9/23 Preseason Preview – Expected Game Group + Lew-Tah, Edmundson’s First Camp, Roster Moves

WHO: Los Angeles Kings (0-0-0) @ Utah Hockey Club (0-0-0)
WHAT: 2024 NHL Preseason Game
WHEN: Monday, September 23 @ 6:00 PM Pacific
WHERE: Delta Center – Salt Lake City, Utah
HOW TO FOLLOW: VIDEO: NHL Network – AUDIO – ESPN LA / LA Kings App – TWITTER: @ShafReign & @LAKings

TONIGHT’S MATCHUP: The 2024 exhibition season is upon us! The LA Kings will play the first game of the preseason this evening as they head to Salt Lake City to take on Utah Hockey Club for the first time.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings have never played Utah in a formal game, with this being the first matchup in history after Utah’s relocation over the summer. The teams met at the Rookie Faceoff last weekend, with Utah winning 4-3 in overtime. Of those who played in that game for the Kings, only forward Liam Greentree is expected to be in tonight’s lineup.

KINGS VITALS: Tonight marks the first time we’ve seen the Kings in game action here this fall.

Goaltender Erik Portillo and Carter George appear to have the nod for Game 1 of the preseason. Would likely expect Portillo to get the start, as the more experienced of the two, but I’d assume that both goaltenders will play in tonight’s game, which would be the first preseason action of Carter George’s career, after he was selected this past June. Both goaltenders impressed at the Rookie Faceoff last weekend, both deserve a chance to play tonight.

Based on today’s practice deployments, I was not expecting a veteran-laden group for the Kings tonight in Utah, which is commonplace early in the preseason. If you can spare your veterans a flight in September, you typically do so. With that in mind, here’s the expected game group for tonight –

Forwards (12) – Fagemo, Greentree, Helenius, Hudon, Lee, Lewis, Malott, Pinelli, Studnicka, Thomas, Turcotte, Ward

Defensemen (6) – Burroughs, Clarke, Edmundson, Englund, Jones, Moverare

Goaltenders (2) – George, Portillo

In terms of a lineup, you can see consistencies here between these players and some of the lines/pairings we’ve seen in camp over the last few days. Would expect the Thomas/Turcotte/Lewis line to play together tonight and likely the Lee/Helenius/Ward line as well. Those trios have been together during camp and should be together tonight. On the backend, Edmundson/Clarke for example is a pairing the Kings see playing together during regular season and tonight is the first time in game action.

For exhibition games, the Kings are required to dress a minimum of eight veteran players for each game. There are a variety of different ways to achieve that and as you can see, it doesn’t require a Kopitar or a Doughty to reach that number.

On the blueline, the Kings have four defensemen who classify as veterans – Burroughs, Edmundson, Englund and Jones. Up front, the Kings will dress Charles Hudon and Jack Studnicka, both of whom have 100+ NHL games in their career, along with Trevor Lewis, who classifies by just about every category. Liam Greentree will make his preseason debut tonight and qualifies as the eighth veteran, with 2024 first-round selections also counting towards that list.

UTAH VITALS: Utah played its first game of the preseason yesterday and skated to a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.

Per Brogan Houston of Deseret News Sports, here’s the projected game group tonight for the hosts –

On the ice for morning skate, which indicates that they’re expected to play tonight:

Duda
Lamoureux
Smith
Sokolov
Sergachev
Keller
Doan
Barron
Valimaki
Hayton
Crouse
Ingram
Villalta
O’Brien
Maccelli
Kerfoot
Durzi
Schmaltz
Cole
Stenlund

No sign of anyone who played last night.

— Brogan Houston (@houston_brogan) September 23, 2024

Does not look like anyone will play both games, so expecting a new group of 20 players for Utah this evening. Included in the game group is former Kings defenseman Sean Durzi and former Kings prospect Matthew Villalta. Durzi played in 136 regular-season games with the Kings from 2021-23, while Villalta played multiple seasons with the AHL’s Ontario Reign before making his NHL debut last season with the Arizona Coyotes. Utah’s group appears to be veteran-laden overall, with several expected NHL’ers looking likely to play tonight.

Notes –
Lew-Tah
Another game in his home state for forward Trevor Lewis.

Lewis is entering his 17th NHL season and comes in on the verge of playing in his 1,000th career game in the league. Lewis re-signed on a one-year contract over the summer to return to the Kings, likely in a similar role to last season which includes work on the fourth line, as well as continuing to be a mentor and a leader for younger forwards who are entering the ranks.

As he enters this season at 37 years of age, you wonder if the competitive fire burns as brightly as it did back at age 18. The answer was a resounding yes.

“Oh yeah,” Lewis said. It’s fun. As soon as those summer scrimmages are over, it’s game on. It’s been one of the more physical camps I’ve been a part of in recent years and it’s great to see. So much fun out there.”

The role this season for Lewis is pretty simple. It’s one he embraces and one that he played last season. It’s one he’s played for the bulk of his NHL career.

Countless players have spoken about the influence Lewis has inside the locker room and in the gym. He is a willing penalty killer. While some of the behind the scenes stuff is not as important on the surface, it’s noticed and valued by the coaching staff and the management group.

Jim Hiller on Trevor Lewis
That’s the only way to survive, you have to just love the game and not just love the game, but everything goes with the game. So you can imagine, to keep playing at that age, you have to understand the game at a high level. When the coach talks, you actually have to pay attention once a while, because you have to know what you’re supposed to do and then when the coach sees you know what to do, you get to go out again. When you start getting into your 30s as a player, and the young guys are coming and the careers are a lot shorter, you get to that type of the age like Lewie, you have to understand the game. You’ve got to love the game when you come to the rank, but now you’ve got to do the work away from the rink too, to just keep yourself limber, loose, healthy, nutrition becomes even more important, there’s just so many things that go into playing to 37 and those are all picked up on by coaches and teammates. When they talk about leadership, coaches, management, so many players talk about the impact that Lewie had on them last season. That’s a legacy and that’s not easy to do in today’s game, it’s just so hard to keep your body at pace with these guys playing.

Lewis feels that desire to continue to play and tonight’s trip to Utah is special one for him,. as it’s been in the past. It’ll actually be his first game in Utah as a visiting player, after playing with the Kings during Frozen Fury three times in his career, including last fall. Friends and family certainly to be in attendance, with a small cheering section for the players in white, as Utah Hockey Club plays its first ever game.

Edmund-son Of A Gun
Tonight should also mark the LA Kings debut, unofficially, for defenseman Joel Edmundson.

Edmundson signed a four-year contract with the organization over the summer, committing to bring a certain style of hockey with him. Edmundson is a player the Kings have targeted for a few years now and with other teams interested, they had to pay a certain amount to get him. The way that Edmundson plays is not necessarily the style you’d expect to shine through in a preseason game, but until this fall, it wasn’t the style of hockey I’d have expected to appear in training camp as much as it did.

“My first couple years, when we thought about the LA Kings as tough to play against, it’s a long night, and we’re trying to bring that back,” Edmundson said. “That’s the type of the game we want to bring, fast but also physical. Seeing that [early] in of camp, it gets everyone excited.”

Throughout the first few days of training camp, Edmundson’s style of play has shone through, both in his own game and the team as a whole.

Players like he, Tanner Jeannot and Warren Foegele were brought in with a message. The Kings felt they lacked in certain areas and those three players in particular can help deliver a fast and physical, aggressive style of hockey. Whether it be what those players are doing or a message that has resonated throughout the group as a whole, there’s certainly been a change to how the Kings have looked over four days.

“I think everyone that they brought in plays a physical game, I think that’s the biggest part of my game,” Edmundson said. “[I’m] not the flashiest player, but blocking shots, making that extra hit, and getting the boys excited on the bench for those big hits……I think they did a good job of bringing some guys that could help.”

Tonight, we’ll get our first glimpse at what the Kings envision as their third pairing this season, with Edmundson skating alongside Brandt Clarke. Tonight they will likely be the first defensive pairing, with the rest of the projected top six not expected to play.

Part of the role that Edmundson was acquired to play is that of mentor, someone who can help guide a younger player along in the process. Over the summer, Edmundson told me he relishes that role and has done it on past teams as he’s gotten older. His style of play is defensive and he plays into that, expressing a willingness to “stay at home” to let Clarke play more freely, which is his game.

“He’s got a lot of skill, for sure,” Edmundson said of Clarke. “I told him, if he wants to jump up in the play, I got his back, play your game, but lots of talking. I’m trying to mentor him a bit, he’s still getting used to the league, so that’s the nice thing about camp. We’ve got these exhibition games, we get these scrimmages to get used to each other, so I’m looking forward to what’s going to come.”

Roster Moves
Additionally, the Kings announced that the following five players have been re-assigned to their respective junior teams –

Oliver Tulk, F – Calgary, WHL
Luke Woodworth, F – Drummondville, QMJHL
Cole Davis, F – Windsor, OHL
Ethan Neutens, F – Kelowna, WHL
Corbin Vaughan, D – Regina, WHL

The Kings now have 63 players remaining on their training camp roster, consisting of 36 forwards, 21 defensemen and six goaltenders.

Per @LAKingsPR, the following five players have been re-assigned to their respective junior teams –

Oliver Tulk, F – Calgary, WHL
Luke Woodworth, F – Drummondville, QMJHL
Cole Davis, F – Windsor, OHL
Ethan Neutens, F – Kelowna, WHL
Corbin Vaughan, D – Regina, WHL

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) September 23, 2024

Kings and Hockey Club, 6 PM Pacific as the preseason gets underway! Good to be back. Jared Shafran will be on location for live updates and post-game coverage, be sure to follow him on Twitter for in-person observations!