Kings finalize 23-man, opening night roster

After an eventful training camp and preseason, the Kings finally have their team.

The organization officially announced its 23-man roster as of the 2:00 p.m. PT Tuesday deadline and among the transactions of note was forward Devin Setoguchi earning a one-year, two-way contract.

Center Nic Dowd made the Kings out of training camp for the first time. The 26-year-old Dowd, who will wear #26, was a mid-season call-up last season who appeared in five NHL games. He scored three preseason goals for the Kings. Defenseman Kevin Gravel, who also appeared in five regular season games last season, was among the final cuts to the roster, along with forwards Adrian Kempe, Michael Latta and Michael Mersch, and defensemen Rob Scuderi, Paul LaDue and Kurtis MacDermid.

The opening night roster:

Goalies (2): Jonathan Quick, Jeff Zatkoff
Defensemen (7): Matt Greene, Brayden McNabb, Jake Muzzin, Drew Doughty, Tom Gilbert, Derek Forbort, Alec Martinez
Forwards (14): Teddy Purcell, Devin Setoguchi, Anze Kopitar, Kyle Clifford, Andy Andreoff, Nick Shore, Trevor Lewis, Dustin Brown, Nic Dowd, Tanner Pearson, Jordan Nolan, Tyler Toffoli, Dwight King, Jeff Carter

Pearson is suspended for the first two games of the season and necessitates a roster spot, while Marian Gaborik (foot) is starting on injured reserve.

With the establishment of the Kings’ opening night roster, the club has $70.87-million allotted to 23 players plus Gaborik, providing roughly $2.13M of cap space, according to financials provided by General Fanager. These financials include Gaborik’s cap hit, the $1.57M devoted to Mike Richards’ settlement and cap recapture and the $175,000 hit necessitated by Scuderi’s assignment to the AHL.

Both Latta and Scuderi were assigned to Ontario after having cleared waivers. It’s not hard to imagine the 37-year-old Scuderi, a two-time Stanley Cup champion, taking on a veteran role with the Reign similar to the one vacated when Jeff Schultz signed with Anaheim over the off-season.

Scuderi serves as a “good veteran presence, with a winners resume,” Ontario Head Coach Mike Stothers told Reign Insider Lindsay Czarnecki. “[He] will be real valuable to have around, especially with our young D and how close some of them are to making it in the NHL. Good person as well.”

As for those assigned to Ontario, they were mostly Reign regulars from a season ago in forwards Mersch and Kempe, as well as defensemen Gravel and MacDermid.

Mersch and Gravel did not have to clear waivers to be sent to Ontario, and the team likely did not want to risk losing an asset in Forbort, who would have had to clear waivers to be assigned. For Forbort, this is the second straight season he has made the team out of camp. Both MacDermid, a second-year pro, and LaDue, a rookie defenseman out of the University of North Dakota who was impressive at training camp, were expected to be in the AHL this season.

Defenseman Zac Leslie and forward Spencer Watson have been designated as injured non-roster players. Leslie suffered a lower-body injury in the Kings vs. Kings exhibition in late September and Watson remains sidelined after undergoing wrist surgery in the offseason.

-Lindsay Czarnecki and Jon Rosen collaborated on this report.