As expected, the Kings added a bottom-6 forward with toughness before Friday’s Trade Deadline. GM Rob Blake acquired Zack MacEwen from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Brendan Lemieux and a fifth round pick in 2024.
Look for LA Kings to likely make one more trade today, as we laid out here https://t.co/YIK66O4anO
ALSO, ANNUAL REMINDER:
For players to be eligible to participate in AHL playoffs, they need to be on the AHL roster later today. As such, Kupari will be a paper transaction.
— The Mayor | Team MM (@mayorNHL) March 3, 2023
The move also gives the Kings more options on their third and fourth line. With Quinton Byfield expected to play at left wing alongside Anze Kopitar for the balance of the season, Blake Lizotte and Rasmus Kupari have largely been holding down the 3C and 4C roles. MacEwen can play center or wing, although he will likely be used as a winger in LA. In Philadelphia, he only took 26 faceoffs this season; less than one per game.
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 205 lbs, MacEwen has 176 games of NHL experience. More than being a pest or agitator, the Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island native will make opponents think twice about taking liberties with any of his teammates. He’s 25 years old and has recorded 9 points (4G, 5A), 130 hits, and 54 penalty minutes with the Flyers this season. Last year, MacEwen was tagged with 110 PIM in 75 games. He is on the final year of a contract carrying a $925K AAV. He will be a Restricted Free Agent this summer, where he’ll be eligible for a $971k qualifying offer and will have arbitration rights.
Come playoff time, MacEwen could be a nice counterbalance to what many other teams have — i.e. Milan Lucic (Calgary), Evander Kane (Edmonton), Ryan Reaves (Minnesota), Kurtis MacDermid (Colorado), etc.
As a member of the Vancouver Canucks, MacEwen made his postseason debut in 2020, appearing in six games.
After saving $66K Cap Hit this year on trade, #LAKings have $1.5M Projected Cap Space with 23 players on the active roster.
This can fit $6.6M in Annual Cap Hit todayhttps://t.co/rTqfGiTs3A— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) March 3, 2023
Lemieux has been with the Kings since March 2021 and had appeared in 27 games this season. He will be an Unrestricted Free Agent this summer.
Additional Kings Trades
Blake and the Kings were not done wheeling and dealing. Soon after the MacEwen trade, the team sent AHL defenseman Frederic Allard to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Nate Schnarr. A 24-year-old center, Scharr stands 6-foot-4 and is a right shot. He’s a fourth-year pro, after playing his junior hockey with OHL Guelph. Scharr has not made his NHL debut yet. In 27 AHL games this season he has 7 points.
He was teammates in Guelph with Kings defenseman Sean Durzi and they won the OHL Championship together in 2019. Originally drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the third round (75th overall) of the 2017 NHL Draft, Scharr has registered 75 points (29G, 46A) with a plus-25 rating and 91 PIM in 166 career AHL games with Laval, Utica Comets, Binghamton Devils and Tucson Roadrunners.
Additionally, the Kings traded forward Austin Wagner to the Chicago Blackhawks for future considerations. He has been with the Ontario Reign this season, yet hasn’t played since a set of weekend games in late January. Wagner is in the final year of a three-year contract and will be an RFA this summer.
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