Post by Los Angeles Kings on Sept 4, 2022 15:58:34 GMT -6
After a Summer of celebration, the Los Angeles Kings are back in town for Training Camp for the 2022-23 PFHL Pre-Season. It wasn’t long ago that the Kings went on a historic playoff run, going 16-2, including a Stanley Cup Final sweep of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
There are a few roster changes this season, with center Joe Thornton, and winger Nate Thompson both opting to retire. Center Cody Glass, wingers Julien Gauthier, Austin Wagner and defenseman Tobias Bjornot all graduate to the pro club after strong AHL seasons last year. To make room for the new recruits, the Kings had to move out penalty kill specialist winger Alexander Steen, and defenseman Kris Russell. Backup goaltender Devan Dubnyk also departs to the Vancouver Canucks, with Martin Jones coming over from the Montreal Canadiens.
The Los Angeles Kings look to roll 3 offensive lines this year with Joe Pavelski centering Jake Guentzel and Jakub Voracek, Blake Wheeler centering Carter Verhaeghe and David Perron, and Cody Glass centering Alexander Radulov and Julien Gauthier. The 4th line, while not set in stone looks to be Nick Bonino centering Trevor Moore and Austin Wagner. On defense, the pairings are almost the same, with Mackenzie Weegar and John Carlson on the top pair, Dmitry Orlov and Ryan McDonagh on the 2nd pair, and Tobias Bjornfot and Cody Ceci on the bottom pair.
Head Coach Peter DeBoer explained his lines going into this year:
“The top 2 lines performed well for us last year, so there is no reason for us to really switch it up at this point. Having Cody and Julien on the 3rd line together will allow us to give them some softer minutes, more offensive zone starts, and some power play time as well. Our main focus for this year is defending our championship. The NHL game is vastly different from the AHL, with intensity and how quick the play moves. You have to put players in positions to succeed, or you risk undermining their confidence. Having 3 scoring lines opens up some opportunities for us regarding ice time. You might see players like Pavelski and Guentzel able to take some PK shifts, instead of just being scoring and PP. It will also allow us to keep the pressure on the opponent more throughout the game. On defense, our pairings are largely the same with Tobias slotting in on the bottom pairing. Again, we don’t want to throw him into the deep end. He needs to work a bit more on his defensive positioning and his the use of his stick on breaking up cross ice plays. You might seem him also get some shifts on the power play as well. Overall, we are a deeper team than we were last year. The Pacific division crown will be a challenge once again with other teams, like the Vancouver Canucks, improving their roster greatly over last year. There will be no games off.”
Most of the offseason additions came on the farm, with veterans Eric Staal, Ryan Reaves, Andy Greene, Sebastien Aho, and Mikko Koskinen coming in through free agency/trades. Expect Nick Seeler and Jay Beagle to see some time on the farm as well this year. New prospects include forward Dominic Toninato, defensemen Nick Blankenburg and Colton White. The Kings also signed youngsters Navrin Mutter, and Marian Studenic.
Farm Coach Joe Sacco explained his roster changes on the Ontario Reign this year:
“Anytime you have 4 players graduate from the farm to the pro league, you have a lot of holes to fill on the farm roster to make the team competitive once again. A lot of our veteran acquisitions raised a few eyebrows when they were announced. The fact of the matter is that you can’t just throw a bunch of youngsters on the ice and hope for the best. Take a look at how many years the Edmonton Oilers did that, without any success. It’s called the decade of darkness for a reason. Our primary objective on the farm is development, and our secondary objective is winning. The veterans will play throughout the lineup to help insulate the younger guys and provide that leadership, that steadiness, that calming factor. Our goal is to develop these guys and force GM Chernuka to make some hard decisions at the pro level. We want these young guys beating down that door to the pro league.”
History proves that nothing is set in stone however. There have been rumours surrounding defenseman Ryan McDonagh, center Blake Wheeler and farm forward Reese Johnson possibly being on the move. One thing is for sure, despite whatever talks happen in the background, nothing is finalized until that trade call happens.
