Kings Stand Pat at Deadline + Kempe/Anderson Update, Blake on Deadline, UFA’s, AHL Transactions

The Kings stand pat.

Trade Deadline day has come and gone and the LA Kings did not make a move throughout the course of the day. We are where we started……sort of.

“You look and you listen, but we were never planning on taking away from the team ever, that was never the situation,” General Manager Rob Blake said today. “Injuries came into play here the last couple of weeks, but with the timing of them, it’s going to be nice to get a couple guys back here within a week and then the other two shortly after that.”

The four players mentioned are Mikey Anderson, Adrian Kempe, Viktor Arvidsson and Carl Grundstrom. Blake offered the following status updates on those four players –

“Both skated today in red jerseys, Kempe and Mikey Anderson, they’re both getting very close,” Blake added. “Arvidsson is LTIR I think until Dallas on that trip, he’s eligible to come off LTIR with scheduling, so he’s still on progress for right around that timeframe. Carl Grundstrom is probably a couple of weeks after that.”

Kempe and Anderson both practiced with the team today as Blake noted. Both players had resumed skating on their own, still in non-contact jerseys throughout the course of the week. It’s a great sign to see the pair back with the club. Neither Kempe or Anderson are on any form of injured reserve and they could be activated at any point when ready. A good sign heading into tomorrow.

Jim Hiller said he didn’t necessarily expect either Kempe or Anderson to play tomorrow against Dallas, but he didn’t rule it out, either. Kempe took part in more of a standard practice, as someone who has been skating might, whereas Anderson was on the ice for longer, doing conditioning drills on his own. Signals perhaps Kempe is closer, but both players are close overall. Good signs.

“We’ll see, felt pretty good out there today, of course it’s practice, so we’ll see what happens, obviously have to talk to the trainers and coaches to see what they think,” Kempe said. “I feel pretty good out there, so I’m just taking it step-by-step every day.”

Perhaps the most exciting news, though not the most timely, is the update on Viktor Arvidsson.

Blake indicated that Arvidsson’s timetable aligns with his LTIR date, which would be at the end of next week. For an injury baked in unknowns, having Arvidsson be right at the minimum threshold, or close to, for when he is eligible to return is a really good sign. That would give him close to a month to ramp back up heading into a potential playoff push, should that timing remain in place. Very good signs, for a player who has a 4-0 record with the Kings so far this season.

Regarding Carl Grundstrom, who has been out since the 7-0 loss in Buffalo, Blake put his timeline more towards the end of March, but still well within the regular-season window to return to action.

That all plays into today.

The Kings were somewhat hamstrung by salary-cap constraints. The current NHL system rewards team that are healthy and able to bank salary-cap space for the deadline. It also rewards teams that are, for lack of a better term, “super injured” and have players with larger salary-cap hits that are out for the entirety of the regular season. It does not lend itself well to teams that have injured players who will be back before the end of the season and that’s where the Kings are right now, with four players out, but slated to return during the regular season. That goes double for a team built as tightly to the cap as the Kings are.

The Kings were in a tough position. It doesn’t mean, though, that moves could not be made. There were not a ton of players the Kings were even linked to throughout the day, with a couple of bigger names floated out there, but nothing really seemed to gain traction. Ultimately, there were conversations as Blake noted but nothing that ultimately came to fruition. The Kings will roll with the group they have the rest of the way.

That group will hopefully be complete for the first time all season. The full group of Kings have not played a single game together this season. Arvidsson’s four games played came without Grundstrom or Blake Lizotte in the lineup. The next time that everyone plays together will be the first time they’ll play together. Kind of crazy to think about for a team in a playoff spot by eight points.

Neither Hiller or Blake thought of Kempe and Anderson as “deadline acquisitions”. Simply getting the band back together.

“I guess you can look at it that way, that hasn’t been the way that I’ve looked at it,” Hiller said. “I know we had for a stretch there, when we had Arvy in, I think we had three full names anyways, we got to look at what our team was and we’re really happy with our team. So, just a matter of getting back to that, we’re excited about that team, if we can get that team back on the ice.”

The team is the team from here on out.

Like it or hate it, the Kings will progress ahead with the players they have in place and they’ll look to navigate a potential playoff run with the players they have in house.

Notes –
– The Kings made a series of transactions today as well, regarding players who are waiver-exempt.

The Kings assigned four players to AHL-Ontario: Alex Turcotte, Jacob Moverare, Brandt Clarke and Samuel Fagemo. Turcotte and Moverare were recalled later on in the day.

The moves were made today to comply with the following league mandate –

Reminder: Per NHL rules, a player must be on an @TheAHL roster at 3 ET Friday in order to be eligible to be sent down from the NHL at any time for the rest of the season. #NHLTradeDeadline

— AHL Communications (@AHLPR) March 7, 2024

Each of those four players can see themselves assigned or recalled between now and the end of the regular season. As players eventually come back from injury, the Kings will need flexibility around the salary cap, which could require players to be assigned to Ontario to accommodate veterans returning. Hence the moves with Moverare and forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan earlier this week, making them eligible for that deadline now.

With Turcotte and Moverare coming back up, status quo for those two for now. Regarding Clarke and Fagemo, they remain with the AHL club for the time being. Ontario heads to Calgary this weekend to begin a two-game set. We’ll look towards tomorrow for updates regarding the status of both Kempe/Anderson and Clarke/Fagemo and update from there.

– Rob Blake also indicated that the Kings would like to like to re-sign defenseman Matt Roy, calling him a “big part of our team.”

Roy is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2023-24 season. He’s spent his entire career with the Kings to date and has established himself as a bonafide top-four defenseman, who is homegrown as a seventh-round draft pick.

Blake indicated that he spoke with the group of pending free agents in advance of the deadline, laying out the plan for the team, noting that things would likely come following the season.

“We talked to the UFA’s, we told them the plan coming into this week and that we want to get through the year and adjust after that.”

The Kings crop of unrestricted free agents currently on the active roster include Roy, forwards Viktor Arvidsson and Trevor Lewis, as well as goaltenders Cam Talbot, David Rittich and Pheonix Copley.

– The Kings also opted not to re-claim defenseman Tobias Bjornfot off waivers from Vegas, who was claimed by Florida.

Since Florida also put in a claim, had the Kings also entered one, they would have gotten Bjornfot back in the organization. However, he would have had to remain on the NHL roster for the entirety of the season and the Kings likely will not be in a position to have the space to keep Bjornfot up all season. That was the risk they ran in potentially claiming him.

That about does it for today.

Kings host Dallas tomorrow in one of several potential playoff opponents the Kings could see in round one. Preview to come tomorrow, with hopefully some more clarity on the internal cards the Kings have to play, beginning with the availability of Kempe and Anderson.