The way LA’s 2024-25 preseason schedule was put together it almost offered three distinct chapters. First up were the two games in Utah and Vegas. They would serve as opportunities for young prospects — guys like Liam Greentree, Carter George, and Jared Woolley – to get their first taste of NHL action. Mission accomplished too, as all three played for the Kings and have now been returned to their respective junior clubs.
Chapter two was going to serve as the team’s only exhibition games in SoCal, due to the ongoing renovations at Crypto.com Arena. This segment of the schedule features today’s game in Ontario, followed by a rematch with the Ducks in Anaheim on Monday night.
And then things conclude with a pair of games in Quebec City — something we originally looked at here.
Well, Scottish poet Robert Burns may have been on to something back in 1785, when he wrote the famous words, “The best laid plans of mice and men can still go wrong.”
Indeed they can.
Drew Doughty’s injury has thrown a significant wrench into things over the past few days.
Looking Ahead to Quebec City
As we reported earlier this week, this is the group of players the Kings planned on taking to Quebec City:
GM Rob Blake and coach Jim Hiller would have needed to cut that group of 26 players down by three to get to the league maximum of 23 by opening night. Theoretically speaking, Pheonix Copley is the easy name to point to, as plans call for him to start the season in Ontario (ed. note, there we go with ‘plans’ again).
Most likely, Andre Lee and Sammy Helenius would have been the other two targeted for AHL Ontario when the team leaves Canada. However, the Doughty injury has management rethinking things a bit.
From what we’ve been able to gather over the past 24 hours, the decision of who will replace him on the roster of 26 for Quebec City portion of training camp has come down to Caleb Jones and Jacob Moverare – both left shot defensemen. Obviously, the latter is a known commodity, as he was drafted by the Kings at just 17 years old and has played 45 games for the club in spot duty over the past few seasons. He also has two years remaining on his contract.
Jones was signed this past summer in a depth move. He’s 6-foot-1 and arrives with 242 games of NHL experience, including 25 GP last season in Colorado. Throughout his career, he’s played both the right and left side of the blueline, which is one of the reasons he’s being considered to fill the current opening on LA’s NHL roster. He’s on a one-year deal, which could potentially make him more of a waiver risk than Moverare. However, that’s not the team’s top priority right now. Figuring out their three starting defensive pairs is of utmost importance with opening night less than two weeks away.
Jones will play today vs. the Ducks and Moverare is believed to be playing Monday in Anaheim. As we understand things, the team doesn’t plan on making the decision for which defensemen will join them in Quebec City until after Monday’s game.
Waivers Are Also a Consideration
Teams around the league are also starting to put players on waivers for the purpose of assigning them to their AHL affiliates. The Reign begin training camp on Monday, so the Kings will put their first batch of players on waivers tomorrow, so they’ll clear by Monday morning at 11am PST. Then, there will be a second round of players put on waivers Monday. Those guys will also join the Reign.
Losing one of Moverare or Jones isn’t the only consideration throughout this process. The Kings will also be looking at the waiver wire over the next 48 hours for a potential depth add. They simply don’t have a lot of depth on the right side of their blueline, so if they see something attractive, they could initiate a claim.
As for the players LA will need to push through waivers before assigning them to Ontario, the list includes:
Forwards: Glenn Gawdin, Tyler Madden, Jeff Malott, Jack Studnicka, Taylor Ward
Defensemen: Joe Hicketts, Reilly Walsh
Andre Lee will also require waivers, so that will be a consideration further down the road.
Don’t Forget Dvorak
Independent of waivers, because he’s exempt either way, a decision will need to be reached on Jakub Dvorak at some point too.
Like Jones, he’s playing today vs. Anaheim in a bit of an audition for Kings management.
The team’s top draft selection in 2023 is likely either staying in the AHL or headed back to Europe. More on his situation can be found here.
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