Kings announce season-opening roster, consisting of 22 players

Hello, Insiders!

Introducing the 2024-25 season-opening roster for the LA Kings.

The list was due to the NHL today at 2 PM Pacific, following the final waiver process of the preseason.

From the Kings perspective, the team did not lose any players to waivers or claim any, with goaltender Pheonix Copley and forwards Samuel Fagemo and Jack Studnicka assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign earlier in the day after clearing waivers. Additionally, forward Andre Lee was assigned to the AHL’s Ontario Reign yesterday. Lee is waiver-exempt and can be assigned freely to the AHL.

With those transactions today came the submission of the 22 healthy players who will represent the Kings on Thursday evening in Buffalo. The Kings plan to open the season with 12 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders on their season-opening roster, with the team departing for Buffalo tomorrow in advance of Game 1 on Thursday.

The season-opening roster is as follows –

Forwards (12) – Quinton Byfield, Phillip Danault, Kevin Fiala, Warren Foegele, Tanner Jeannot, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar, Alex Laferriere, Trevor Lewis, Trevor Moore, Akil Thomas, Alex Turcotte

Defensemen (8) – Mikey Anderson, Kyle Burroughs, Brandt Clarke, Joel Edmundson, Andreas Englund, Vladislav Gavrikov, Caleb Jones, Jordan Spence

Goaltenders (2) – Darcy Kuemper, David Rittich

Additionally, defenseman Drew Doughty and forward Arthur Kaliyev will open the season on injured reserve.

With the announcements over the last 24 hours, the Kings are not dipping into LTIR as of today. To fit 23 players into the mix for this early-season, however, they would need to do so, or they would need to make additional moves to free up the necessary space to accommodate for the injuries to Doughty and Kaliyev. It’s a five-game trip away from Los Angeles, so having the extra players would be a luxury. With the timelines for both players, the timelines surrounding IR and LTIR are really not all that important at this time. Both players are expected to miss the first 10 games of the season at least, so the LTIR timeline for returning would not impact either player at al, should the Kings require additional cap space, they could move either Kaliyev or Doughty to LTIR.

One of the down sides to LTIR is not accruing cap space as the season progresses, but situations like injuries to Doughty and Kaliyev are why it is in place, allowing teams to recall players to fill in during long-term injuries. As long as Doughty is out, the Kings will have zero issues rounding out the NHL roster should additional injuries occur, but for today, the list is 22 players.

Looking at the group above, many of the players listed make sense. We obviously all expected Adrian Kempe to make the team.

Regarding the additional players listed, the only other name you might not have projected here is defenseman Caleb Jones. Perhaps we should have, though. The injury to Doughty created a spot and Jones was certainly the most experienced player here to fill it. Jones has more than 250 NHL games with Edmonton, Chicago and Colorado and he’s played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has NHL experience on both sides of the blueline too, which makes him an ideal extra defenseman. Jones was signed as competition for Andreas Englund and Kyle Burroughs, but as it turned out, all three are in the mix here on Opening Night. Jones may not be in the lineup for Game 1 but he’s a good player to have around nonetheless. He’s confident and comfortable stepping in as needed.

That’s the group of 22 we’ll expect to see in Buffalo, with the possibility of an addition between now and then.

If the Kings choose to make a move, that player is likely Lee. The Swedish forward was not projected to be on this list at the start of training camp. Head Coach Jim Hiller said as much the other day when asked about Lee, saying he didn’t know Lee would be this far along in his development process. As it’s happened, he’s come into camp and impressed. His size and physicality, combined with a day-to-day consistency has stood out to Hiller and the coaching staff. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Lee back in the mix for Game 1 against Buffalo. He offers something a little bit different to that mix. Good on a young player elevating his game during camp and forcing the organization to make an uncomfortable decision. For today, he’s with the AHL club and we’ll see what happens from there.

As the Kings trek through five games on the East Coast, the hope is that the depth will not be needed for injury purposes, but it’s there if it turns out to be needed. The players who don’t play in Game 1 will be players who likely see themselves as NHL’ers, and rightfully so. That keeps an internal competition for spots early in the season, with everyone having a different length on their leash. The roster picked itself a lot of the time last season. I’m not sure that happens every night this year.

Kings travel to Buffalo tomorrow in advance of their season opener on Thursday. Practice day on Wednesday before we get underway for real!

From the team’s official release –

The roster features 15 players who skated in at least one game for the Kings last season, highlighted by a pair of two-time Stanley Cup Champions with Anze Kopitar and Trevor Lewis. Kopitar, who eclipsed multiple career and organizational milestones last season, including setting the marks for the most games played (1,373) and assists (792) in team history, is set to begin his record-setting 19th season with the Kings. Lewis enters his 15th full NHL season two goals shy of 100 in his career and 26 games away from the 1,000-game mark.

Also appearing on the roster are forwards Trevor Moore (31G) and Adrian Kempe (28-47=75), who each led the team last season in goals and points, respectively, along with Quinton Byfield, who signed a five-year contract extension this summer after recording his first career 50-point season (20-35=55).

Of the 22 players set to open the season with the Kings, 10 were drafted by the Kings, including forwards Akil Thomas and Alex Turcotte and defenseman Brandt Clarke, who each scored their first career NHL goal last season. The season-opening roster also features several of the team’s offseason additions in forwards Warren Foegele and Tanner Jeannot, defenseman Joel Edmundson and goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who returns to the Kings after appearing in 19 games for the club during the 2017-18 campaign, where he posted a 10-1-3 record with three shutouts.