Kings winger Andreas Athanasiou is expected to be activated off injured reserve and make his season debut on Friday, notes Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. The 27-year-old suffered an undisclosed injury late in September and while it was hoped that he wouldn’t be out long, he hasn’t played since, missing the first ten games of the season in the process. Athanasiou had 10 goals and 13 assists in 47 games with Los Angeles in 2020-21.
Meanwhile, Dooley adds that center Lias Andersson has been ruled out of Saturday’s contest due to his groin injury. Head coach Todd McLellan indicated that the plan is to “see how he is as the week goes on”.
More from the Pacific Division:
- Golden Knights center Jack Eichel will have his disk replacement surgery next Friday in Denver, relays David Schoen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. GM Kelly McCrimmon indicated yesterday that the hope is that the 25-year-old will be able to return three to five months after having the procedure. That would have Eichel returning sometime between February and April. While that is a bit of an extended timeline, the fact it hasn’t been performed on an NHL player before leads to some uncertainty.
- Flames winger Matthew Tkachuk has been fined $5K for his high sticking infraction on Stars defenseman John Klingberg on Thursday night, the league announced. The incident occurred in the third period of the game with a minor penalty being assessed on the play. The fine is the maximum allowable in the CBA.