As the final pieces to today’s roster puzzle start to lock in place, Kings management received the news they were hoping for — Sammy Fagemo, Jack Studnicka, and Pheonix Copley all cleared waivers. The trio will now be assigned to AHL Ontario.
Sunday marked the final day NHL General Managers could place players on waivers as they prepare to send their cap compliant rosters to the league office later this afternoon. We detailed what the Kings are planning in this article here:
As for Fagemo, he’ll rejoin a Reign team where he had plenty of success last season, including scoring 43 goals in 50 AHL games. That’s quite an accomplishment for any player, let alone doing it at just 23 years old. Even so, the young Swede did not have his best training camp performance and saw Andre Lee leapfrog over him on the team’s depth chart. This likely isn’t the end of the story, though. Every year, injuries and unexpected twists emerge; when they do, Fagemo will likely be in line for a possible recall to the NHL.
Studnicka is an interesting case. The 6-foot-1 center was signed by the Kings as a depth player over the summer. He’ll now become one of the higher-priced players in Ontario, as his two-way contract calls for him to earn $425K while in the minors. Originally drafted by the Bruins, he’s spent the past two seasons with the Canucks and Sharks organizations. In total, he has 107 games of NHL experience, including 17 last year with the Sharks. He’s one of the names Reign coach Marco Sturm will be looking to for depth down the middle, especially after they lost captain TJ Tynan (who signed with another club).
Copley is best known for coming out of nowhere to essentially save the Kings season a few years back. At a time when Jonathan Quick and Cal Peterson were struggling mightily, the veteran netminder was called up from Ontario and went on to put up a performance reminiscent of Rick Knickle in 1993. He’s now looking to rehab his career after having major knee surgery back in January.
In addition to the above moves, look for Ontario to soon announce a series of roster moves, where they’ll assign a large number of players to ECHL Greenville — including Bryce Brodzinski.
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