The Kings have signed winger Martin Chromiak to a one-year, two-way contract extension with an annual average value of up to the league minimum of $775,000, the team said in a Tuesday news release.
Chromiak, who will turn 23 in August, spent his third full campaign in the American Hockey League with the Ontario Reign last season. He notched career highs in goals (18), assists (21) and points (39) across 69 appearances.
A Slovak, Chromiak began his career with HC Dukla Trenčín, the same program where former King Márían Gáborík and his postseason nemesis Márian Hossa cut their teeth before making the leap to the NHL as teenagers.
Like those players, Chromiak is known as an offensive threat, albeit a more modest one with a more tempered path to the top level in North America.
Chromiak was a fifth-round selection (No. 128 overall) of the Kings in the 2020 NHL Draft, spending most of that campaign in Slovakia before logging his first two AHL games at the end of the season. He had gotten a taste of the North American game the year before. Then, he split time between Trenčín and Kingston, Ontario, playing at the junior level for the Frontenacs and making the Ontario Hockey League’s all-rookie team.
He has represented Slovakia internationally twice at the junior level and twice at the senior level. The Slovaks qualified for next year’s Winter Olympics in Italy and Chromiak could be a fringe contender for a roster spot under general manager Miroslav Šatan, another product of the Trenčín system.
While the Kings’ bottom-six forward group has some spots up in the air and Chromiak has shown his scoring touch at times in training camp with the big club, he will most likely return to the Reign to begin 2025-26.