Los Angeles Kings Recent and Future Moves

While the Los Angeles Kings rest between games as they continue their Eastern road swing, management has been busy and will have some decisions to make in the near future.

First things first.

Forward Trevor Lewis, who has been sidelined with an upper-body injury since suffering it in a game against the Vancouver Canucks on December 1, caught a flight and met up with the rest of the team in Montreal on Wednesday.  Lewis still remains on the team’s injured-reserve list and if he were to dress for tomorrow’s game against the Canadiens, the club wouldn’t have to make a roster move as they currently have 21 active players.

Forward Dwight King has resumed skating and is inching closer and closer to a return. King suffered a broken foot in the team’s last preseason game on October 3 and has not played a game this season. Last year King put up 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points. Where he fits into the lineup is still to be seen but he will more than likely slot in on the third line with Lewis and Dustin Brown.

And how about those call-ups earlier in the week?

Nov 10, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Kings center Trevor Lewis (22) battles on the boards in the first period of the game against the Arizona Coyotes at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Defensemen Jeff Schultz and Nick Ebert were recalled from Ontario by the big club on Monday, December 14. Their time with the Kings was short-lived as they were sent back to the AHL on Tuesday, December 15.

Seems confusing, doesn’t it?

But it actually makes a lot of sense and gives us a look at how management actually manages the salary cap.

In fact, the call-up that left the Kings with nine defensemen on its roster was part of a bigger plan.

With defender Matt Greene out indefinitely after undergoing shoulder surgery, L.A. were able to free up much-needed cap space by placing the alternate captain on Long-Term Injured Reserve.

But here’s a neat fact: when a team places a player on LTIR, they are actually allowed to spend over the salary cap ceiling by the amount of said player’s cap hit minus the amount of cap space available, as pointed out by L.A. Kings Insider Jon Rosen.

The call-up of Schultz and Ebert, both currently free of passing through waivers if sent back to the AHL, brought the Kings’ cap-hit extremely close to the cap ceiling and allowed the team to get the most out of Greene’s cap hit.

The move raised some eyebrows at first with many wondering why L.A. would carry nine defensemen, but it actually makes a lot of sense now. However, it’s probably not how Ebert imagined his first NHL call-up to go.

With King also on IR and nearing a return and forward Kyle Clifford (head) on IR as well but could return at any time, what will the Kings do when these guys are healthy?

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With King and Clifford back in the lineup, L.A. would then have 24 active players and need to make a roster move to get down to 23.

Would it be Michael Mersch, who began the season in Ontario and has played the last three games with the Kings, who is sent back down? Or could it possibly be Jordan Weal, who has been in and out of the lineup all season, save for the last few games when L.A. ran into injuries?

It will likely be Mersch who gets demoted because he is waivers-exempt while still on his entry-level contract, whereas Weal would have to go through waivers.

It makes the most sense because whichever one stays with the Kings will likely serve as the 13th forward, and unless they were going to be a regular in the lineup playing decent minutes, it doesn’t make much sense to risk losing Weal on waivers if Mersch would be in and out of the lineup, too.

It’s interesting, though, because in the three games Mersch has played in since his call-up, he’s been strong. He’s a heavy body (6’2″, 198 lbs), skates well and, aside from the game in Ottawa where he was a minus-2, has played respectable minutes. He also has three times more shots on goal in five fewer games than Weal.

That’s not a typo.

Mersch has three shots in three games while Weal has only been able to throw one shot on net in eight games.

Sure, Weal has primarily played a 4th-line checking role when he’s been in the lineup, but so have Jordan Nolan and Clifford, who have 23 and 18 shots, respectively.

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Additionally, Weal has not seen more than 8:31 of ice time this season. Mersch played 11:01 in his NHL debut and 14:32 in his second game. I understand that one is a center while the other is a winger, but Weal has also won just 40% of his face-offs this season. Not exactly an eye-popping number.

Weal put up 385 points in 282 games in junior hockey and has shown he can be an offensive force at the AHL level. Unfortunately for Weal, L.A. has Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, Lewis and Nick Shore ahead of him on the depth chart and I don’t see him beating out Kopitar, Carter, or Lewis for top-9 minutes any time soon.

I also don’t see Weal playing on the wing in the top-6 and even the top-9 is a stretch.

In addition, Mersch’s size and style of play fits well into the Kings’ system while Weal, who is of smaller stature, seems to be better-fitted for a different style of hockey. For this reason, I would not be at all surprised to see the Kings trade Weal at some point this season.

GM Dean Lombardi and his staff sure have their work cut out for them over the next couple of weeks.

Oh, and there’s still the whole negotiation for a new Kopitar contract to figure out, too.