Rookies to battle it out

The big “winners” of the day for the Kings were Thomas Hickey and Jake Muzzin. Three defensive prospects — Andrew Campbell, Johan Fransson and Alec Martinez — left the locker room, while Hickey and Muzzin remained. With only eight healthy defensemen left on the roster, and six — Doughty, Mitchell, Johnson, Scuderi, Drewiske and Harrold — essentially assured spots, it seems almost certain that Hickey and Muzzin are competing against each other for the final spot (at least until Matt Greene returns). After practice today, I asked Terry Murray if that was a fair analysis of the situation.

MURRAY: “Yes, absolutely it’s fair, and both are going to get an opportunity here in the next two games that we play, and we’ll see how they play. The window of opportunity, for a lot of exposure to play in the games, is short. We played the two games in one day, and it really comes down to five games. With wanting to get the veterans ready to play, it doesn’t give them three or four opportunities to show their game, so they have to be really good with those opportunities that they do get.”

Hickey and Muzzin are both 21 years old, and neither has a game of NHL experience. Hickey has spent parts of the past two seasons in the AHL, and that experience might give him a slight edge, but Murray said he has been impressed with both players in camp so far…

MURRAY: “Both have played well. I like Muzzin’s game. I don’t know him that well, but he has come in with the right attitude and in good shape. He has played good in his game. He’s a big-bodied guy. On the other side, Hickey is the opposite kind of player. He’s a puck-possession player who sees the ice and moves the puck. He’s a power-play guy that has to be real good in those special-team areas in order to crack that spot. So we’re looking forward to seeing how he plays.”