Saturday morning brought the news everybody expected, yet nobody wanted to hear. Kevin Fiala’s injury at the Olympics is serious. Following surgery in Italy, he will miss the remainder of the NHL’s regular season.
This is a major bummer for Fiala, who like all of the players who headed to Europe, were beaming with excitement and pride at the honor of being selected to represent their native countries on the biggest stage possible.
Back home, with his day job playing for the Kings, Fiala is second on the team in goals (18) and points (40). To say he’s a vital part of their offense would be an understatement. And with the recent addition of a legit sniper in Artemi Panarin, fans and coaches were already daydreaming about how to best deploy what would be their newly configured lineup coming out of the Olympic break.
Now, that’s all out the window.
While everybody hopes for Fiala to have a smooth recovery, life must also continue for the Kings – that’s just the reality of pro sports. Coach Jim Hiller’s group will come out of the Olympic break needing to play three games in four nights and are fighting for a post-season spot in the crowded Pacific Division.
So, what next for the Kings?
Salary Cap
For starters, the money.
Yes, the Kings can add him to long-term injured reserve (LTIR) and use the freed-up cap space during the regular season and in the playoffs — where teams must be cap compliant this year, unlike the past few seasons. However, they really don’t need that extra space. They are already projected to have over $15 million in available cap space at the Trade Deadline coming up in a few weeks. Essentially, they already have the space to add just about any player (or even two) that they want.
Fiala is in the fourth year of a seven-year contract that carries a $7.875M cap hit. In putting him on LTIR, they most likely would not get the full benefit of that number because of the way the calculation works. They would need to get as close to the cap as possible before moving him to LTIR, which should lead to a callup (or Alex Turcotte coming off IR) once the NHL’s roster freeze has been lifted. Basically, the Kings will want to have a full roster of 23 players and be as close to the cap limit as possible before moving Fiala to LTIR. See here for further explanation of the math.
Roster Call-up from AHL
Andre Lee is the most obvious name. He’s been up with the Kings in brief spurts the past two seasons and is leading AHL Ontario in goals. GM Ken Holland even mentioned the 6-foot-5 Swede during his recent press conference with local media following the Panarin trade.
Other candidates in Ontario could include Kenny Connors, Franky Pinelli, and Martin Chromiak.
The Foegele Factor
Although there has been a lot of talk about the potential of Holland trading Warren Foegele, that’s not something that was recommended during the most recent Kings Of The Podcast episode — linked here. Now, it’s likely even more imperative the team holds on to the middle-6 winger.
Trade Market
What about adding a center?
For starters, those plans are likely not changing. Holland has been very clear: the team has no interest in a rebuild. Even though that was said before the Fiala injury, trading for Panarin should have made it clear, LA is desperate to make the playoffs this season. With that in mind, we’re expecting them to continue to be active prior to the upcoming Trade Deadline on March 7.
Center options were discussed at length during this recent conversation:
And one of them made some noise earlier today:
Pettersson: Two goals (including the GWG). His first multi-goal game since Nov. 17.
Sweden also changed their lines, giving him Forsberg as a winger. We discussed some of this yesterday here: NHL RADIO REPLAY: Mayor’s Minutes on Early Olympics Results and Surprises
More on today's gamehttps://t.co/nFDF5V0CWb
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