October 24: The Kings have now loaned Wagner back to the Reign, according to the team. The Kings did not have a game yesterday, and Wagner’s recall was likely just a paper transaction to optimize LTIR relief.
October 23: The Los Angeles Kings announced a series of roster moves this afternoon, headlined by forward Alex Iafallo, who has been moved from regular IR to LTIR. In addition to Iafallo, the Kings have loaned defenseman Jacob Moverare to the Ontario Reign of the AHL and recalled forward Austin Wagner. The move gives Los Angeles 14 forwards to go along with seven defensemen on its active roster.
Iafallo had already been out and on IR since October 18th with a lower-body injury which he suffered in a game on October 17th against the Detroit Red Wings, but placing him on LTIR will create additional cap space that allows the Kings to call up Wagner, who carries a $1.133MM cap hit while sending down Moverare and his $762.5K cap hit. Prior to the transaction, Los Angeles had $521K in cap space. Of note, due to Iafallo’s $4MM cap hit, his trip to LTIR will give the organization more than enough room to work with on the salary cap front while he’s out. Despite the injury, Iafallo has had a tremendous start to the season, contributing two goals and three assists in four games.
Sending Moverare down simply gives the Kings more flexibility when setting a lineup by subtracting their eighth defenseman for another forward, flexibility they’ll continue to need in Iafallo’s absence. The defenseman had yet to play a game this season in the NHL, but does have a pair of AHL contests under his belt in 2022-23, prior to his call-up on October 18th. Wagner on the other hand, is receiving his first call-up of the season after starting the year with Ontario. There, he has two points in three games to start.
with all of the ‘forward depth’ the Kings have, I never thought I’d see Wags called up again due to his paltry stats over the past 4 seasons… now I do like the kid, he just hasn’t made the adjustment to contribute night in-out at the NHL level… he may not even see any ice time on this stint and just hang in the press box, but hopefully he does and can tally a couple while he’s up.. #GoKings
The “kids” are flopping so far. There has been a lot of hope for the future. So far it hasn’t resulted in much. Maybe start flipping some of them.
Start getting rid of the young guys who are the future of the franchise because they are 3-4 after 7 games? Where do you come up with stuff? My guess is that you are just new to hockey.
Doghockey I totally agree with you Vilardi leading the team and kings only 2 pts out of their division..Wow what a great statement to make this early in the season especially i think they played 5 of those games on the road..