Another day, another Kings roster move.
With LA off to Canada today to begin another road trip this week, they’ll be taking a somewhat unexpected passenger on the plane with them. Defenseman Jacob Moverare will be recalled from AHL Ontario to join the Kings. It’s a move necessitated by the upper-body injury sustained by Mikey Anderson on Thursday night vs. Nashville, which left the team with just six healthy rearguards vs. the Ducks.
After further evaluation on Friday, it was determined that Anderson would skip the team’s home game against Anaheim on Saturday and then stay behind when they departed for their three-game swing through Western Canada. As of now, he has not officially been placed on Injured Reserve, although he is said to be week-to-week.
For those wondering, there really isn’t a need to place Anderson on IR for two reasons. One, the Kings were only carrying 22 players prior to any recall of Moverare, so they had an open roster spot anyway. Second, when placing a player on IR a team doesn’t get any cap relief (that only comes with LTIR), so moving Anderson to IR would really only be unnecessary paperwork more than anything. They don’t need to create a another roster spot at the moment.
One thing to keep an eye on, though, is the fact Moverare has spent a combined 28 days on the NHL roster this season. After 30 days (which will be eclipsed on the road trip), he would require waivers before being returned to the AHL — something explained in greater detail here.
From a salary cap perspective, the team has over $3M in available space at the moment, so there is plenty of room to call up a player carrying a modest $762K AAV.
In Moverare, coach Jim Hiller and staff will be seeing a rather familiar face. The 25-year-old Swede is a known commodity throughout the organization. He’s played 26 games with the club previously, as well as had several recalls to the NHL. More of a defensive oriented player, Moverare has enjoyed a rather eventful week with Ontario, where he picked up a few points and scored a rather dramatic overtime goal on Friday — just his first AHL overtime goal and only his second game winner ever (with the other one coming back in Oct. 2021).
Back in December, Moverare suited up for five Kings games, including two on the road. He recorded five shots total during that stretch and averaged nearly 15 minutes of ice time per game. This came during a stretch where Vladislav Gavrikov was temporarily sidelined, and Moverare slid into his usual spot alongside Matt Roy on the Kings second defensive pairing.
Originally selected by LA at the 2016 NHL Draft when he was just 17 years old — making him among just the handful of youngest players ever taken by the Kings — Director of Scouting Mark Yannetti noted at the time that despite his age, he had the highest hockey IQ of all defensemen in the Draft that year.
On Monday, the Kings will be in Edmonton to face the Oilers, followed by a game with the Calgary Flames on Tuesday. Their trip will conclude in Vancouver for a matchup against the Pacific Division leading Canucks on Thursday.
In their two previous contests, the Kings and Oilers have traded wins, with LA coming away with a decisive 4-0 victory at Crypto.com Arena a few weeks ago in Hiller’s debut as the team’s new head coach. They also beat Calgary 5-3 back in December, the only time the two clubs have faced each other thus far in 2023-24. Moverare also played in that game.
This week will also mark the first of four times the Kings and Canucks will see each other before the end of the regular season. Last year, LA went 2-1-1 against Vancouver. Although the Canucks have led the Pacific Division standings nearly all season, they’re mired in a 4-5-1 stretch over the last 10 games, while the Kings have gone 7-2-1. At home, though, Vancouver’s five losses are the fewest of any team in the NHL.
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