Late Night Notes: Doughty, Wilsby, Crosby
Top Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty has taken one step closer to full health, returning to skating drills on Tuesday head coach Jim Hiller shared with NHL.com’s Zach Dooley. Doughty has missed the entire regular season after undergoing an ankle surgery in October. He was placed on long-term injured reserve on October 9th.
The Kings defense has been great in Doughty’s absence. Rookie Brandt Clarke leads the bunch in scoring with an impressive 21 points in 36 games – and is quickly followed by Vladislav Gavrikov, Jordan Spence, and Joel Edmundson in scoring double-digit points. The blue-line has been a major factor in the Kings’ 21-10-5 record, and getting back their franchise defender in Doughty could be the piece to really push them into company with the league’s top teams. The 35-year-old Doughty recorded 50 points in 82 games last season – his second consecutive year reaching the 50-point mark. His performance featured 15 goals, the most Doughty has scored since the 2009-10 season. While age has certainly slowed his game, he still seems poised to make a major impact in Los Angeles’ top-four once he’s back to full health.
Sticking to the Western Conference, Nashville Predators defenseman Adam Wilsby missed the team’s Tuesday game against Minnesota with an upper-body injury. He has been designated as day-to-day, per a team announcement. Wilsby has been a focal piece of Nashville’s blue-line, averaging nearly 19 minutes of ice time each game and recording three points across 15 games. He’s 10 games shy of making this year his official rookie season in the NHL. Wilsby earned the promotion after climbing the ranks of the Milwaukee Admirals, totaling 44 points in 126 games with the club over the last three seasons – including five points in 13 games this year. Recent trade acquisition Justin Barron is filled in for Wilsby. It’s his third game with the Predators. Barron is still searching for his first point with the team.
Jumping out East, Sidney Crosby is continuing to stamp himself as the pinnacle Pittsburgh Penguin. He recorded his 1,034th assist on Sunday night, passing Mario Lemieux for the franchise’s all-time record and pushing Crosby to 12th on the NHL’s all-time assist leaderboards. Crosby sits 16 assists back from surpassing Gordie Howe and entering the top-10 of that list. He’s still 88 points shy of breaking Lemieux’s franchise record for all-time points. Crosby has two years on his contract after this season, which should be plenty of runway to set more Penguins scoring records, and continue challenging the tops of NHL record books.
Los Angeles Kings Recall Arthur Kaliyev, Place Trevor Moore On IR
Arthur Kaliyev is expected to play in his first NHL contest in the last 269 days. The Los Angeles Kings announced they’ve activated Kaliyev from the injured reserve and recalled him from his conditioning loan while placing Trevor Moore on the injured reserve in a corresponding roster move.
Kaliyev hasn’t played for the Kings since last year’s regular season. He got off to a solid start last season with six goals and 13 points through his first 25 games but his production dissipated quickly. Los Angeles did everything they could to jumpstart Kaliyev’s scoring output but he finished the 2023-24 season with one goal and two points in his subsequent 26 games.
His comeback effort didn’t start on the right foot. Kaliyev suffered a broken collarbone on the second day of training camp this year, precluding him from starting the regular season on time. He was finally cleared to play on December 10th when the Kings originally sent him to the AHL on his conditioning loan. His time with AHL’s Ontario Reign produced mixed results after scoring one goal and two points in five contests.
Los Angeles will hope Kaliyev can re-establish his offensive production this season. He’s only two years removed from scoring 13 goals and 28 points for the Kings in 56 games and is still only 23 years old. His play down the stretch of the 2024-25 season will likely dictate Kaliyev’s future in the Kings organization.
Still, Kaliyev is likely the best internal option at the Kings’ disposal to replace Moore in the lineup. The veteran winger has missed Los Angeles’ last five games due to an upper-body injury and isn’t ready to return. Moore is tied for the sixth on the Kings in goal-scoring with six goals in 28 games after finishing last year as the team’s best goal-scorer with 31 goals in 82 contests.
Kings Recall Andre Lee From AHL
The Los Angeles Kings have recalled forward Andre Lee from the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League. Lee was sent to the AHL on December 24th, after making his first NHL appearance in December last Sunday. The 24-year-old Lee has spent the bulk of this season playing in the NHL for Los Angeles, dressing in 17 games and registering two points.
Before this year, Lee had spent his entire professional career in the AHL with the Reign. His AHL appearances have been limited this season, dressing in just four games and registering a goal and an assist. Over the course of his four-year AHL career, Lee has dressed in 109 games and tallied 15 goals and 11 assists.
The former seventh-round pick doesn’t provide much offense but is a good forechecker and can make space for his linemates. However, he isn’t overly physical given his 6’4” 205-pound frame and may need to find other ways to produce if he hopes to stick around in the NHL.
Lee spent the first month of the season in Los Angeles, but since then he has bounced back and forth between the NHL and AHL and will likely continue to do so for the remainder of this season unless he can start to produce a bit of offense in a bottom six role.
Kings Reassign Andre Lee
Dec. 24: Lee has been returned to Ontario, per a club announcement. He won’t count against the cap during their holiday break. His appearance on Sunday against the Capitals was his first during this recall, recording a shot on goal in 9:13 of ice time.
Dec. 13: The Kings made a roster move on Friday to add a bit more depth up front. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Andre Lee from AHL Ontario on an emergency basis. Mayor’s Manor reports that winger Trevor Moore’s availability for tomorrow’s game against the Rangers is in question, necessitating this move.
The 24-year-old has gotten into 16 games so far this season with Los Angeles in his first taste of NHL action. That said, his playing time has largely been limited as he’s logging just 9:26 per game. Offensively, Lee has been limited to recording two assists although he’s also averaging just over two hits per contest.
After spending more than a month on an NHL roster to start the season, Lee was sent down in mid-November but he has been recalled multiple times since then. As a result, he has only played in four games with the Reign, picking up a goal and an assist after picking up 13 points in 36 games with them last season.
With the recall, the Kings are now at the maximum of 23 players on their active roster.
Kings Request Extension For Arthur Kaliyev’s Conditioning Loan
The Kings haven’t had winger Arthur Kaliyev‘s services at all this season, at least at the NHL level. After an offseason marred by a trade request and a lengthy contract negotiation, the 23-year-old signed a one-year, $825K deal at the beginning of training camp only to sustain a collarbone fracture two days later.
He was cleared to play earlier this month and was subsequently sent to AHL Ontario on a conditioning loan that can only last two weeks. That mark is approaching on Tuesday, although Ontario doesn’t have another game until after Christmas. After the 2019 second-round pick was limited to one assist in four games over the past couple of weeks, the Kings are requesting an extension for him to remain in Ontario for two more contests through the end of this week, John Hoven of Mayor’s Manor reports.
The lack of goals wasn’t for lack of trying, Hoven notes. The Uzbekistan-born winger had four shots on goal in two separate outings. Shooting the puck has never been a problem for Kaliyev, who averages nearly four shot attempts per game since making his NHL debut in 2020-21 despite averaging around 12 minutes per game. But despite strong production for his usage, averaging 15 goals and 31 points per 82 games, he hasn’t been able to ever earn a legitimate chance outside of a bottom-six role. Last season was especially difficult for Kaliyev, who had his worst offensive showing as a full-time NHLer with seven goals and 15 points in 51 games.
Kaliyev has long desired a change of scenery to a club where he has a better chance of earning a top-six role. Unfortunately for him, the lack of production in his brief AHL stint has likely done nothing to drum up trade interest around the league after the Kings failed to land an acceptable offer over the summer.
If he remains in a slump when he returns to the NHL later this month, he may need to wait until the summer and hope for a non-tender from Los Angeles to allow him to test the open market. The Kings retained his rights by issuing him a qualifying offer in June despite reports suggesting they may do otherwise.
Kings Loan Dvorak To Czech WJC Team
- After being named to Czechia’s preliminary World Junior roster yesterday, the Kings have loaned defenseman Jakub Dvorak to the national team, per the AHL’s transactions log. Considering that he’s seeing regular action with the Reign, it’s likely that he’s going to make the team so Los Angeles could have tried to see if they could keep him a little longer before loaning him out like Seattle intends to do with winger Eduard Sale but instead, Dvorak will join the Czechs for their full training camp.
Kings Assign Arthur Kaliyev To AHL On Conditioning Loan
The Kings announced that they’ve assigned winger Arthur Kaliyev to AHL Ontario on a conditioning loan. It will be Kaliyev’s first game action since suffering a fractured clavicle in a preseason practice session.
The 23-year-old’s reassignment comes two months to the day after general manager Rob Blake said Kaliyev would be out of action for six to eight weeks. He’s been back at practice for over a month now but evidently needed a slightly longer recovery window to get back up to game speed.
It was a tough break to start the season for the 2019 second-round pick, who had asked for a trade over the summer. The 6’2″, 210-lb winger was a frequent healthy scratch last season and was limited to 15 points in 51 games while seeing under 12 minutes of ice time per night. A restricted free agent for most of the offseason, he signed a one-year, $825K deal in mid-September to attend training camp with the Kings but sustained the broken collarbone just a few days later.
There’s likely even less of a chance at regular playing time for Kaliyev now on the surging Kings, who have won five in a row and are second in the Pacific Division with a 16-8-3 record. There may, however, be an opportunity for him to challenge someone like enforcer Tanner Jeannot (3-2–5 in 24 GP) for a top-nine role if Los Angeles can’t find a new home for him on the trade market during his stint in Ontario, which will last up to two weeks. He will remain on injured reserve during that time.
Kaliyev last appeared in Ontario during the 2020-21 campaign, his first professional season. He led the team in scoring during the COVID-shortened campaign with 31 points (14 G, 17 A) in 40 appearances.
His showing on the farm over the next couple of weeks will allow the Kings to evaluate whether they still see a future for him within the organization, although a strong run on the farm could also help boost his trade value. Teams are certainly open for business earlier than usual – there have been seven trades over the past couple of weeks, including ones involving youngsters in need of fresh starts like David Jiříček and Philip Tomasino.
Kaliyev, a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at season’s end, has 35 goals and 36 assists for 71 points in 188 career appearances with the team. That’s on pace for 15 goals and 31 points over an 82-game season.
Kings’ Caleb Jones Clears Waivers, Reassigned To AHL
12/9: The Kings organization confirmed Jones has successfully cleared waivers as the team announced they’ve reassigned him to their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign.
12/8: The Los Angeles Kings have placed defender Caleb Jones on waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Jones was placed on injured reserve on November 15th, after sustaining an upper-body injury in November 13th’s loss to Colorado. He’s missed nine games since, nearly double the five games he’s played in so far this season. Jones hasn’t recorded any scoring thus far. This move will give him a chance to find his health, and scoring, with more minutes in the minor leagues.
Jones played in 12 AHL games last season – scoring six points – but has otherwise been a full-time NHL defender since the 2019-20 season. He’s played with four different clubs in that span, starting his career in 2018-19 with Edmonton. Jones gradually climbed the Oilers’ depth chart, working from the AHL, to a role as a routine call-up, then eventually becoming Edmonton’s seventh defender. He scored 19 points across three seasons and 93 games in Edmonton, all before the age of 23. That was enough promise to make Jones a focal piece in the trade that sent an aged Duncan Keith from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Edmonton Oilers. The Blackhawks continued to rotate Jones through the lineup, awarding him 51 games in 2021-22 and 73 games in 2022-23. He scored 15 and 16 points in the respective seasons, prompting Chicago to leave Jones unsigned in the 2023 off-season. He signed in Carolina, but was traded to Colorado before the start of the 2023-24 season. Jones continued to serve a minor role with the Avalanche, recording five assists in 25 NHL games and six assists in 12 AHL games.
Thomas Activated Off IR
- The Kings announced (Twitter link) that they’ve activated forward Akil Thomas off injured reserve. The 24-year-old had missed the last week due to an undisclosed injury. Thomas has been limited to just ten games so far in his first full NHL season and has a goal and an assist while logging a little more than 11 minutes a night of playing time. Los Angeles had two open roster spots so no corresponding move was needed to bring Thomas back to the active roster.
Los Angeles Kings Reassign Andre Lee To AHL
- Per a team release from the Los Angeles Kings, Andre Lee has been papered down to the AHL’s Ontario Reign. The move is strictly to capture more salary cap space for a Kings organization with limited space. Los Angeles doesn’t play against until Saturday when they take on the Minnesota Wild and the expectation is that Lee will re-join the team for that contest.
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