The Los Angeles Kings will activate forward Warren Foegele off of injured reserve tomorrow, team reporter Zach Dooley revealed today. Dooley also shared that Foegele says he’s “feeling really good” after missing almost two weeks with an upper-body injury. The Kings have an open spot on their active roster, so the Kings are not under any pressure to make an immediate corresponding roster move.
The 29-year-old winger hasn’t played since he suffered his injury early in the Kings’ Oct. 26 road win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Although Foegele had been playing a solid third-line left wing role alongside Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore, he had struggled to find the scoresheet through ten games of the season. He has just one point to his name in 2025-26, a notably slow start for a player who set career highs in goals (24) and points (46) last season.
With scorer Andrei Kuzmenko now occupying Foegele’s former lineup spot, Dooley reports that Foegele is “expected” to return to the lineup on the Kings’ fourth line alongside Corey Perry and Alex Turcotte. If that ends up being the case, undrafted veteran forward Jeff Malott appears set to become a healthy scratch.
The 6’5″ winger earned an NHL role after a strong 2024-25 with the AHL’s Ontario Reign (he had 23 goals, 51 points in 61 games) but has just two points through 13 NHL games this season and is averaging under eight minutes of ice time per game, with zero penalty-kill contributions.
Even if Foegele isn’t scoring, the penalty kill is where he can still make valuable contributions to the Kings’ overall efforts to win games. He ranked fourth among Kings forwards in short-handed ice time per game in 2024-25, helping the Kings to a No. 8 finish in the league’s overall penalty kill success rate standings.
With Los Angeles looking to claw its way to the top of a hotly-contested Pacific Division, Foegele’s return from injury is a helpful development, further fortifying the team’s bottom-six.