The Los Angeles Kings announced they have activated winger Dustin Brown off of LTIR Sunday and he is expected to make his season debut against the New York Rangers today. Brown’s return has come at a great time as the Kings have lost six in a row and sit at the bottom of the Pacific Division with a 2-7-1 record. Brown suffered a broken finger during a preseason game on Sept. 29 when he took a shot to his hand from teammate Anze Kopitar.
The 33-year-old Brown is coming off one of his best seasons in a number of years after tallying 28 goals and a career-high 33 assists for a career-high 61 points. Brown has played 1,045 in Los Angeles, but the once consistent 20-goal scorer had failed to break the 20-goal plateau since the 2011-12 season. Regarless, the Kings signed him to an eight-year, $57MM deal ($5.875MM AAV) extension back in 2013, which looked to be one of their worst long-term deals until his big season a year ago.
The team hopes it can get a boost with Brown back into the lineup. The team sent Michael Amadio back to the Ontario Reign of the AHL to make room on the roster for Brown. Amadio did get quite a bit of playing time for Los Angeles, playing in nine games. He averaged 11:07 of ATOI on the ice and had one goal.
According to CapFriendly, the Kings have enough cap room to activate Brown off LTIR and after recalling goaltender Peter Budaj and sending Amadio down, the team still has $347K in projected cap space.
Lose for Hughes!