Practice 12/5 – “Decisions” To Come + Lee To ONT, Thomas Cleared For Contact, Today’s Alignment

As Jim Hiller put it, the Kings have some decisions to make in the coming days.

“We are going to have guys getting close, and the roster as we go out East will have to be decided, who we take, who is coming, who’s ready, all those types of things. Blakey will have some decisions to make over the next few days, there’s no question.”

Perhaps the first of those decisions came today, as forward Andre Lee was assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign earlier this morning.

Lee practiced on the other side of the building today, with the Reign, who had a late-morning skate on the other side of the facility. There’s a chance this was a cap-saving situation, but it feels like a more traditional transaction at least as of this morning. That’s not to say that Lee couldn’t be recalled later in the week, though. The Kings had 13 forwards on the ice today, including Akil Thomas and Arthur Kaliyev, but only Thomas would feel like he could be an option to play on Saturday versus Minnesota, if the Kings wanted to either make a change to their group or go back to 12 forwards. Thomas progressed to a regular jersey today, while Kaliyev was still in red.

“He looked fine, there wasn’t a lot of contact out there, but he wasn’t shying away from anything,” Hiller said today of Thomas.

Hiller added that he hadn’t gotten today’s report from the training staff on Thomas, but things certainly appeared to be trending in the right direction, at the very least. Thomas is a versatile player, who can play both center and wing and although he’s played mostly in the bottom six, he’s bumped up on occasion too. When you’re talking about adding a guy into the mix, especially with the 11/7 look in play, Thomas fits in that way. He was initially placed on injured reserve on Friday, November 29, meaning he would be eligible to be activated in advance of Saturday’s game against the Wild, if he was ready to return.

For Kaliyev, he’s now been back with the full group for a couple of days but he’s likely further behind, considering his season to date. Kaliyev suffered a fractured clavicle on the second day of training camp, which cost him all but that first day’s skate. Sets him back a bit, for sure. He’s been working very hard to get back to this stage and is certainly approaching a return, but likely not on the same timeline as Thomas or defenseman Caleb Jones, who is also back in a regular jersey, as noted on Tuesday.

Could the Kings consider a conditioning loan for Kaliyev, or any of their other injured players?

Jim Hiller called it a “possibility”, though he deferred the decision to Rob Blake and his staff, who ultimately have to make those calls. And those decisions are coming, with now three players currently on IR skating with the group and a flight to New York that begins a 15-day roadtrip on the East Coast looming on Sunday.

I would think it is unlikely the Kings would feel comfortable traveling across the country with 11 healthy forwards. If there is a plan to use the 11/7 alignment more regularly, which has been extremely successful and we know Jim Hiller likes, than perhaps 12 could make sense to start. It’s likely not sustainable over 82 games though, as Hiller spoke about today. The schedule right now is very favorable to an 11/7 look, with three sets of 2+ days off to start December. Even if Thomas is good to go, could the Kings use their final roster spot on re-adding Lee before the trip, or adding a different forward from the Ontario Reign? Possibly.

Should the Kings pursue a conditioning loan anywhere, the rules are pretty simple. The player involved must consent to the transaction and a player can be loaned to the AHL for no more than 14 days.

The question would be, who would the Kings choose to use a conditioning loan on, if anyone. Kaliyev would be the natural candidate, considering his lack of both practice and game time so far this season and the amount of time he’s been away. Some AHL games to ramp it up before an NHL return could make some sense. With Thomas and defenseman Caleb Jones, both players feel closer to a return and neither has been out as long as Kaliyev was. Defenseman Andreas Englund, who hasn’t played since November 11, could also be a candidate if the Kings choose that route, similar to what was done with Tobias Bjornfot last season around this time. Keep in mind, though, that should the Kings look into that route with a player like Englund, he would continue to count towards the active roster, so not sure how much sense it would make.

Lots of options and decisions that we’ll need to keep an eye on here over the coming days. The Kings could, in theory, activate both Thomas and Jones without making a corresponding transaction, but it would create a non-traditional roster build. Adding both players back into the fold would give the Kings 12 forwards and nine defensemen on the active roster. Nothing that says they can’t do that, but it’s not exactly a traditional look, especially when minutes on the blueline have been hard to come by as it is. The Kings could loan Jacob Moverare back to Ontario without needing waivers, but Moverare has played every game since his recall. To make a move elsewhere would require waivers, so we’d see a 24-hour heads up.

Again, it’s not a huge deal today, but the New York trip is coming up. Something to continue to monitor here over the next handful of days.

For today’s practice, here’s the group we saw on the ice for the Kings.

Moore – Kopitar – Kempe
Foegele – Byfield – Jeannot
Fiala – Danault – Laferriere
Turcotte – Helenius – Thomas
(Kaliyev)

Anderson – Gavrikov
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Spence
Englund – Jones – Burroughs

Kuemper / Rittich

I wouldn’t classify today’s practice as having a ton of full-lineup work. The Kings actually worked a ton on small-area games and smaller situations, using 1-on-1’s, 2-on-2’s and 3-on-3’s in a lot of different ways. Otherwise, nothing particularly noteworthy from today’s practice skate, beyond what was some targeted work to address things heading into the Minnesota game this weekend.

More to come here from forward Adrian Kempe, who was selected to represent Team Sweden at the upcoming 4 Nations Faceoff in February. Kempe was named to Team Sweden yesterday afternoon and spoke today about playing in his first best-on-best international tournament with his native Sweden.

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