I did this last year to spark some discussion with some fellow socal hockey fans about the futures of these teams, and we came to seemingly two conclusions. 1. both teams seem to be building a pool of talent that can take them back to the playoffs, (the kings maybe about a year ahead), and 2. These teams will be great to see against each other in the playoffs in the future if we are lucky enough. The match ups are a mix of players with comparable playstyle, or projection, or narrative, or draft position, and obviously they aren't all perfect matches but its just for fun so whatever. also feel free to share who you think has a better prospect pool as a whole.

I did this last year to spark some discussion with some fellow socal hockey fans about the futures of these teams, and we came to seemingly two conclusions. 1. both teams seem to be building a pool of talent that can take them back to the playoffs, (the kings maybe about a year ahead), and 2. These teams will be great to see against each other in the playoffs in the future if we are lucky enough. The match ups are a mix of players with comparable playstyle, or projection, or narrative, or draft position, and obviously they aren't all perfect matches but its just for fun so whatever. also feel free to share who you think has a better prospect pool as a whole.

I would give the kings the slight edge

I would agree that the Kings are slightly ahead of the Ducks in their rebuild by about a year, as a result I give LA a slight edge.

I think the Ducks have the higher end top two guys (Zegras and Drysdale >>> Byfield and Clarke personally) but the Kings pool looks a little deeper to me.

Detroit isn’t in bad shape themselves. Seider, Raymond, Cossa, Edvinsson - but we’re further out than LA/ANA

I feel like Detroit is probably on pace with ANA, other than zegras and Drysdale the ducks have to let a lot of the other guys cook for a year or two, similar to detroit.

Possible NHL talent is even imo. Ducks have the better squad. Kings have the ceiling.

LA has the better prospect pool, and it's not particularly close.

At the top, the teams are roughly equivalent:

Byfield is a step above Zegras, but not by much.
Turcotte and Clarke are roughly equivalent to MacTavish and Drysdale.

After that is where LA starts to considerably outclass Anaheim. The second tier of offensive prospects includes the following guys:

LA: Kaliyev, Kupari, ****emo, Madden, Thomas, Bjornfot, Faber, Grans
Anaheim: Perreault, Zellweger

I left out guys like Simontival, Chromiak, and Spence that have been absolutely tearing it up in junior and international competitions due to their late draft positions, but those guys are looking like they will be quality adds as well. Everyone else in your list for both teams I would consider to be in a tier below the guys that I listed.

I will give Anaheim the edge in goaltending prospects, as Dostal looks like he could be a quality goaltender. The Kings best options in goal are Ingham and Parik, both of whom could turn into quality NHL goaltenders, but would probably be considered long shots.

to be fair I feel like the Ducks second tier gets slept on hard, Thrun and Lacombe are both quality players along with Pastujov and Groulx

That might be true. All of those guys are solid prospects, but they're not in the same class as Kaliyev, Kupari, ****emo, Madden, or Thomas. I'd put them on par with someone like Martin Chromiak, which isn't a knock. The kid just put up seven(!) points in a single game in his U20 tournament this week.

An unreal performance by #GoKingsGo prospect 🇸🇰 Martin Chromiak, who scored SEVEN points tonight. Chromiak had four goals and three assists in Team Slovakia U20’s 8-1 win over Team Denmark U20. All points are in the video.🎥: aisw pic.twitter.com/wwWo46Y4Yz

— Matej Deraj (@MatoDeraj) July 30, 2021

The Kings have several other prospects in that same tier, including guys like Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Aidan Dudas. I didn't even include Lias Andersson, who is having quite the resurgence, scoring at a PPG pace in the AHL last season.