LA Kings watching closely as Cougars alternate captain Ziemmer enjoys final WHL season
Prince George, B.C.- Koehn Ziemmer is back for a final spin around the Western Hockey League with the Prince George Cougars.
So, he’s got to make it count.
“I think we’ve got the group to do it this year,” Ziemmer said. “We’ve got a lot of veterans who have been through it before with the run we had last year and just getting that winning taste.”
Points in three straight matches- including a 1-0-0-1 effort against the Victoria Royals- have returned the Cougars to the top of the B.C. Division and helped them slot in at seventh in the Canadian Hockey League’s weekly rankings of Canada’s top major junior teams.
Ziemmer registered three goals, two assists and a shootout tally over that stretch to add to his hottest start in his WHL career.
Indeed, the Cougars alternate captain has come a long way from his debut on a memorable birthday in 2019.
“My first game was against Portland, my 15th birthday- sold-out crowd,” Ziemmer said. “It was pretty cool to be able to see what the Dub is like through that.”
Five seasons later, the winger has gone from a bright-eyed rookie to a 6-foot-1, 203-pound goal-scoring machine.
Ziemmer put up back-to-back 30-plus goal seasons after tallying 30 in 2021-2022 and following it up with a monster 41-goal campaign in 2022-23.
Those are the kinds of numbers that put NHL scouts on high alert- and in June of 2023, the Los Angeles Kings called Ziemmer’s name with the 78th overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.
“Every team needs wingers that score,” LA Kings Director of Player Development Glen Murray said. “He has a knack for scoring and a knack for getting his shots off and getting his shots on net. Sometimes, with these kinds of players, it’s like, ‘Why would you shoot it there?’ But they just have a knack and sometimes- a lot of times- it finds its way into the net or creates an offensive chance.”
The Mayerthorpe, Alta. product looked poise to post even gaudier stats the following season, potting 11 goals and 20 assists for 31 points in 23 games before a lower-body injury shut him down for the bulk of the regular season.
Perhaps even more frustrating, the injury came just 10 days after he put pen to paper on his entry-level contract.
“It was difficult, for sure, not being able to play almost a full year,” Ziemmer admitted. “Being able to come back and play playoffs was pretty good, though. Coming back, it’s obviously hard after a long injury, just to get back in game shape and be able to play at that level.”
He mustered four goals and six assists for 10 points in 15 matches, highlighted by a game-winning goal against Portland to force a sixth game in their Western Conference Championship series.
But as summer development and training camps with the Kings showed, there’s still work to be done.
“When you miss that much time, it’s hard to get back,” Murray noted. “I thought he did really well coming back to the playoffs and he was behind the eight ball a little bit, but he worked his way through it.
“We know Koehn can score and he can put up points, but he needs to be able to play in his own zone, make plays on the wall, get the puck out when the other team is in the defensive zone. Working on him with those things and having him here this past training camp was really an eye-opener for him.”
He’d suit up for the Kings three times in this year’s Rookie Faceoff and showed off his killer offensive instincts, but ultimately, the Kings decided to return him to the Cougars for one more season, rather than make his pro debut with the American Hockey League’s Ontario Reign.
Ziemmer says he’s focused on rounding out his game with an emphasis on skating and conditioning- and the Kings organization is doing all it can to support his journey as he prepares to go pro next year.
“We have a great development staff,” Murray added. “We have (two-time WHL and NHL champion) Jarret Stoll and Mike Donnelly that work with the forwards. Koehn will see a lot of those two guys this season, either watching games live, watching his video or actually going in and taking him for dinner and talking to his coaches.”
The Kings also aim to have development coaches fly to Prince George for on-ice sessions with Ziemmer at least twice throughout the season.
He currently sits second on the Cougars (the league’s second-highest scoring team) in goals with seven lamp-lighters, despite playing fewer games than the bulk of his teammates.
And as Ziemmer and the Cats chase WHL glory- and the team’s first Championship since moving to the northern capital- he’s also climbing the ranks in the team’s record books.
In 192 career WHL games, Ziemmer’s 98 goals rank fourth all-time among Prince George skaters and his 202 points are 10th.
He’ll try to grow those totals as the Cougars prepare to host the rival Kamloops Blazers on Friday, November 1 at 7:00 p.m. PST.