While all eyes were on Akil Thomas and Andre Lee when it came to the list of players LA put on waivers Wednesday morning, along came Pheonix Copley and stole the headline. Every other Kings player cleared waivers Thursday morning — except the veteran goaltender, who was claimed by Tampa Bay.
In the short term for AHL Ontario, word is coach Andrew Lord will now have Isaiah Saville as their second netminder, along with Kings prospect Erik Portillo. The former is 6-foot-1 and 25 years old. He played his collegiate hockey at the University of Nebraska-Omaha before turning pro four years ago. He has three seasons of AHL hockey under his belt with the Henderson Silver Knights. However, he missed all of the 2024-25 season with an injury.
From a big picture perspective, what this does to the Kings goaltending depth remains to be seen. Over the past few years under former GM Rob Blake, the organization specifically wanted to have three veteran goaltenders under contract. For example. when Copley went down with a knee injury midway through the 2023-24 campaign, Aaron Dell joined the Reign as insurance. With Copley healthy last season, he served in that role once again and was re-signed over the summer. Will new GM Ken Holland now want to add another seasoned goalie to replace the North Pole’s favorite son or will he comfortable enough for now to ride with Portillo — who himself is just now returning to action after missing the second half of last season with an injury.
Copley’s Road Ahead
Now that Copley has been claimed, it’s a good time to once again review the waiver wire rules. Contrary to what is often mis-reported on the internet, Tampa does not have to keep Copley on their NHL roster for 30 days. There really isn’t a time limit to things that allows them or prevents them from taking the next step.
Here’s the actual rule… If Tampa Bay wants to send him to their AHL affiliate, they’ll first need to place Copley on waivers (he is not free to go there at this moment). If they did that, and LA was the only team to put in a claim, then the Kings (as the team who put him on waivers initially) would be free to send Copley to the AHL.
This exact scenario happened when the Kings re-claimed Sammy Fagemo on waivers after Nashville initially claimed him (and played him in a handful of NHL games).
By contrast, if multiple teams put a claim in on Copley should the Lightning put him on waivers at some point — and even if LA won the claim because of their position on the waiver priority list — the Kings would still have to put him back on waivers again before assigning him to Ontario. Again, the Kings an only re-claim Copley and send him directly to Ontario if they’re the only team putting in a claim.
This rule also only applies to LA, because they were the original team to put Copley on waivers this season.
One Other Note on Waivers
Now that Thoms and Lee — along with Martin Chromiak, Taylor Ward, etc. — have cleared waivers, what happens if the Kings recall them at some point? If a player has cleared waivers during the 2025-26 season and they are later recalled to the NHL, they can be returned to the AHL… as long as they didn’t play in 10 NHL games or stay on the NHL roster for more than 30 days. If either of those milestones are reached, the player would have to go through waivers again before being assigned to the AHL.
An important aspect of this rule is the fact those numbers are cumulative. So, if a player gets called up and plays two NHL games and is then sent back down (without waivers), he can be recalled a second time later in the season. Just keep in mind that on his second recall, he would now only have eight games to play before his waiver exemption expired.
Finally, there is also no such thing as re-entry waivers (where players have to pass through waivers when they are called up). That’s a very old rule and it hasn’t been around for over a decade.
For more fun with hockey rules, be sure to check out the article linked below.
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