Entering the 2024-25 season, it’s easy to say the Ontario Reign are going through a bit of a transitional period. While roster turnover is fairly common among AHL teams, LA’s top minor league affiliate will see several of their top stars graduate to the NHL and their former captain, TJ Tynan, has signed with another organization.
Fear not, though. We’ll break it all down below and answer some of the key questions heading into training camp opening next month.
Question 1 – Which Kings prospects will join the AHL as rookies?
Before even getting to a few incoming names and 2024-25 roster alignment, it should be noted that coach Marco Sturm is expected to enter this coming season without four of his better players from last year. Defenseman Brandt Clarke, the Kings top draft selection in 2021, has been earmarked for the NHL. Coming off the loss of Jordan Spence last summer, that’s back-to-back years of Sturm losing his top offensive defenseman to NHL promotions.
Up front, a trip of forwards are also expected to join the Kings. Sammy Fagemo, Akil Thomas, and Alex Turcotte are all slated to be part of LA coach Jim Hiller’s roster come opening night. Thomas and Turcotte are a given, as both are actually penciled in for starting positions. What Hiller has in store for Fagemo remains a mystery. The talented Swede has nothing left to prove at the AHL level and would need to pass through waivers if things don’t work out with the Kings for some reason. After putting up 43 goals in 50 games last season for Ontario, he isn’t clearing waivers. Thus, training camp will be very interesting for the Kings. Back to the Reign, though…
Newcomers:
Aatu Jamsen (forward) – A late round draft pick in 2020, Jamsen has been having success playing in Finland the past few years. He’s also been over to North America a few times already for various camps with the Kings, including playing in the 2023 Rookie Faceoff tournament. He’s been impressive during each visit and could become another seventh-round selection to blossom. When signing his new two-year contract, he became the fourth player from LA’s 2020 class to ink such a deal, joining Quinton Byfield, Alex Laferriere, and Martin Chromiak.
Kaleb Lawrence (forward) – One of the more intriguing prospects to join the Reign in quite some time. Thought of as more of a bigger, tougher player once upon time, Lawrence worked on his scoring touch in the OHL before turning pro this summer. In fact, he was one of London’s better players down the stretch and into the Memorial Cup. See more on him here.
Angus Booth (defenseman) – A 2022 Draft selection by LA, Booth gives the organization something they desperately need, a young left-shot option on the blueline. After playing four years in the QMJHL, the 6-foot-1 defenseman has been noticeable at several Development Camps previously and will likely be asked to play big minutes for Ontario this season sooner rather than later. It will be interesting to see how the coaching staff works with Booth, as there’s a real need for him to develop quickly. However, that often can be easier said than done.
Wildcards:
Koehn Ziemmer (forward) – Just drafted last summer, it would normally be another year of waiting to get a player out of the WHL. However, because of where his birthday falls, he’s actually AHL eligible this season – a rarity given his age. Mark Yannetti was recently on Kings Of The Podcast and openly talked about the pros and cons of sending him back to the WHL this season vs. keeping him up with the Reign (listen here if you missed it). Ziemmer will also join KOTP in the coming days to add his thoughts on the subject. He’s a bit of a unicorn these days, as he’s a true power forward, something you don’t see much of in pro hockey these days.
Jakub Dvorak (defenseman) – Similar to the notes on Booth above, getting another young, left-shot defenseman into the fold quickly sounds good on paper. And, again, Yannetti offered extended thoughts on this situation during his KOTP interview. Final decisions on both of these ‘wild cards’ won’t come until late in training camp. If either — or both — join the Reign, that will obviously impact the projected lineup below. Neither would be turning pro to just hang out as a healthy scratch, they’d be expected to get playing time.
Question 2 – Who are the other key additions and subtractions?
Here is where it’s best to divide players into two groups: those on AHL contracts vs. players on two-way NHL deals. Guys falling into the former group may split their time between AHL Ontario and ECHL Greenville, depending upon needs and roster openings available on the Reign. Meanwhile, guys on two-way deals will most likely be exclusively with the Reign, as they’ll be on standby should a temporary NHL opening be created on the Kings roster.
Some of these additions were also created by the offseason departures of Tynan, Hayden Hodgson, Kevin Connauton, and Steven Santini.
Players added on NHL two-way deals:
Forwards: Glenn Gawdin, Jeff Malott, Jack Studnicka
Defensemen: Caleb Jones, Reilly Walsh
There’s also the Andreas Englund vs. Kyle Burroughs situation. Assuming the Kings won’t carry eight defensemen all season long, one of them will be placed on waivers at some point. If he clears, he’d be assigned to the Reign. We looked at this scenario a little deeper here.
Players added on AHL deals:
Also signed to contracts, albeit minor league only deals, these players could be with the Reign or also see time in the ECHL, depending on team needs:
Forwards: Shawn Element, Quinn Olson, Tate Singleton, Colton Young
Defensemen: John Parker-Jones, Jack Millar, Luke Rowe
Question 3 – What about the goaltending?
This is really the easiest question to answer. LA’s top goaltending prospect, Erik Portillo returns as the team’s No. 1 starter. Meanwhile, veteran netminder Pheonix Copley signed a one-year deal, hoping to get his career back on track after missing nearly all of last season following knee surgery.
Portillo is still without a contract at the moment. Our predictions for his new deal can be found here.
Question 4 – Who will be the new captain?
With the departure of Tynan, somebody new will be taking over the captaincy for the first time in several years. Thomas also wore an ‘A’ last season, so at least one more player will also be added to the leadership group.
In talking with several team sources, this topic is still being worked on internally and will likely bleed into training camp. The most obvious names to take over the ‘C’ would be Gawden, Hudon, and Hicketts. Maybe Studnicka is in that conversation, as well.
Andre Lee did serve as captain of the Kings team at last year’s Rookie Faceoff event. Perhaps he’s in the mix for a letter too.
Question 5 – Who is most likely to get called up in 2024-25?
Injuries and timing are two significant factors when weighing a question like this. Thus, without a crystal ball, it can be tough to predict. However, speaking in a vacuum, the three most obvious names among forwards are Lee, Sammy Helenius, and Martin Chromiak.
Franky Pinelli probably needs at least another year of AHL experience before he would be given a look. Ditto for Chromiak and Helenius. Lee is said to be knocking on the door (or close to it).
Defensively, Moverare has already shown to be capable of playing NHL games effectively. Then, whoever draws tails on the initial Burroughs-Englund coin-flip will probably see a recall to the NHL at least once during the season.
There’s also Arthur Kaliyev.
Wait, what?
Here’s the situation in a nutshell: He isn’t signed with the Kings and his future remains very much mired in a murky cloud. A lot of things would still need to happen before he ended up in Ontario. However, we’ve learned to not rule anything out. If he somehow joined the Reign, there would still be a good chance he’d eventually find his way back to the NHL.
REIGN 2024-25 PROJECTED LINEUP
Hudon – Gawdin – Chromiak
Malott – Studnicka – Jamsen
Lee – Helenius – Madden
Lawrence – Pinelli – Doty
Ziemmer – Ward
Moverare – Walsh
Krygier – Hicketts
Booth – Jones
Dvorak – Burroughs
Portillo
Copley
Other roster options include: (F) Element, Olson, Singleton, Young and (D) Millar, Parker-Jones, Rowe
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