With their transactions Sunday, the Kings effectively revealed their opening night roster, making the submission of an official list to the league Monday a mere formality.
Of the 23-man group, winger Viktor Arvidsson, center Phillip Danault, defenseman Alex Edler and winger Vladimir Tkachyev were offseason additions to the team, while defenseman Christian Wolanin and winger Brendan Lemieux were in-season acquisitions last season who played fewer than 20 games for the Kings. Winger Arthur Kaliyev, 20, who played in just one game for the Kings last season, will also start this campaign with the big club.
Arvidsson has skated frequently in the preseason with Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, who have played for the Kings in three different decades and rank high if not first on several franchise career leaderboards. That duo and goalie Jonathan Quick, who had a solid preseason, are the remaining links to the Kings’ Stanley Cup championship teams of 2012 and 2014. Danault projects as the Kings’ No. 2 center, potentially stabilizing a spot in the lineup that lacked consistency last season.
At 35, time might not be on Edler’s side, but the Kings were happy to add a steadying presence on the left side of a defense that leaned heavily on two rookies last season.
The roster is hardly etched into silver as two veterans on injured reserve, winger Andreas Athanasiou and defenseman Olli Maatta, could soon rejoin the team. Further down the line, center Quinton Byfield will return from the broken ankle he sustained last week, which has sidelined him indefinitely.
The Kings were hopeful that forward Lias Andersson, who played in 23 games for the Kings last season, would be ready to start the season despite leaving the team’s final preseason game with a lower-body injury and missing practice Monday.
Anderson, Tkachev and second-year center Gabe Vilardi had formed a dynamic third line at times during the preseason. Wolanin and Lemieux might begin the season as depth players, though matchups often dictate personnel changes from game to game.
“It hasn’t felt like this since March of two years ago (referring to 2020); I don’t even know what year it is,” Coach Todd McLellan told reporters Monday. “If you think about last year, we had a taxi squad, we had extra players all over the place, different colors. Today was an NHL practice.”
Defenseman Austin Strand and forward Austin Wagner were the immediate casualties of the roster reduction, with both players placed on waivers and destined for the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League if they clear waivers.