Headlines

  • List Of Players Not Receiving A 2025 Qualifying Offer
  • Blue Jackets To Re-Sign Ivan Provorov To Seven-Year Deal
  • Kings Sign Andrei Kuzmenko To One-Year Extension
  • Panthers To Sign Brad Marchand To Six-Year Extension
  • Golden Knights Reportedly Acquire, Extend Mitch Marner
  • Oilers Reportedly Sign Evan Bouchard To Four-Year Extension
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • MLB Trade Rumors
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors

Pro Hockey Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • Atlantic
      • Boston Bruins
      • Buffalo Sabres
      • Detroit Red Wings
      • Florida Panthers
      • Montreal Canadiens
      • Ottawa Senators
      • Tampa Bay Lightning
      • Toronto Maple Leafs
    • Central
      • Chicago Blackhawks
      • Colorado Avalanche
      • Dallas Stars
      • Minnesota Wild
      • Nashville Predators
      • St. Louis Blues
      • Utah Mammoth
      • Winnipeg Jets
    • Metropolitan
      • Carolina Hurricanes
      • Columbus Blue Jackets
      • New Jersey Devils
      • New York Islanders
      • New York Rangers
      • Philadelphia Flyers
      • Pittsburgh Penguins
      • Washington Capitals
    • Pacific
      • Anaheim Ducks
      • Calgary Flames
      • Edmonton Oilers
      • Los Angeles Kings
      • San Jose Sharks
      • Seattle Kraken
      • Vancouver Canucks
      • Vegas Golden Knights
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Partners
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Adrian Kempe Expected To Return During Regular Season

March 1, 2024 at 7:46 am CDT | by Josh Erickson Leave a Comment

The Kings have avoided the worst with right-winger Adrian Kempe, who’s expected to return from his upper-body injury sometime later this month, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports. The 27-year-old is listed as week-to-week with the injury he sustained late in Monday’s game against the Oilers.

If Kempe were expected to miss the remainder of the regular season, the Kings could have placed his $5.5MM cap hit on long-term injured reserve and used that space before the March 8 trade deadline to acquire players. Per Dreger, that won’t be the case.

Kempe can still go on LTIR if he’s expected to miss at least 10 games and 24 days, retroactive to Feb. 26, to provide temporary relief. However, as they’ll need cap space to activate him before the end of the regular season, they won’t be able to dip into his relief for additional acquisitions.

Right-winger Viktor Arvidsson is already on LTIR with a lower-body injury, although he, too, is expected back before the end of the regular season. Seeing as the Kings will need space to have his $4.25MM cap hit count against the books, they’ll have nearly $0 in space to work with at the trade deadline. As such, any upgrade they make to their roster must be a money-in, money-out move.

Kempe has already missed two games with the injury, which he sustained late in the third period in an awkward collision with Oilers defenseman Cody Ceci as Los Angeles was trying to erase a 4-2 deficit with an empty net. Kempe skated to the bench while play was active, appearing to favor his left arm (video link).

The Kings have largely recovered from a disastrous stretch between Christmas and the All-Star break in which they went 4-8-6 with a -11 goal differential. After a 5-1 road win over the Pacific Division-leading Canucks last night, the Kings remain first in the Western Conference Wild Card race with a 30-19-10 record and 70 points.

They have a seven-point cushion on the ninth-place Flames, although they are in danger of falling to the second wild-card spot. The Predators are now tied with Los Angeles with 70 points, although they trail in the points-percentage tiebreaker as they’ve played two more games.

After signing a four-year, $22MM extension in the 2022 offseason, Kempe has provided spectacular value for the Kings. While he’s not on pace to sniff the career-high 41 goals he scored last season, he does have 51 points in 57 games, a career-best 0.89 per-game rate. He’s also averaging 18:47 per game, eclipsing last year’s career-high mark by two seconds.

However, he’s struggling in the possession department after being a net-positive player for the last two seasons. While his 54.5 Corsi-for percentage at even strength is substantial at first glance, it’s 1.2% worse than the team’s overall Corsi share without him on the ice.

His expected rating is also negative, with a -0.8 mark. He posted a combined +13.9 expected rating over the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons.

Regardless, he’s still a core piece for a mediocre Kings offense that relies on depth, not star power, to be effective. In Kempe’s absence, top-prospect-turned-breakout-star Quinton Byfield has returned to a top-line role flanking Anže Kopitar, while 2019 top-five pick Alex Turcotte is also seeing reps alongside the Kings’ captain.

The Kings only have 12 healthy forwards on the active roster and have recently scratched winger Arthur Kaliyev in favor of dressing seven defensemen, allowing both of their best up-and-coming right-shot defensemen, Brandt Clarke and Jordan Spence, to get playing time. Given their current LTIR situation, they have enough cap space to make a corresponding recall in Kempe’s absence, although they would need to place him on IR or LTIR to open a roster spot.

Share 0 Retweet 0 Send via email

Injury| Los Angeles Kings| Newsstand Adrian Kempe

Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire Ilya Lyubushkin From Anaheim
Main
Mark Stone Questionable To Return During Playoffs
View Comments (0)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    List Of Players Not Receiving A 2025 Qualifying Offer

    Blue Jackets To Re-Sign Ivan Provorov To Seven-Year Deal

    Kings Sign Andrei Kuzmenko To One-Year Extension

    Panthers To Sign Brad Marchand To Six-Year Extension

    Golden Knights Reportedly Acquire, Extend Mitch Marner

    Oilers Reportedly Sign Evan Bouchard To Four-Year Extension

    Panthers Expected To Sign Aaron Ekblad To Max-Term Extension

    Islanders Sign Alexander Romanov To Eight-Year Extension

    Maple Leafs Acquire Matias Maccelli From Mammoth

    Wild Acquire Vladimir Tarasenko From Red Wings

    Recent

    Senators Sign Leevi Merliainen To One-Year Extension

    Maple Leafs Sign Steven Lorentz To Three-Year Extension

    List Of Players Not Receiving A 2025 Qualifying Offer

    Blue Jackets To Re-Sign Ivan Provorov To Seven-Year Deal

    Kings Sign Andrei Kuzmenko To One-Year Extension

    Panthers To Sign Brad Marchand To Six-Year Extension

    Golden Knights Reportedly Acquire, Extend Mitch Marner

    Detroit Red Wings Sign Jonatan Berggren To One-Year Contract

    Oilers Reportedly Sign Evan Bouchard To Four-Year Extension

    Washington Capitals Acquire, Extend Declan Chisholm

    Rumors By Team

    Rumors By Team

    • Avalanche Rumors
    • Blackhawks Rumors
    • Blue Jackets Rumors
    • Blues Rumors
    • Bruins Rumors
    • Canadiens Rumors
    • Canucks Rumors
    • Capitals Rumors
    • Devils Rumors
    • Ducks Rumors
    • Flames Rumors
    • Flyers Rumors
    • Golden Knights Rumors
    • Hurricanes Rumors
    • Islanders Rumors
    • Jets Rumors
    • Kings Rumors
    • Kraken Rumors
    • Lightning Rumors
    • Mammoth Rumors
    • Maple Leafs Rumors
    • Oilers Rumors
    • Panthers Rumors
    • Penguins Rumors
    • Predators Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Red Wings Rumors
    • Sabres Rumors
    • Senators Rumors
    • Sharks Rumors
    • Stars Rumors
    • Wild Rumors

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • 2025’s Top 50 Unrestricted Free Agents
    • Sam Bennett Rumors
    • Nikolaj Ehlers Rumors
    • Mitch Marner Rumors
    • Marco Rossi Rumors

    Pro Hockey Rumors Features

    Pro Hockey Rumors Features

    • Support Pro Hockey Rumors And Go Ad-Free
    • 2025 Free Agent Focus Series
    • 2025 Offseason Checklist Series
    • 2025 NHL Free Agent List
    • 2026 NHL Free Agent List
    • Active Roster Tracker
    • Coaching Staff Directory
    • Draft Pick Tracker 2025
    • Key Offseason Dates
    • Offseason Trade Tracker
    • Pro Hockey Rumors On X
    • Pro Hockey Rumors Polls
    • Waiver Claims 2024-25

     

     

     

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives

    PHR Info

    • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Commenting Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

    scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version