Jarret Stoll, recovering from a strained groin, participated in this morning’s optional skate, but when asked if he thought it was possible that he could play Wednesday or Thursday, Stoll said, “That’s pretty close. Probably not, no.” But Stoll said he felt good on the ice this morning, and Terry Murray said it’s possible that Stoll will accompany the team on the road and continue skating in practices.
STOLL: “There’s no pain. I just want to make sure that the strength is there and slowly, gradually, do more and more skating and more and more drills, get into some practices and then I should be good to go. But I just want to be smart with it, to make sure that this time, when I come back, it’s fully healed and I’ll be playing until the end of the season, until we’re done, hopefully sometime in June.”
As for Justin Williams, there’s still no official timetable for his return from a broken leg, but here’s what Murray said today about Williams…
MURRAY: “The plan is for some kind of procedure to be done early this afternoon. I think it all depends, obviously, on what the doctor is going to see when he gets the x-rays and gets his hands on them. … He’s pretty emotional about this injury, and I guess I have to be understanding of that, when it’s going to be a long, probably three months that he’s going to be on the sideline.”
“…and I’ll be playing until the end of the season, until we’re done, hopefully sometime in June.”
Gotta love it!
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what about jones?
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sucks for JW.. gotta be frustrating.
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You just gotta feel for Williams. Just bad luck on his end. Can’t wait to see him come back when we head into the playoffs (Yes, I said it) because he will be needed. Take case of yourself Wills! We are going to miss you, your on ice presence is key to this team.
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I really hope Williams can fight his way back from this latest injury. He has had a lot to deal with the past few years. You gotta wonder if he is going to be the same player after all he has been through. He will no doubt recover physically, but the emotional recovery is going to be more difficult.
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=( Williams
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Happy New Year Justin
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JW won me over this year, even though it does appear over for him. He often seemed like he was moving double the speed of everyone else on the ice. Smart player, lots of energy, lots of heart.
Get well soon JW, we will be missing you on the ice.
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Well, atleast Stoll is almost healthy. Pound for pound I think he is more integral to the team than Williams when you weigh in his PK work and face-off abilities.
The good news is that the team has already fought through more/worse injuries and came out on the other side winning hockey games.
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“JW won me over this year, even though it does appear over for him.”
I think saying it appears over for him is a bit fatalistic. He’s recently just turned 28 years old. Frankly, a broken bone is far more of definite injury than one to a tendon or a muscle.
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clarification- “over” for this year, I certainly expect him back next year!
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Completely unrelated to Stoll or JW (get well soon Justin!), but I figured it was a good time of year to recap how some of the Kings prospects are doing since the CHL is on hiatus due to the World Juniors and the other leagues are just coming back from their Xmas breaks. I’ll go by the rankings that hockeysfuture.com has them ranked…
1: Thomas Hickey: In 15 games for Manchester Hickey has no goals, 5 assists, and is a -1.
2: Jonathon Bernier: After 26 games played for the Monarchs Bernier is 16-8-2 with a 1.88 GAA and a .944 save percentage. He’s currently tied for 1st in the AHL in wins, he’s 2nd in the AHL in save percentage and 3rd in GAA. He’s also tied for 2nd with 4 shutouts.
3: Brayden Schenn: Schenn is 5th in all of Major Junior with 35 assists and he’s 8th in the WHL in points with 49.
4: Oscar Moller: You guys know what he’s up to…
5: Vyacheslav Voynov: After 35 games with Manchester Voynov has 6 goals and 11 assists. He’s a +3.
6: Colten Teubert: After 31 games with Regina in the WHL Teubert has 6 goals and 18 assists. He’s a -2.
7: Andrei Loktionov: Before being injured in his Kings debut, Loktionov had 6 goals and 11 assists in 20 games with Manchester.
8: Trevor Lewis: I’m not sure what Lewis’ status is? He’s only played 5 games for Manchester and obviously he’s not with the Kings. I assume he’s injured?
9: Martin Jones: Jones has played 20 games for the Calgary Hitmen. He’s 15-5-0 with a 2.83 GAA and a .897 save %. He’s currently the backup goalie for Team Canada at the WJC.
10: Kyle Clifford: After 25 games for the Barrie Colts in the OHL Clifford has 11 goals and 7 assists and is a +7.
The player that hockeysfutre.com doesn’t even have listed in the Kings top 19 is Brandon Kozun, who is currently tearing it up in the WJC. Maybe the website will re-evaluate him? He currently leads all of Major Junior in assists (44) and points (63), and he leads Major Junior with 8 game winning goals.
So if we look at the list, I’d say good seasons so far from Kozun, Bernier, and Clifford. And maybe a bit disappointing by Schenn, Hickey, Jones, and Teubert? I’d be curious to hear how the Kings management evaluates some of these prospects currently.
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Kozun is a SoCal kid, and Canadiens are very harsh toward anyone outside of their bubble.
I’m sure i just pissed off a hundred Canadiens, but i live and work in a CHL market, and well….it’s true.
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Agree with Rick’s comments about JW. The mental side will be a huge hurdle for him. It’s the third major lower body injury for him in like 3 seasons? So he has to deal with the mental as well as the physical. Quite an ask, but we’ll see. Wish him all the best though.
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Kozun is gone.
Bernier is a Monster but will stay in the AHL to gain experience and consistency (unless something bad happens, let’s hope for the best).
Schenn is doing just fine. He’ll be in LA next year.
Clifford is doing very good. Hope to see him in LA next year as well.
Teubert is developing into his frame, adding pounds and experience. You cannot judge Teubert by sheer numbers. He’ll be in the AHL next year, maybe with a short stint in LA.
Hickey is trade bait. Sorry DL, I think that experiment backfired.
Jones is doing just fine. More than fine actually….
My 2 cents. Cheers.
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@PAUL FROM OXNARD … Hey guy, thanks for the info. Very interesting reading. The two stop takes that I did were 1) Bernier … very impressive, and 2) Schenn… not that it’s one or the other, but I said to myself, yikes, seems like a playmaker. So who is he gonna set up with the Kings, since (yes, still an issue for me and some other people) we really don’t have a single sniper on the team. I mean, Kopi has that ability, but obviously he’s a center, and Purcell is supposed to be a sniper. Guess that’s yet to be determined.
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Paul,thanks for the heads up.I think Tuebert is known more for his hitting.From what I here he’s striking fear into opposing teams pretty regularly.
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Kuzon is gone… what does that mean? The guy is getting nothing but praise the last 2 games at the wjc. 2 goals, 3 assist in game 1. In today’s game, he controlled an entire shift by himself.
Kuzon and Schenn will be playing on the same line one day.
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let’s all pray jw has a good anesthesiologist
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Dom,
What do you mean, “Kozun is gone?” As far as I can tell the Kings still own his rights and he’s not dead.
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To add to the prospect list, Geordie Wudrick got rocked last night on his first shift against the Vancouver Giants and did not return. Looked pretty dazed when he skated off and was taken to the hospital but no further details have been released yet…concussion maybe..
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Yeah, I don’t understand the “Kozun is gone” remark either.
Regarding Hickey, I still can’t understand why Kings fans are so down on this kid. He was captain of Team Canada at the WJC last year. Most sites still list him as one of the top 3 Kings prospects. I don’t know what you guys all expected of the guy, but I’d bet he’s still pretty high on Dean Lombardi’s list and that’s good enough for me.
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I still don’t believe JW’s injury takes that long to heal.
1. He lifted his leg by himself right after he got injured. If it is the tibia he couldn’t even do that due to tremendous pain (if it is just a fracture and bone is still in alignment he could) therefore I think it’s the fibula.
2. Broken bone might be still in place cause if it’s not, the sharp tip of the bone may have come out from the skin and if that’s the case, it could be fatal (bone would be infected) so he had to go to emergency room but he didn’t.
3. I thought he also twisted his leg so it could be a spiral fracture. If that’s the case then the bone must be plated and full recovery of bone will be 3 to 4 weeks.
4. Even though his leg will be in a cast, after swelling is ceased he can start isometric exercise to keep his muscle in better condition. However recovering flexibility of both knee and ankle joints may take sometime … maybe 2 weeks or so.
I don’t know. It’s just my speculation and I don’t deny my wish in there. Get well Willie.
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It seems that all sources indicate that Kozun is still a Kings prospect. He is on the move within the minors though. Does anyone have anything else on him?
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Paul from Oxnard -
Unfortunately Hickey, Loktionov and Lewis all have had shoulder surgery and they are 3 of the players that are out month-to-month. Two out of the three watch the games in Mancheste from what we refer to as the hospital ward with their arm in slings.
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Kozus can be traded from team to team in the WHL, just like Simmonds was when he was in juniors. The Kings own his nhl right for quite some time.
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