As of last Thursday, the midpoint of this year’s Kings training camp, LA’s opening night roster was pretty much setwas pretty much set. Riding out the next week was all but a formality, with key decisions apparently made. Then, like most of the past 10 months, the dreaded ‘fluid situation’ term reared it’s ugly head, forcing Kings management to once again reconvene in the conference room, with erasers and extra markers in hand.
Only a few hours ahead of the annual Black/White scrimmage game, word came out that five players had been deemed unfit to play – Gabe Vilardi, Kurtis MacDermid, Sean Walker, Cal Petersen, and Matt Villalta.
For those new to the game, ‘unfit to play’ is the league’s universal language being used when somebody has activated additional Covid-19 related protocols. It doesn’t mean the player has necessarily tested positive. It also has nothing to do with an injury, as those situations will largely be handled the same as they always have, at least in terms of releasing information (upper body, lower body… or as Darryl Sutter once joked, middle body).
Even during his post-game media scrum on Saturday, Kings coach Todd McLellan wasn’t in the position to offer much clarity.
“The players that didn’t play today were deemed unfit to play,” McLellan stated, without offering any timeline for their return. “We’re gonna have to be prepared for that throughout the season, whether it’s now, three months from now, four months from now. That can pop up at any time.”
So, the only thing really known at the time was five players were being held out of team activities for precautionary reasons. And just how long they’ll be out has still yet to be determined.
Update on 5 LA Kings players who were held out of yesterday's scrimmage — believe all tested negative.
All are still in protocol – had close contact, symptomatic yet negative test results.
Didn't play for precautionary reasons.
Final roster projections below stand, for now: https://t.co/Eqy2gfzvzT
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) January 10, 2021
Putting all health concerns aside — yes, we hope everybody is safe and healthy — time is ticking, as final rosters are due to the NHL office by Tuesday afternoon.
WAIVERS
LA Kings have placed two players on waivers:
Boko Imama
Daniel BrickleyOther teams have 24 hours to snag them. Any player who clears tomorrow will be assigned to AHL Ontario / taxi squad.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) January 10, 2021
Tomorrow is last day to put players on waivers before teams must submit opening rosters to NHL. Kings only have 2 other players they "have" to make a decision on – Troy Grosenick (G) and Mark Alt (D).
As noted yesterday, with 5 guys out, mgmt meeting today to assess situation.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) January 10, 2021
Let’s take a look at some of the things currently in play…
— Perhaps the most pressing matter, GM Rob Blake has two players he must make a decision on before 9am Monday morning. The decision is whether to place defenseman Mark Alt and/or goaltender Troy Grosenick on waivers. Monday is the final day to do so before Tuesday’s roster deadline. Prior to the events of Saturday, the Kings only had four players not expected to make the NHL roster who would need to go on waivers (for the purposes of assigning them to the taxi squad or AHL – all of that was laid out here). Those players were Alt, Grosenick, Boko Imama, and Daniel Brickley. And the latter two were placed on waivers Sunday. With the Kings still not clear on the exact status of the five unfit to play, they opted to wait another 24 hours to asses the situation. Come 9am Monday, Alt and Grosenick either need to be on waivers or that’s an indication they’ll be on the team’s opening night roster.
— LA’s planned 23-man roster for opening night was:
Alex Iafallo – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Adrian Kempe – Gabe Vilardi – Martin Frk
Andreas Athanasiou – Blake Lizotte – Jeff Carter
Trevor Moore – Mike Amadio – Austin Wagner
Carl Grundstrom – Matt Luff
Olli Maatta – Drew Doughty
Mikey Anderson – Matt Roy
Kurtis MacDermid – Sean Walker
Kale Clague
Jonathan Quick
Cal Petersen
— How might they temporarily replace the five unfit to play?
Villalta was tabbed for the AHL this season, so we can put him to the side for a moment.
Petersen can be replaced by one of the two other goaltenders with NHL contracts – Grosenick or Jacob Ingham. JF Berube is not an option because he was only signed to an AHL contracthe was only signed to an AHL contract. The decision here is actually quite easy. Grosenick would get the nod if Petersen can’t be cleared through the protocol process in time. He’s 31 years old and has been playing pro hockey since 2013. Plus, he was pretty much signed for reasons just like this. Ingham — although a highly touted prospect — has a paltry two games of pro experience, both coming in the ECHL last month. Again, once Petersen is cleared, Grosenick will need to be placed on waivers before he can be sent to the AHL or taxi squad.
Things get a little bit trickier in replacing MacDermid and Walker. Although it’s not entirely complicated, there are two factors in play here – the lineup and the roster. For starters, they have Kale Clague sitting there as the seventh defenseman and wanted to get him into the lineup most nights any way. So one box is easily checked. Alt, like Grosenick, was signed in-part for these type of situations. He isn’t LA’s only option either. Rookies Sean Durzi, Austin Strand, or possibly Tobias Bjornfot (more on him in a minute) could get some consideration. However, Alt is the safer and easier option to enter the lineup. At 29 years old, he has six years of pro experience and has even been skating on the right side of Clague in practice recently, making it almost a plug-and-play situation.
While that may solve the lineup question – assuming the Kings carry seven defensemen, they’ll need to add one more to round out the group. That’s where one of Durzi, Strand, or Bjornfot come in. Yet again, though, there’s a wrinkle. Bjornfot has not officially been cleared for practice since returning from the World Juniors in Edmonton. Kings management was hopeful Bjornfot, along with the other three WJC players (Alex Turcotte, Arthur Kaliyev, and Quinton Byfield) could be cleared by Monday or Tuesday. Provided that happens, we’d give a slight edge to Bjornfot because he at least has a little bit of NHL experience from early last season. At the end of the day, the player assigned as the seventh defenseman is somewhat a moot point this week, as he wouldn’t be starting anyway.
Our projected defensive group, should MacDermid and Walker not get cleared in time:
Olli Maatta – Drew Doughty
Mikey Anderson – Matt Roy
Kale Clague – Mark Alt
Sean Durzi
Perhaps the most concerning name of the five unfit to play is Vilardi – and that’s only because he’s the player without an obvious short-term solution. From purely a roster perspective, the two most likely candidates to take Vilardi’s spot on the 23-man roster would be Lias Andersson and Jaret Anderson-Dolan. Naturally, each come with their own questions.
Throughout camp, McLellan has talked about wanting to keep the lines together as much as possible, in the hopes of building on some familiarity and getting off to a hot start.
If that’s the case, Andersson is probably the easier player to slide into the lineup – with a few different variations of how to best do it.
The least disruptive way would be to just put Andersson into Vilardi’s line as the new center, producing a lineup of:
Alex Iafallo – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Andreas Athanasiou – Blake Lizotte – Jeff Carter
Adrian Kempe – Lias Andersson – Martin Frk
Trevor Moore – Mike Amadio – Austin Wagner
Now, if McLellan called to ask for some input (and he’s not, don’t worry), we’d prefer to mix things up a little bit. Andersson has spent most of his recent time in camp playing on a line with Grundstrom and Luff. So we’d like to see:
Alex Iafallo – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Andreas Athanasiou – Blake Lizotte – Jeff Carter
Adrian Kempe – Mike Amadio – Austin Wagner/Martin Frk
Carl Grundstrom – Lias Andersson – Matt Luff
This would reunite Kempe with Amadio, and they had some success together late last season. Who fills out the RW spot on that line is a coin-flip in our mind.
Now, there is a whole other option to replace Vilardi and his name is Jaret Anderson-Dolan. On some levels, the move makes more sense. He’s been in the organization longer and should know the Kings system a bit better than Andersson. That should be enough to tip the ledger in his favor. But he wouldn’t be handed something by default here either. JAD has had a very good camp, including goals in a few of the scrimmages and earning praise for a relentless commitment to the defensive side of his game (coaches always like that). If the Kings went with JAD as Vilardi’s replacement on the roster, the lineup would most likely look something like:
Alex Iafallo – Anze Kopitar – Dustin Brown
Andreas Athanasiou – Blake Lizotte – Jeff Carter
Adrian Kempe – Mike Amadio – Austin Wagner
Carl Grundstrom – Jaret Anderson-Dolan – Martin Frk
Bottom line, Vilardi is the X-factor in all of this.
Circling back to the five unfit players – remember, they all have unique situations. It’s not a universal thing, where all five have to follow the same path this week. One of them, or two, three, four of them could return sooner than the other(s).
One thing we would be pretty shocked to see is Turcotte, Kaliyev, or Byfield slide into the opening night roster. Even if they were cleared in time to practice with the team on Monday, that’s a big ask to make their NHL debut on Thursday.
A few additional notes to wrap this up…
The Kings would like to get a good look at Byfield and Kaliyev before they most likely are returned to the OHL. On the positive side, we’re hearing the AHL may allow Ontario to play some exhibition games. The Reign are pushing to open training camp as early as Tuesday, so those games could come up rather quickly. The sooner the better for the Kings because the AHL regular season doesn’t open until February 5. By then, the OHL may have announced a start date and the Kings would need to send both players back to the OHL (as they can only be placed on the taxi squad or participate in the AHL until the OHL returns).
How important is it for the Kings to get off to a hot start?
If you assume the Minnesota Wild are one of the key teams they'll be battling for the fourth playoff spot in West Division – look at the schedule.
LA plays Minny 4x in the their first 8 games.
And 8x in first 21.
— John Hoven | The Mayor (@mayorNHL) January 10, 2021
Which brings us to one final point. If the Kings are thinking about getting Byfield and/or Kaliyev into an NHL game or two before they leave town, the games to look at may be the first two against Colorado – January 19 and 21. You can almost surely scratch off the season opening pair of games vs. Minnesota. Those two are far too important if the Kings are serious about challenging for a playoff spot this season. Games 5, 6, 7, and 8 are road games. If everybody is healthy, it becomes a bit more challenging to get Byfield or Kaliyev onto the NHL roster during a road game (for reasons explained here). Conversely, if Blake and McLellan wait until the Kings return from their first road trip, the next home game is February 2 vs. Anaheim. It could be too late by then, the OHL could be back up and running.
What’s next? The Kings need a status update on the five unfit players ASAP; that will determine if Grosenick and/or Alt need to go on waivers or if they’re staying up with the big club for now. Additionally, depending which of the five will need to miss opening night due to protocols, LA will need to select their roster replacements.
UPDATE – 9:15am, Monday 1/11/2021
Boko Imama and Daniel Brickley, both cleared waivers, they’ll head to taxi squad/AHL.
Neither Troy Grosenick or Mark Alt were placed on waivers today, so they’ll make the LA Kings opening night roster.
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