Following up on our story from late last week, Mayor’s Manor has confirmed the Kings will be placing forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan and defenseman Jacob Moverare on waivers today. Interestingly enough, if both players clear at 11am on Thursday, they could remain up with the team to play against the visiting Ottawa Senators and then be assigned to AHL Ontario on Friday, right before the Trade Deadline.
Let’s explain…
As noted in our 2024 Trade Deadline Preview article, the Kings essentially need to make sure they put a 21-player cap compliant roster together before Friday at noon. The key issue is the team expects all four of their currently injured players — Adrian Kempe, Viktor Arvidsson, Carl Grundstrom, and Mikey Anderson — back in the lineup later this month. If that’s the case, the roster will feature less than the league maximum 23-players because that’s all they will be able to afford within the 2023-24 salary cap.
Essentially, that roster looks something like this:
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Fiala
Laferriere – Dubois – Arvidsson
Grundstrom – Lizotte – Lewis
Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence
Clarke
Talbot
Rittich
That grouping, regardless of specific line combinations, has them right up near the salary cap limit. Which leaves players like Anderson-Dolan and Moverare on the outside looking in. After the NHL Trade Deadline, teams are limited to four recalls and there are restrictions on who can be sent down. The Kings are stuck between a rock and a hard place because they (a) need the ability to send certain players back to AHL Ontario (i.e. Alex Turcotte) once the four injured players are healthy enough to return and (b) they need those same “AHL” players up with the team right now to fill in for the injured guys.
Thus, the moves to place Anderson-Dolan and Moverare are nothing more than cap maneuverings. They need those players to be eligible to go down later this month. To have them in that position, they need to have already cleared waivers.
Originally selected in the second round at the 2017 NHL Draft, Anderson-Dolan made his debut with the Kings in 2018 and has now played NHL games over six different seasons. In total, he has suited up for 126 games and recorded 28 points (15G, 13A).
He also lived at Anze Kopitar’s house early on.
He was nearly a point-per-game player during the 2021-22 AHL season, posting 47 points in 54 games, including 24 goals.
This year, the 24-year-old forward began the season on waivers — for pretty much the same reason as today, the Kings simply didn’t have a roster spot for him. He was an unrestricted free agent last summer and chose to re-sign with LA, despite the difficult path that was in front of him. He cleared waivers in October and has been up with the Kings nearly all season. He carries a $775k AAV and will be a Restricted Free Agent (arbitration eligible) this summer.
In Moverare, the Kings have a player they’ve seen at the NHL level over three different seasons, including 10 games thus far in 2023-24. He was originally selected at the 2016 NHL Draft; at a time when Kings Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Yannetti claimed Moverare had the highest Hockey IQ of all defenseman available in the Draft that year. Like JAD, Moverare was on waivers to start the season and cleared. Because he’s spent too much time on the NHL roster over the past few months, he now needs to clear waivers again before going back down. He carries a $764k AAV and will also be an RFA who is arbitration eligible this summer.
Should they clear and head to AHL Ontario later this week, there is no guarantee either will be immediately recalled to LA, even on a short-term basis. It all depends how quickly some of the injured players will be returning. The Kings have 12 healthy forwards they could play (i.e. insert Arthur Kaliyev) into the lineup; and on the blueline, they don’t have to keep playing seven defensemen every night. So, coach Jim Hiller could roll with 12 forwards and six defensemen without a recall of JAD or Moverare. Most likely, that would be a short-term plan, though, as NHL teams prefer to take extra bodies with them when they’re out on the road. Following Monday’s home game against the New York Islanders, they’ll head on the road for the next three games.
Expect these two waiver moves to be the first of several roster transactions over the next 72 hours. We explained more about what’s likely to happen with Turcotte and others come Friday morning in the article linked below.
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