Update (8:00pm): Kings GM Dean Lombardi announced this evening that the team has placed Quick on injured reserve (Twitter link). In a related move, the club has called up veteran goalie Peter Budaj from Ontario of the AHL. Budaj, 34, brings 297 regular season games of NHL experience to the table and has shown to be a competent backup. It appears as if the Kings will have to rely on the duo of Zatkoff and Budaj indefinitely until Quick returns.
(9:17am): Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick sustained a lower body injury late in the first period of their 2-1 loss to San Jose on Wednesday night. While there is no immediate timetable for his return, Lisa Dillman of the LA Times notes that GM Dean Lombardi believes the injury may keep him out for a while. Quick will undergo an MRI later today to determine the extent of the problem. In the meantime, he has been placed on injured reserve and the team is saying he will be out week-to-week.
In the meantime, offseason acquisition Jeff Zatkoff – who replaced Quick to start the second period last night – will take over as the interim starter. However, his NHL experience is limited to just 34 regular season appearances coming into the season while he has yet to appear in more than 20 contests in any single NHL campaign. As a result, he is more suited to backup duty than a starting workload.
The Kings have a couple of options in their system to recall in the meantime. Veteran Peter Budaj is the most likely to be recalled while former Dallas first rounder Jack Campbell is also under contract but has yet to have much success at the minor league level.
[Related: Kings Depth Chart]
The team has a bit of cap space to work with should they want to go outside the organization to supplement their goaltending depth while Quick is on the shelf. The team has a little more than $2.1MM in cap space per Cap Friendly and also have Marian Gaborik eligible for LTIR if the team needs to open up some more room although that would only be a short-term solution.
*Glen Miller contributed to this post.
You do not want Jeff Zatkoff as your solution.