Armed with experience, Henry Brzustewicz is making an impact in more ways than one

As a part of our prospects coverage this season on LA Kings Insider, please welcome Jon Paul Morosi to the Insider family! Morosi will provide first-person coverage of several LA Kings prospects, centering around coverage from the World Juniors Summer Showcase and the World Junior Championships.

A Calgary Flame is the most loyal fan of a future Los Angeles King. 

The sentence is stunning, until you learn the identity of each player: Hunter Brzustewicz is the Flame; Henry Brzustewicz is the King. 

They are brothers, and fellow right-shot defensemen, born in Michigan a little more than two years apart. The support between them is constant, even if they’re rarely at the same rink outside of offseason training sessions. 

Hunter, 21, split the past season between the Flames and AHL's Calgary Wranglers, playing 34 games with each club. Henry, 19, spent the winter with the OHL's London Knights after the Kings selected him with the 31st overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.

So the Brzustewicz family cherished Hunter’s presence in the stands during one of Henry’s games with Team USA at the World Junior Summer Showcase. The Windsor Spitfires hosted this year’s event at the WFCU Centre, just across the Detroit River from the Brzustewicz home in Shelby Township, Michigan.

“He knows playing for the United States is always a big honor,” Henry said. “He tells me to play my game, be where my feet are, and just enjoy the moment, because you never know when it’s going to be your last [time] playing for the U.S. I owe a lot to him. He’s paved the way for me in hockey. He’s a great player, obviously, but off the ice, we have a great relationship. He’s always there for me. He’s my best friend. He’s always someone I can lean on.”  

Hunter’s upbeat scouting report was noteworthy, when considering older siblings are known for direct, honest feedback.

“I thought he played hard and moved the puck well,” Hunter said. “With these teams, they’re always looking for something they don’t have. I didn’t think there were too many physical guys on the ice, and he did a great job of playing the body and making it difficult on the other team.” 

Hunter knows Henry’s game better than any scout could. 

He’s watched his younger brother’s body positioning and stick detail improve over the last several seasons. The pace of his decision-making has quickened, too, as evidenced by his promotion to AHL Ontario after the Knights’ season ended in this spring.

Brzustewicz played five regular-season games and skated in all five games of the Reign’s division semifinal defeat to Coachella Valley in the Calder Cup playoffs. Reign head coach Andrew Lord wisely put Brzustewicz on a defensive pairing with Joe Hicketts, the team captain and 10-year pro.

Hicketts offered to drive Brzustewicz from the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo to games at the Toyota Arena in Ontario. Sixty miles of Southern California highway offers plenty of time to absorb the knowledge of a respected veteran.

“He would have me over for dinner sometimes and made me feel like I was part of the team,” Brzustewicz said. “I’m really grateful for him.” 

Hicketts met Brzustewicz at the Kings’ training camp last fall and immediately noticed he was stronger and more prepared for the rigors of pro hockey than most new draft picks. 

As Brzustewicz adjusted to the AHL in the spring, Hicketts saw that he was reading and reacting to plays more confidently. 

“It’s knowing when you can gap and pressure in the defensive zone and when you have to back off,” Hicketts said. “There are a lot of skilled players in pro hockey, who are very crafty and know how to make little plays. I could tell from his first game [in the AHL] to the games [at the end of the playoff series], he was more calm going into those pressure situations. He really helped us.” 

Brzustewicz competed at last December’s Team USA selection camp for the 2026 World Juniors but was among the final cuts. 

The Summer Showcase in Windsor was the first step toward making the ’27 roster in his final year of eligibility. 

“It’s always special when you get to put on the USA jersey and represent your country,” Brzustewicz said. “Adding that with having your family there is a pretty cool feeling. I feel really confident. Last year, [I was] a little bit of an under-ager. Not making it definitely put a big chip on my shoulder. Throughout the season, I think I built off of that a lot. Especially playing in the AHL at the end of the season gave me a lot of confidence to come into the summer and an event like this. I just want to keep it going and show my best foot forward.” 

Chase Reid and Asher Barnett are the only U.S. blueliners from the ’26 roster eligible to return. Brzustewicz is among a strong group of U.S. defensemen seeking to make their World Junior debuts. 

“He played a ton of minutes last year and got some pro hockey under his belt,” U.S. coach Adam Nightingale said of Brzustewicz. “It’s competitive there on the back end. Anytime you’re talking about the [oldest] birth year, an ’07, you need to lean on that group. As a whole, our back end will be a strength of the team.”

The Brzustewicz brothers are too far apart in age to have played for the same youth teams and they chose different developmental paths. 

Hunter played for the Honeybaked and Oakland Jr. Grizzlies programs in Michigan before joining the USA Hockey National Team Development Program. (Lane Hutson, the future Calder Trophy winner, was his defensive partner at Honeybaked.) Meanwhile, Henry moved away from home after seventh grade to play at Shattuck St. Mary’s for two seasons, followed by a year with the North Jersey Avalanche.

Their careers converged as Midwest Division rivals in the Ontario Hockey League during the 2023-24 season. Hunter tallied 92 points for the Kitchener Rangers, second only to current Flames teammate Zayne Parekh among OHL defensemen. Henry was the youngest defenseman in the Knights’ lineup for the 2024 Memorial Cup Final. London lost in the final minute to the host Saginaw Spirit, but Henry registered an assist in the ’25 Final as London lifted the trophy in Rimouski. 

One important distinction: Hunter debuted in the OHL at age 17, after two seasons at the NTDP. Henry was 16 when he moved to Canada as a first-year junior. 

“It’s hard to go in as a 16-year-old American to the OHL,” Hunter said of his younger brother. “He was taking a leap of faith. Once you make that decision, you’ve got to go for it. The biggest thing is getting comfortable with your billet family and establishing a routine. He’s always been an independent kid, ever since he was younger. He’s never had a problem with it.” 

Both Henry and Hunter are quick to credit their mother, Jennifer, and sisters Hannah, Hailey, and Victoria for supporting their journeys in hockey. Hailey attends medical school in Sint Maarten and has found a restaurant there that carries broadcasts of hockey games. 

With each passing year, more Brzustewicz games have Pacific Time Zone starts. 

An NHL game between the brothers could become a reality as soon as this season — meaning Henry would lose a fan and gain an opponent, if only for one night.