MayorsManor.com

NHL blog, LA Kings hockey news and interviews from The Mayor

You are here: Home / HockeyBlog / Kings and Reign Rosters Coming Into Focus, Plus a Few Head-scratchers

Kings and Reign Rosters Coming Into Focus, Plus a Few Head-scratchers

By

Nothing is set in stone, yet today’s groupings at Kings training camp should be very telling.

As we’ve noted several times recently, the fight for the final four roster spots could include up to 13 different players. However, logic suggests it’s likely about six or seven — with the other players targeted for AHL Ontario to start the season.

Earlier this week, we reported the Kings would like to get down to about 30 players for the second half of camp, a true competition for the 23-man Opening Night roster and today’s groupings suggested that’s how things are shaping up in advance of the next two pre-season games, coming Thursday in Salt Lake City and Friday in Las Vegas.

LA KINGS GROUP A

Arvidsson – Kopitar – Brown
Tkachev – Danault – Iafallo
Kempe – Vilardi – Andersson
Moore – Byfield – Wagner
Lemieux – Lizotte – Grundstrom
Kupari

Anderson – Doughty
Bjornfot – Roy
Edler – Walker
Maatta – Clague

Quick
Petersen

LA KINGS GROUP B

Madden – JAD – Fagemo
Kaliyev – Turcotte – Frk
Sodergran – Tynan – Johnson
Pavlychev – Dudas – Doty
Burke – Sutter – Kemp

Wolanin – Strand
Moverare – Spence
Guance – Durzi
Phillips – Grans

Sparks
Villalta
Ingham
Parik
Lethemon

ADDITIONAL NOTES

— Where do things go from here? We expect a major round of roster cuts over the weekend. This will largely be academic with AHL camps opening early next week. Thus, the majority of those cuts can be predicted, as players like Brett Sutter, TJ Tynan, etc. have been targeted for the Reign all along. Group B is largely the roster for that camp already. Where it gets interesting is with guys like Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Martin Frk. It’s a bit of a headscratcher they were moved to Group B so quickly, unless it was just to balance the lines out today. Again, nothing is set in stone here, so those guys could easily still make the roundtrip tomorrow and be in consideration and/or stick around past the next round of cuts. When all is said and done, though, GM Rob Blake could be putting several players on waivers in about 10 days.

— There were three cuts made before the Kings took the ice today, two players returning to the OHL and camp invitee Cade McNelly.

— Noticeable by his absence in the above groupings — and another eyebrow raising element today – is forward Andreas Athanasiou. He started camp in Group C and was expected to work his way into LA’s main group by the end of this week. We’ll keep an eye on how that situation develops over the next few days.

UPDATE (3 p.m. on 9/29): Athanasiou has been temporarily sidelined with an upper-body injury, per Kings coach Todd McLellan. At this time, he’s expected to return before the season opener in two weeks.

— Hope you contacted your broker, as suggested last week.

The stock of young defenseman Jordan Spence continues to rise. He scored a goal in last night’s game vs. the Sharks – showing off his bomb of a shot in the process. And now just look where he’s slotted in the pseudo Reign lineup. He’s expected to log big minutes in Ontario this season.

— Slice it any way you want, the fact remains there are just too many goalies in the pipeline right now. Even if the Kings opt to hold three goalies in the AHL this season (Sparks, Villalta, and one of Ingham-Parik), and then send Lethemon to ECHL Greenville, there are still two issues. First, where do you send the ‘other guy’ after you select between Ingham-Parik? Sure, he could go to the ECHL too; but will he get enough starts? Ingham certainly didn’t when he was there last season. The other issue is really the same issue. If you carry three goalies in Ontario — and even if you play Sparks very sparingly — is that really the best thing for either Ingham or Parik? They’re the top two goalie prospects in the Kings system. Wherever those guys are assigned this season, they need to play a lot of games.

RELATED CONTENT:

Something Has To Give Soon, Kings Players Headed to a Trade or Waivers

Instagram

ALL IMAGES AND VIDEO PROVIDED BY ALO IMAGES

Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please remember to include a link to www.MayorsManor.com