MoDo Hockey has been good to the LA Kings.
Back in 2014 the LA Kings selected with second-to-last pick in the first round, adding a young forward out of Sweden. A young man who played for MoDo. That player was Adrian Kempe.
Fast forward 12 years later and the Kings are hoping history repeats itself. After trading down in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft, acquiring an additional third-round pick in the process, the Kings selected forward Elton Hermansson from MoDo, adding another alum from a program that also included goaltender Anton Forsberg.
With Hermansson, though, the connection runs even deeper.
Hermansson’s dad, Lennart, played for MoDo back in the 1990’s and was a coach in the MoDo system for a number of years at the under-18 and under-20 levels. Among the players he coached throughout his time there? You guessed it. Kempe.
“My dad coached [Kempe] a long time ago, so it’s going to be cool meeting him and getting to know him a bit.” Hermansson said. “He’s a great player and yeah, he’s a superstar.”
The connections for Hermansson go even just that little bit further.
Asked what NHL player he likes to model his game after.
“I like Panarin a lot.”
Sounds like an LA King already.
It’s always tough to ask an 18-year-old to compare himself to an NHL player, because these are the best players in the world, who someone like Hermansson aspires to be. It’s almost unfair. However, that he said Panarin at least gives us a good sense of the style of player Hermansson is. This is an offensive player who excels with the puck on his stick, in a number of ways. He spoke about Panarin’s skill and said he tries to model what he does on the ice after Panarin’s game.
Pretty good guy to pick.
When Hermansson comes to NHL training camp in the fall, he’ll have one of the best Swedish hockey players in the world in the same locker room, as well as the player he tries to mold his game after. Not a bad fit.
As for why the Kings targeted Hermansson, it’s certainly unsurprising when you look at the prospect pool right now. I think there are a lot of players in the system who will play NHL games but after forward Liam Greentree was traded to New York, the Kings lack those higher-end skill players up front. Hermansson adds one back into the mix, certainly.
At the U-18 World Championships this spring, typically a gathering of the best draft-eligible players on the planet, Hermansson stood out. He tied for the tournament-lead in scoring with 12 points as Team Sweden won the gold medal. Hermansson was selected as the tournament’s Best Forward and was named to the All-Tournament Team, as selected by the media. Hermansson scored in the gold-medal game against Slovakia and had a multi-point game in the semifinals against Czechia, including the primary assist on the game-winning goal in overtime.
When you see a player from Europe drafted, it’s always interesting to evaluate the body of work because they often play at multiple levels of competition. He does it at the U-18's okay, that's one aspect of it. What is an exception, however, is that Hermansson was productive at several different levels.
You often see players who produce versus their peers but struggle to translate that production at varying levels of professional hockey. Hermansson played nearly 40 games in the Hockey Allsvenskan, the second-tier of Swedish professional hockey, and he scored 11 goals as a 17-year-old, finishing with 21 points and 0.55 points-per-game. That’s on top of scoring at well over a point-per-game at the junior level with MoDo and the Swedish National Team. Some players drafted this year played against 16-year-olds last season. Hermansson played against men, in a league with rewards and consequences in terms of promotion and relegation. That factors into playing young players. That Hermansson was used as much as he was says quite a bit.
As the season went along and Hermansson only grew in experience against men, he felt he only got better the more he was able to play.
“I thought I had a great Hlinka Tournament, played great and I think I had a decent first half of the season but I think the second half was much better,” Hermansson said. I think I grew into the senior level a bit more, played better hockey. I still have a long way to go but, yeah it went pretty well.”
In speaking with Kings General Manager Ken Holland, he certainly agreed when it came to the way that Hermansson plays the game. Holland hasn’t been unrealistic when it comes to the state of the system. He inherited, not built, and has actually added picks throughout his time here. When bringing in a pair of additional second-round selections, Holland spoke about the need to give his scouts more picks to work with.
Hermansson wasn’t one of the acquired picks but he was a player who brings something different than the Kings have at a younger level right now, someone who hopefully is part of the organizational push to add offensive talent in a variety of different ways.
“I'm excited that we got Elton Hermanson, another good young player, a good young forward," Kings General Manager Ken Holland said. "He's a guy that can score, led the U-18 tournament in scoring. Certainly we've talked here in the past about the importance of trying to add some offense to our organization, both in the short term and the long term, so that's certainly a priority as we go forward. Today is one of those decisions that hopefully really highly impacts this team down the road.”
Holland also showed trust in his Director of Amateur Scouting, Mark Yannetti, to trade down with the confidence that Hermansson would be available at 19, as he was at 17. The Kings operate through tiers of players, more so than honing in on specific individuals, which means that if you trade back, you'd better be confident in not missing out on a tier. It was clear, though, that Hermansson was in play for the Kings at 17 as well, certainly within that tier. To get that player at 19 as well, netting an additional third-round pick in the process, is a win for a team that can afford to make as many picks as possible to help rebuild the system.
"You do all this work, you do all this scouting and evaluating throughout the season to determine who's the guy, so I would not have left it to chance when we moved back," Yannetti said. "We still had two of the guys there and based on moving back to 19 you've got to dodge 17 and 18 and you know you get your guy, so that opportunity presented itself. It was unique. It took every bit of risk out of it and when there's zero risk that you're going to get your guy, it doesn't make sense not to move. Now, there were other scenarios, we had chances to move back with four separate teams, including one that would have taken us out of the first round with some high second round picks involved and every one of those now brought that you're gambling. If you have one guy in your tier and you move back two spots, three spots, five spots, you can't sit here and say that you're running a projection-based thing. It's gambling. 19, no gamble, you know? If you move back to 24 there's quite a good chance that Hermansson wouldn't be there......we made a determination, we were going to pick our guy, and it was luck that you can go into a situation and not have risk."
Ultimately, Hermansson represents a successful Day 1 for the Kings.
The Kings got a very exciting young prospect and picked up an additional Top-100 pick for their troubles, which was used on Day 2. The Kings already had Pick 80 and in adding 83, the organization picked five times in the Top-90. Haven't had that in a long time. All while the Kings got a player they would’ve been happy with at 17. A good day's work.
Hermansson is expected to be at development camp next week, along with each of the other ten players selected by the Kings over the last 48 hours. Excited to get a first look at what Hermansson has to offer on the ice in what will be his first ever trip to Los Angeles. More to come from the draft, with Yannetti's first impressions of the class as a whole, as draft and development came coverage continues.
