Valentine’s Day brought anything but love to Kings prospect Alex Turcotte this year. At the very least, somebody is certainly playing with his emotions in 2021, that much is a given. After scoring the gold medal-winning goal for Team USA at the World Junior Championship in early January, Turcotte was forced to miss all of Kings and Reign training camps in the month that followed. Although injured at the WJC, he played through it to finish the tournament, then needed to heal up. The 19-year-old Illinois native was cleared to play just in time for the Ontario Reign season opener on February 6 in Las Vegas. Five games later, he was back on the sidelines.
From what we’ve been able to gather, Turcotte is set to return for Ontario this weekend. He’s expected to travel with the team to San Jose tomorrow and play in games Saturday and Sunday vs. the Barracuda.
In his five AHL games played this season, Turcotte has yet to record his first official point as a professional. Most games saw him finish with 2 shots on goal, yet he had a season-high 5 SOG vs. San Diego on Feb. 10.
After suffering a lower body injury on Feb. 14, Turcotte has missed the past three Reign games. He tried to give it a go last Wednesday vs. Colorado, but wasn’t quite ready. With the team off this week, it will be nearly two full weeks Turcotte has been out of the lineup when he returns on Saturday.
A dynamic offensive player and somebody who brings a certain bite to the Reign lineup — something lacking in many others thus far — Turcotte should be a welcome addition to coach John Wroblewski, who will be without leading point producer Rasmus Kupari in San Jose (he’s with the Kings on their road trip).
Short forwards of late, Wroblewski has been forced to ice a lineup with 7 defensemen and only 11 forwards. Getting Turcotte back would certainly help the center position, as he’s been one of the team’s primary faceoff guys when he’s played.
For now, we’ll assume he’ll be reunited on a line with Tyler Madden and Arthur Kaliyev.
Turcotte earned one of the highest letter grades among the Kings nine prospects who participated at the WJC.
A few months prior, upon returning home from training with Eisbären Berlin in Germany, Turcotte appeared on Kings Of The Podcast, where he opened up on a number of issues. That episode is linked below, for your reference.
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