Prospect Watch: Ontario Reign
RinkRoyalty will be reviewing the progress of Los Angeles Kings prospects every Wednesday as the season continues to roll along.
In this week’s edition of Prospect Watch we’ll take a look at the Los Angeles Kings, soon to-be, American Hockey League affiliate, the Ontario Reign.
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The Onatrio Reign are currently an affiliate of the Kings. The Reign reside in Ontario, California, just 37 miles east of Los Angeles.
The Reign are part of the East Coast Hockey League. It’s a ‘AA’ hockey league, just a step below the AHL. A few Kings players are already a part of the Reign’s roster: Alex Roach, and Maxim Kitsyn.
Gasper Kopitar is a member of the Reign. He’s not exactly a Kings prospect yet, but you might recognize his name. Gasper is the younger brother of L.A. Kings All-Star center Anze Kopitar. Perhaps you saw some of Gasper’s moves in the GoPro video the Kopitars took when they were training together this past off-season.
The Reign are currently 28-13-3-4 for 63 points in the standings this season. That puts them in 3rd place in the ECHL’s Western Conference, and 6th in the entire league.
This afternoon the Reign announced a new logo, and new jersey’s to coincide with the transition becoming the Kings farm club team. It was announced last week that the Reign would take over as the Kings AHL team, when the AHL Board of Governors decided to expand the league.
In 38 games this season Kings forward prospect Maxim Kitsyn has 15 goals, 12 assists, 27 points, a +5 plus/minus rating, and 94 penalty minutes. Kitsyn is 5th on the team in goals.
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Defensemen Alex Roach has played in 37 games, has 1 goal, 10 assists, 11 points, a +10 rating, and 30 penalty minutes. Roach is tied for 6th on the team in plus/minus.
Young center Gasper Kopitar, has 7 goals, 8 assists, 15 points, +11 rating in 27 games this season.
The Reign are a big, brutally physical team. They are also an even team that gets scoring from numerous players. The Reign currently have seven players that have more than 10 goals. That’s more than the Kings can say (L.A. currently has six players with more than 10 goals).
There are benefits that will come with the AHL’s new Ontario Reign. It will give Kings fans an opportunity to go see future Kings stars in the making. It will be easier for management to scout and call up developing players.
It’s unclear if the Kings will absorb the rights to many of the Reign’s players. Either way, L.A. will get a good look at them, and thus far it seems like Ontario brings quite a bit to the table.
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- LA Kings goaltending could be better than expected in 2023-24
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- 2 forwards listed as “movable pieces” by the Los Angeles Kings
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- Checking in on the LA Kings players in the IIHF World Championship