Day 15 Primer – The Finale + Roster Moves

Consider today to be the final day of camp, Insiders.

After today, you go back to school and tell all of your friends about that special someone from summer camp that no one truly believes exists. The next time the Kings practice, the friendly confines of camp are behind us and the real deal is upon us. The final game of the exhibition season comes tomorrow afternoon at Crypto.com Arena, before an off day on Sunday, a practice day on Monday and Opening Night on Tuesday versus Vegas. Consider Monday’s practice to be the first practice of the regular season, which makes today’s the final practice of training camp. It’s been a long two weeks, Insiders, but we’ve learned some things about this Kings team along the way.

Over the next 48 hours, decisions will need to be made to get this group down to the allowable 23 for the start of the regular season. The Kings made two such decisions yesterday, by placing forward Lias Andersson on waivers and assigning forward Samuel Fagemo to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Andersson cleared waivers earlier today and has joined the Reign for camp as of this morning.

That’s not to say there are unanswered questions, however. The respective statuses of Sean Durzi and Viktor Arvidsson remain unknown, with three days between now and Monday’s practice. Durzi made his exhibition debut yesterday evening and it was an imperfect one, in his own words. Still, he had three points, including a power-play goal, and offers a lot for the Kings offensively, an important piece at full speed. We’ll see how night two goes. Regarding Arvidsson, his last chance to play in an exhibition game is tomorrow afternoon, and we’ll seek an update on his potential availability later on this afternoon. For inquiring minds, Quinton Byfield practiced in full today, after he returned to the full group yesterday.

The Kings also announced several roster moves this morning. Forward Lias Andersson cleared waivers as of 11 AM and has been assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Additionally, forward T.J. Tynan, along with defensemen Tobias Bjornfot and Jordan Spence have been assigned to Ontario, while forward Jacob Doty has been released from his PTO. All five players, along with David Hrenak who was recalled on an emergency basis, are expected to join the Reign on the ice this morning for their training camp skate.

With that being said, here’s how the Kings roster looks for the final practice of training camp.

Forwards (17) – Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Viktor Arvidsson, Quinton Byfield, Phillip Danault, Kevin Fiala, Carl Grundstrom, Alex Iafallo, Arthur Kaliyev, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar, Rasmus Kupari, Andre Lee*, Brendan Lemieux, Blake Lizotte, Trevor Moore, Alex Turcotte*, Gabe Vilardi
Defensemen (8) – Mikey Anderson, Brandt Clarke, Drew Doughty, Sean Durzi, Alex Edler, Jacob Moverare, Matt Roy, Sean Walker
Goaltenders (4) – Pheonix Copley, Jacob Ingham*, Cal Petersen, Jonathan Quick

*Ingham, Lee and Turcotte are injured and are not skating with the main camp group

If you look at the breakdown from there, it leaves the Kings with five lines of forwards, four pairings of defensemen and three goaltenders. That totals 26 individuals, with the assumption the team will not carry three goaltenders, it puts the roster picture into a clearer focus with two decisions to be made. And that’s not to mention the possibility of a recall from those assigned to Ontario, which last season tells us is possible.

The Kings are off and skating, Insiders. No morning skate tomorrow considering the 1 PM game against Anaheim and then we’re off and running!

The Ontario Reign will also hold a training camp skate this morning at 11 AM and will head to San Diego tomorrow for the lone exhibition contest on their preseason schedule. Many of the players who are expected to be main contributors with the Reign this season have skated in multiple exhibition contests with the NHL club, so we’ll see how Marco Sturm and his staff opt to handle that game. Ontario opens the regular season one week from today. Jared Shafran will have an update here on LAKI later on today with news and quotes from the first three days of AHL training camp.