.
While he does lack some aspects on the back end (which will be mentioned in a bit), there are too many positive things he does that are hard to skip over. For example his elite stick work. You’ll notice Kenny Connors actively moving around his stick using it as a weapon of interception.
No matter if it’s on the penalty kill, five on five defensively and offensively, and even on the powerplay, Kenny’s best aspect— and by far— is how much he loves to steal pucks using his stick.
I think a lot of that steal success using interceptions with the stick is a big thanks to his defensive read that he has in opponents. He hiccups every so often but for the most part, he’s always looking around and can even cover two guys at once.
It’s a huge add to Dubuque’s penalty kill and that’s because while there can be 3 guys that are playing low, Connors has mastered how to cover everyone open and somehow take on two attackers with once.
When watching him, I’ve noticed how often opponents turn over the puck when Connors is around. To be able to extend that stick and take away passing and shooting lanes is a massive plus to decision making in hockey, and having someone that can read and break up plays is key. Connors has been doing that in the USHL.
He may be a little shy to block shots and for a second-year USHL player that’s a tad bit worrisome. Him not wanting to take a shot to the shins has cost him a goal against once or twice. It seems like he knows that his defensive stick and his stick checking is top tier and that’s why he never goes for the blocks and tries to poke away at the puck instead.
Personally, that’s not something players should be doing. Rounded defensive players need to learn how to switch gears quickly and go from smart defensive hockey to down and dirty defensive hockey with the snap of a finger.
It would be nice to see him get far more involved when he’s blocking shots. It would also be nicer to see him get more involved in corners and in heavy-pressure situations. It’s been noticeable that Connors will stick to his style of hockey where he taps away and lightly shoved the opponent. This isn’t good.
As a player with that much defensive responsibility, Connors’ job should be to give it his all in even the most difficult situations and at points, he doesn’t seem nearly as involved as his teammates in the defensive zone. More aggressiveness is needed.
I wouldn’t really agree it, but many people consider winning faceoffs as a defensive skill. So let’s talk about how Kenny Connors, a centerman, responds and reacts in faceoff situations.
I’ll be dead honest here: he’s not a good player at the dot. There was a game I watched where it looked like he won maybe 5% of his faceoffs. I don’t know why it feels so off but he never wins them. Whether it’s in the offensive, neutral, or defensive zone, he can’t seem to win faceoffs and that worries me when I watch him play center.
What also worries me when he plays Center is that he kind of floats around not knowing what to do in the offensive zone. He can’t seem to get into position and he doesn’t really understand where to go. He likes to park himself in front of the net which lets him screen goalies, but even then, it feels like he doesn’t know what he’s really doing.
He’s also been caught joining zone entries very last because he almost has no clue what to do. It’s almost like Connors relies on his teammates to quickly set up on the transition and then he’ll come in and find open space. That could be a coaches request, but even if it is, I don’t like how he tags along waiting for something to happen.
Getting sucked in low down in the defensive zone makes him seem like a third defenseman. This could be a good thing at times, but it can also make him look like he’s shooting himself in the foot.
Kenny likes to fall down low when the puck goes deep and there’s a bit of pressure. He jumps around on the ice and attempts to dig the puck out or cover the man or whatever he needs to do. A lot of times people want to see two-way forwards go deeper in the zone and help, but to me that makes it feel that there’s an open opponent in front of the net.
It’s just another reason as to why Connors may not be a fit down the middle. As good as he is defensively, he doesn’t seem to really process what to do at some points. A brain fart, basically.
When the puck is at in the middle of the defensive zone and the Fighting Saints are looking to break out with space and time, Connors sits at the top of the blue line by the wall waiting for a pass. That’s something that wingers, and only wingers do.
This lack of faceoff skill and confusion in the offensive zone makes me think that maybe he isn’t a natural centerman. Could Kenny Connors excel far more on the wing rather than the middle? I don’t think we should rule it out.
The powerplay is a different conversation, though. Connors is a much better penalty killer than anyone on his team and he’s done all of that playing center. It doesn’t really make sense to move him to the wing on the PK because he’s done so well.
Connors is a super smooth skater. When he’s turning on the jets and rushing from end to end, he’s using the crossover technique to gain more and more speed. Those crossovers that help him skate so quickly and so smoothly is his engine that starts him up.
An issue that Connors actively displays is his lack of explosiveness off the first step. Kenny can’t seem to gain any speed off of a stop-and-go. He misses that aspect of that quick start that fires him past opponents. It won’t transition well into the NHL.
He gets all of his speed from those crossovers which almost make up for those poor starts. If he could figure out how to gain speed on crossovers while getting an explosive start, it’ll make him into a heck of a skater. It’s likely he could improve on that with a skating coach when he goes to Umass this year, but we have to remember that skating techniques are one of the hardest things to teach hockey players.
Those crossovers he does make his edges look much better than anyone else’s. Being able to quickly move his feet while slicing through the ice makes me wonder if it’s helped him out in tight spaces. Those quick crossovers let him get out of difficulty and it has naturally seeped into his edgework.
Those crossovers show up a lot when he jumps the gun to get out of his zone. This can be a good thing, and a bad thing. Connors wants to get out of the zone first and he’ll turn around and skate way out of sight in hopes of getting a pass. It can be a good thing when that actually works out, but it’s had bad looks when he leaves the zone and the puck gets turned over. Because once it’s turned over, that’s one less defender for his team.
Finally one last tidbit for his skating here. It’s hard to depict if it’s his strength or if it’s his speed when using the crossover method, but Kenny Connors knows how to protect the puck really well in rushes. There are a few ways of puck protection, but Connors does the very basic “skate and protect”.
He keeps moving his legs and holds the puck with one hand while the other holds the attacker away. Like any prospect at a young age he has consistency issues with that, but it’s a skill that could transition well into the pro level.
As said previously, Connors is used to standing in front of the net in the offensive zone. He’ll occasionally try to tip in pucks off a shot or he can float higher in the zone and wait for a pass, but that’s usually where he sits and almost acts as a decoy.
Something that he’s learned how to do really well is cycle the puck down low. Because he sits in front of the net, he’s available to be the first one to retrieve the puck in behind the net. Not only is he always quick to do that, but he’s so much fun to watch when he cycles it around.
He’s always in position and he constantly fakes out defensemen by that cycle. He makes the defenders wait and then rapidly moves the puck around with so much ease. Offensive zone cycles around the net are something that more and more teams tend to use nowadays, so having a modernized player who’s mastered this play will come in handy.
Finally, we’re on to our final stage: his toolbox.
To be frank with you, I haven’t been impressed. His passing has been— by far— some of the worst on his team. His passes almost never connect, they’re always blindsided, and they cause turnovers so constantly. I tried to give him more of a chance with his short and long-range passes, but it was so obvious that it wasn’t working.
When he’s moving around and he’s not looking down, then those passes are his best. But when he’s panicking or has his head down, then it goes off the rails. Connors seems to always panic when there’s someone coming at him and he tends to throw the puck away. That almost always leads to giveaways.
He needs to learn how to be cool, calm and collected in those situations to either make an accurate pass or to hold on to the puck. The last thing you want is a player who’s scared of contact.
He’s coughed up a lot of pucks with his inaccurate passing. I’d argue that if he doesn’t work on on accuracy in passes far more often, it will never transition into the NHL level. His No-look passes to nobody lead to giveaways too. It feels careless when he fumbles on these passes and I didn’t really like that.
His wrist and snapshot aren’t something that I haven’t been impressed with, either. They don’t seem to have much speed and strength to them, and accuracy is a bit of an issue with that, too. A few times it even looked like he forgot how to simply raise the puck.
While his wrist shot and snapshot looked a little bit weaker than I would’ve liked, his one-timer was a pleasant surprise. The accuracy, the strength, the speed, and the timing were something that looked like a lot of fun right off the hop. He does play half wall on his opposite side on the powerplay, so it’s possible that the coaches noticed that one-timer too and wanted to give it some more air.
Kenny Connors was definitely a surprising and unexpected pick for where he was drafted, but it’s hard to deny that he didn’t really look out of place for an NHL draft prospect. Had he gone undrafted, I’m sure he would gradually improve and earn an NHL contract post-university.
While the selection may have seemed like a bit of a stretch and less promising, there is absolutely some upside with Kenny Connors. It’s a gamble, but if you hit, you hit pretty well for the fourth round.