LOS ANGELES — After trading the 24th pick to the Pittsburgh Penguins in return for the 31st and 59th picks, the Los Angeles Kings used their first pick of the 2025 NHL Draft to choose 18-year-old defenseman Henry Brzustewicz out of Washington, Michigan.

“I had really good conversations with them. The whole week here has been really great,” Brzustewicz said in his media availability after the draft. “Seeing the city and how nice it is here, and then to be picked by them its very special.”

Last season, the 6-foot-2, 203-pound Brzustewicz played with the London Knights and finished in the top 20 of OHL defensemen in scoring. In 67 games played, Brzustewicz had 42 points with 32 assists. He improved significantly from his first season with the Knights, tallying 36 more points in comparison to his rookie year.

With London, he was part of the 2025 Memorial Cup-winning team, marking an assist on the opening goal in the final game. In 2023, he also helped the team win the 2023 OHL Championship while playing forward — a positive for the Kings, who now have a younger player in the system with depth in his game. The righty finished with a plus-24 rating in the 67 regular season games he played with the Knights on the season.

“I have a lot of expectations for myself,” Brzustewicz said. “Going into the year [to] have a good year in London, and hopefully bring back another Championship.”

Brzustewicz isn’t the only one in the family who has been drafted into the NHL. His brother, Hunter Brzustewicz, was drafted in the third round by the Canucks in 2023 and currently is with the Calgary Flames. 

One of the best parts of Brzustewicz’s game is his IQ, which was noted not only on NHL Central’s Scouting report but also something that Brzustewicz said in his media availability after being drafted. 

“My hockey IQ is probably my strongest part of my game,” Brzustewicz said.

Fitting in well with the other bright young minds on the Kings’ roster today, he could be a great addition after finishing his time with the Knights and some time with the Reign. 

Heading into the draft as a late pick, the Kings already were in a tough spot, unlikely to find the “win-now” player so late in day one. This made it reasonable, then, to consider the option to trade down and acquire more pieces of the puzzle that can be utilized in the future when Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty are no longer wearing Kings jerseys.

“If you are not picking in the top ten of the draft, you are not seeing them for three years,” director of scouting Mark Yannetti said. “There’s guys who [I would love to] accelerate. [Brzustewicz] would be a consideration, I would say a minimum of three years, and he would probably follow that three to five year plan strictly. “He’s a bigger kid, he’s a powerful kid. And he’s a good skater… In terms of immediate contendership window that [Ken Holland] is trying to facilitate, it would probably fall slightly outside of the initial portion.”

Another positive for the Kings is that Brzustewicz already plays with a player in the Kings system in 2024 6th rounder Jared Woolley. When he was asked about being teammates with him on the bigger stage, Brzustewicz was rather excited.

“Unbelievable. We are best friends. He was just sitting [in] the row in front of me. Sharing that moment together was really special,” Brzustewicz said.

Kings new GM Ken Holland was asked if the plan to move down was predetermined based on a roster trade or if it was not planned.

“No, [Yannetti] and the staff had obviously worked real hard at putting our list together,” Holland said. “There were a lot of players in the draft that we thought we liked. We had a couple, two-three, opportunities to move down, and [get] an extra second round pick. We got a player, like I said, was on a list of the players that we liked.”

Although day one was not necessarily what the hometown fans expected with the trade, they still got an extremely great player in Brzustewicz. He was ranked as NHL Central Scouting’s 19th-best North American skater in their final ranking. Tomorrow, barring any other trades the team might make, the Kings are expected to choose at picks No. 59 (via Pittsburgh), 88, 120, 152, 184, 196, and 216 (both via Philadelphia).