It’s been a busier than usual week for the Ontario Reign. After their seven-game winning streak came to an end on Wednesday via a shootout loss, coach Andrew Lord’s group have packed up and headed to the desert for game one of a home-and-home set with the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
There was also some significant roster movement surrounding the club, a topic we’ll delve into a little deeper down below.
Sticking with the on-ice action first, a quick look back to the last meeting between these Pacific Division rivals reveals a rather one-sided affair at Toyota Arena on Feb. 1. Coachella Valley topped Ontario by a final score of 5-1 that night, yet the Reign own a 2-1-0 lead in the season series.
Help is on the way tonight for Ontario too. Leading point scorer Nikita Alexandrov is expected to return to the lineup after missing some time due to injury. Alexandrov has posted one goal and two assists in the season series against Coachella and should provide a big boost to the team’s offensive attack.
Pair of Forwards Pushing
Franky Pinelli scored his 10th goal of the season last time out and he appears to be finding his rhythm lately, recording six points (3G, 3A) in his last nine games. Expanding that range out a little further, the Kings 22-year-old prospect has 10 points (5G, 5A) across his last 16 contests.
Meanwhile, winger Martin Chromiak has also been enjoying success lately — and really all season — as he continues to push for his first NHL call-up. Originally selected by LA at the 2021 NHL Draft, Chromiak scored his 20th goal and recorded his 42nd point Wednesday night, meaning every point he adds the rest of the way will set a new career high.
When asked if it has been frustrating to put up career numbers without earning a recall, Chromiak preferred to keep his focus on the team — “Yeah, for sure. It’s my goal to go up and get a chance, but I am not focusing on that. I think we have a really good team here, and I am just trying to keep my mind positive and try my best every game to help this team win.”
Creating Separation in Standings
With the AHL Calder Cup playoffs little more than a month away, Ontario remains in first place atop the Pacific Division with 79 points. However, the Colorado Eagles trail closely with 76 points and a game in hand.
Don’t look now; another team has also quietly entered the race. San Jose, winners of four straight and 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, sit in third place with 74 points and two games in hand on Ontario. The Barracuda left a lasting impression last year in the postseason, bouncing the Reign from playoff competition — despite Ontario earning home ice advantage during the regular season.
That first round series in 2025 was actually played at Crypto.com Arena, rather than their usual home in Ontario. Fear not, that won’t happen this time around. Disney on Ice doesn’t have any dates reserved on the building. All Reign home playoff games this year will actually be played on ‘home’ ice.
With only 15 games remaining, every game and every point will carry significant weight for Lord & Co., as they look to finish off an impressive regular season and claim their first division title since Mike Stothers was behind the bench in 2015-16, Ontario’s inaugural year in the AHL.
More on This Week’s Roster Transactions
Two distinctly separate, yet equally rare moves, took place earlier this week. First came a loan with the Sabres organization, then a trade with the NHL’s Senators. We’ve received a lot of questions, so let’s break them both down.
Monday’s swap of players was a loan, not a trade. Kings prospect Kaleb Lawrence was loaned to AHL Rochester and in return the Reign received back Sabres prospect Nikita Novikov.
For those unfamiliar with this type of transaction, when NHL teams own the rights to a player, they can essentially assign him to a team anywhere in the world (just not to a college team or another NHL club). Thus, they can assign (as an example) Angus Booth to a junior team, the ECHL, the AHL, a team in Europe, or to their NHL roster. All assignments are good through the end of that season, unless the player is re-assigned earlier.
For example, a player may start out in training camp with the Kings, then initially be assigned to a team in Europe (i.e. Jakub Dvorak in Sept. 2023). Later that season, that same player can be reassigned to the WHL. Then, it all re-sets again over the summer, with the player ‘returning’ to the Kings for training camp.
During camp, players are assigned to other teams, in part, because the Kings need to get from 60+ players on the roster down to the NHL maximum of 23 before opening night.
Occasionally, an NHL team will assign one of their players to another NHL club’s AHL or ECHL team, usually for playing time purposes. So, Lawrence is on loan to Rochester. The Sabres do not own his rights. Conversely, Buffalo loaned Novikov to the Reign. LA doesn’t own his rights.
This agreement is through the end of the season. Sure, the teams could then decide to make a formal trade over the summer, where the rights move to the other clubs. However, it’s just as likely, the players will return to where they started this week and the whole thing will be forgotten about, in a sense.
Either way, that was not a trade. It was the loaning of two players. It served a purpose, Lawrence will get more playing time in Rochester and Novikov will get a larger role with the Reign for a few months.
More on the loan in our article here.
As if that wasn’t enough, there was actually a real trade between the Kings and Senators on Thursday. Some people were caught off guard, thinking, ‘Hey, wasn’t the Trade Deadline last Friday?’
Well, not exactly.
Technical point but still worth noting the NHL Trade Deadline is not a Trade Deadline. Players can still be traded. However, traded players cannot play in any regular season and/or playoff game this season with an acquiring team.
— Allan Walsh(@walsha) March 7, 2026
As agent Allan Walsh pointed out in the above tweet, last Friday’s event is the more celebrated Trade Deadline because that is the last possible day for players to move NHL clubs and still get into regular season and playoff games that season.
NHL clubs can still trade players after what’s commonly referred to as the NHL Trade Deadline, it just limits how those players can be used for the balance of the season.
So, what happened here?
Well, the above explained addition of Novikov left the Reign with an extra body on the blueline. They are also thin at forward, partially due to Jared Wright being up in the NHL (and knowing they could lose Kenny Connors or another prospect to the Kings at any moment). To help balance things out, the Kings traded defenseman Sam Bolduc to the Senators for forward Jan Jenik.
Keep in mind, Bolduc was a depth player who was originally signed to a two-way contract and assigned to Ontario. Even though the Kings are the ones who traded him (because they owned his rights via the contract), this was really a Reign trade.
Both players involved in the trade will be free agents this summer.
Hopefully that helps clear things up on both fronts.
As for Jenik’s Reign debut, that will have to wait a few more days. It won’t be tonight. He knows the club well, though, having played against them for several years when he was a member of the Tucson Roadrunners. Following his four seasons there as a prospect for the Arizona Coyotes, he spent the past two years in Belleville as a member of the Senators organization.
Reign Projected Lineup vs. Firebirds
If there are any key changes during pregame warmups, this article will be updated.
Alexandrov – Gawdin – Guttman
Lee – Connors – Chromiak
Brown – Pinelli – Ziemmer
Isogai – Hughes – Doty
Kirsanov – Booth
Novikov – Hicketts
Millar – Salin
Portillo (starter)
Copley
Likely scratches: (F) Jenik, Mastrodonato and (D) N/A
Injured: Burroughs, Dvorak, Jamsen
Recalled to NHL: Wright
Key Game Info
Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time and will be streamed via FloSports. Additionally, a Reign radio feed is available here.
Follow @mayorNHL
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