Calgary Hitmen Forward Brandon Kozun Signs With LA Kings
April 4, 2010 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Calgary Hitmen News Release
LOS ANGELES, CA - The Los Angeles Kings have signed forward Brandon Kozun to a three-year entry level contract, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Saturday.
Kozun, who was born in Los Angeles, led the Western Hockey League (WHL) in points (107) and assists (75) this season in 65 regular season games while helping lead the Calgary Hitmen as a team captain to the second-round of the WHL playoffs, which are still on-going. During this postseason, Kozun's 14 points is second in the WHL with Calgary set to play Medicine Hat today, Sunday (5pm), in Game 2.
Selected by the Kings in the sixth round (179th overall) of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Kozun, 20, played with Calgary the past four seasons. In 217 regular season games, the right winger had 270 points (92-178270), a plus-103 rating and 158 penalty minutes. In 42 career playoff games over three seasons, he had 51 points (15-3651), a plus-15 rating and 18 penalty minutes.
This past December/January, Kozun (5-9, 180 pounds) represented Canada at the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championships. He was one of four Kings prospects - forward Brayden Schenn, defenseman Colten Teubert and goaltender Martin Jones were the others - on that team, and the Kings were the NHL club with the most prospects playing for Canada, which lost the Gold Medal game to the United States. Prior to the tournament, Kozun, Schenn, Teubert, Jones and defenseman Nicolas Deslauriers participated in Canada's National Junior Team selection camp, and the five players were the most any NHL club had at the camp (only one other team, Edmonton, had more than two prospects who participated).
Kozun is also a part of the group of Kings draft selections which has been graded as the NHL club with the most successful drafts in the "Future Watch" category in the most recent edition of The Hockey News. This is the second straight season the Kings - the NHL club with the earliest average draft position of all 30 teams since 2006 (11th, 4th, 2nd and 5th) -- have been selected by The Hockey News as the top-ranked NHL club in this category.
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Western Hockey League Stories from April 4, 2010
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