Kings Assign Clarke, Fagemo & Turcotte to AHL-Ontario

Quick note, Insiders.

The Kings have assigned defenseman Brandt Clarke, as well as forwards Samuel Fagemo and Alex Turcotte, to the AHL’s Ontario Reign.

These are the types of moves we’ve seen around the league over the past few days. They’re the types of moves we’ve seen from the Kings in the past at this time of the year. With the NHL club off from practice until February 8, the Kings have assigned the trio of players to the AHL’s Ontario Reign, who still have two games remaining before they reach their own All-Star break. Ontario hosts Colorado tomorrow night and Calgary on Saturday evening in their final games until the following weekend.

For Clarke specifically, the recall sets him up to participate in the AHL All-Star Classic this weekend, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 4 and Monday, February 5 in San Jose. Clarke is the lone Ontario representative and earned the nod to the All-Star event off a strong start to the season with the Reign. Though he hasn’t played an AHL game since December 31, he’s still tied for the AHL lead in points among defensemen this season. Looking at defensemen with at least 30 games played, Clarke leads the AHL in points-per-game on the season, the only player over a point-per-game pace at 1.07.

For Fagemo and Turcotte, both factored into recent games with the Kings off their own high-level AHL performance. Fagemo skated in four games with the Kings, but was a healthy scratch in St. Louis and Nashville in the final two games before the break, making room for Turcotte to step into the lineup. The organization was in search of another center, with Turcotte putting in a pair of impressive performances this past week, including his first career goal, assist and multi-point game against the Predators on Wednesday.

Unclear at this time if any or all of those three players will factor in for the Reign tomorrow or Saturday, but all three would be eligible to do so. Should the organization like those players to get into some additional game action, Ontario has been depleted a bit via injury and recalls, which has taken away some of the depth the team had earlier in the season, both at forward and on the backend. For Fagemo and Clarke specifically, game action has been inconsistent with the Kings, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see any of the three game a game with the Reign over the next two days. They also have been skating every day with the NHL club

At the same time, this doesn’t necessarily represent a permanent assignment for any of the three players.

The Kings are, as noted, off for the next eight days. Without those three players, the team only has 20 active players on the roster, plus the duo of Viktor Arvidsson and Blake Lizotte. Arvidsson has been skating for pretty much the entire month of January and the initial timeline spelled out has him re-joining the Kings for practice coming out of the break. That doesn’t mean we should expect to see him suit up on February 10 versus Edmonton – he hasn’t practiced with the team yet, he hasn’t had a full-contact practice yet and the Kings will need to ramp him up to that – but he’s progressing and that’s a good sign. Unclear if Lizotte will join him. His timeline was “week-to-week” and as of departing for the current trip, Lizotte hadn’t started skating yet. Expect an update on him as of that practice in a week. That’s a long way to say that the Kings could very well recall all three of these players back up in advance of that practice. Both Arvidsson and Lizotte are on injured reserve and do not count towards the Kings’ 23-player roster limit. Certainly expecting more roster moves to come between now and the next time we see the Kings hit the ice, so stay tuned on that front.

Diving into All-Star content over the next few days, with Cam Talbot in Toronto to represent the Kings and Clarke to represent the Reign in San Jose. Full coverage to come!