With an offense that continues to provide less than consistent scoring, it was only a matter of time until a move had to be made in Los Angeles. As we first discussed when NHL team’s had to submit their initial rosters to the league office, coach Darryl Sutter was going to carry eight defenseman until he and the management group were completely confident Willie Mitchell’s knee was fully recovered.
Given the amount of minutes Mitchell’s been logging thus far, such questions have apparently been answered. Through 14 games played, the veteran defenseman has averaged 22:20 of ice time per game – second most on the team, trailing only Drew Doughty.
As such, Keaton Ellerby has been placed on waivers to make room for another forward.
But – not so fast – there’s actually two guys coming up from Manchester, meaning another roster move had to be made.
Jeff Carter has been placed [ed. note: technically, he’s ‘going to be placed’] on the injured reserve list. The exact nature of his injury hasn’t been disclosed yet, but he did report to the team’s training facility today with a boot on his foot. You may remember, he missed time with the Kings in April of 2012 for what GM Dean Lombardi described at the time as – ‘No fracture, [but] a very deep bone bruise.’ This, of course, came about six months after he had broken a bone in his foot when he was playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
With those two adjustments, Tyler Toffoli and Linden Vey are being called up from Manchester. They’re already on their way to LA.
Toffoli, who was one of the Kings better players during the playoffs last season, was leading Manchester in scoring at the time of the call-up. Through 10 games played, the talented right wing had produced 12 points, including a team-best seven goals.
Vey, currently ranked as LA’s third best prospect, was second in scoring among Monarchs players with 11 points (three goals, eight assists).
In an unrelated move to all of the above, MayorsManor has also learned prospect Alex Roach is being sent back to the WHL. At 6-foot-5, the defenseman was originally assigned to Manchester to start the season, but was recently shipped to Ontario (ECHL), where he played a few games.
UPDATE: Reaction from several Kings players and coach Darryl Sutter can be found at the links below.
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