LA Kings Prospect Report: Big week for Rasmus Kupari earns promotion

Recapping the LA Kings prospects for the week of February 15.

Uncertainty lay ahead after Rasmus Kupari tore his ACL in Team Finland’s opening game in the 2020 World Juniors. Fast forward another 12 months; perhaps no prospect has benefited more from the delayed start to the 2021 season than Kupari. The 20-year-old has been a standout player with the LA Kings AHL affiliate in the Ontario Reign, leading the AHL with eight points in seven games as of Sunday morning.

With Jaret Anderson-Dolan down with an upper-body injury in Thursday’s win against the Coyotes, head coach Todd McLellan suggested he may not play for the rest of the team’s road trip. Coincidentally, the Ontario Reign hosted the Henderson Silver Knights on Sunday but are then off until next Saturday. As such, Kupari has been promoted to the LA Kings taxi squad.

We’ll see if he gets inserted into the lineup. Let’s check in on the rest of the Kings prospects last week. In case you missed last week’s summary, see here.

Alex Laferriere

After being held scoreless in Des Moines’ only game last week, the LA Kings 2020 third-round pick went off this week, tallying seven points in two games. On Friday, he recorded two goals and an assist in the Buccaneers’ 6-2 win and followed that with a hat trick and an assist on Saturday night in a lopsided 8-1 win.

Jordan Spence

Similar to Laferriere, Spence had a good week for Val-d’Or, tallying two assists in the Foreurs 2-1 victory on Monday.

Samuel Fagemo

Fagemo recorded Ontario’s first goal of the game against Henderson on Sunday night.

Bulat Shafigullin

The LA Kings 2018 third-round pick logged one assist in Neftekhimik’s three games last week. On the year, Shafigullin has seven goals and 14 assists in 53 games.

Kim Nousiainen

Nousiainen returned to KalPa’s lineup last Wednesday, going 12 days between games after taking a big hit on February 5. The LA Kings 2019 fourth-round pick logged a goal and two assists in Kalpa’s three games last week. His goal came on the man advantage in the second period.

Braden Doyle

Doyle logged an assist in Dubuque’s 4-3 OT loss to Green Bay last Friday. He has three goals and 11 assists in 27 games this season.

Kasper Simontaival

The LA Kings 2020 third-round pick logged an assist in Tappara’s four-game last week to go along with eight shots on net.

Andre Lee

Lee continues to impress with each passing week. The seventh-round pick in 2019 recorded an assist in UMass-Lowell’s 4-1 win over Northern Michigan on Friday. Between the two games last week, Lee registered six shots on net.

Rasmus Kupari

We already discussed Kupari at length above, but just last week alone, he logged three assists in Ontario’s two games.

Brock Faber

After failing to record a point in six consecutive games, Faber made the scoresheet in Minnesota’s 4-2 win over Michigan State on Friday, recording an assist and two shots on goal.

Ben Meehan

Meehan continues to prove he’s an excellent facilitator of the puck from the blue line, logging an assist in UMass-Lowell’s win on Friday. In 12 games this season, the LA Kings 2020 fifth-round pick has six assists.

Quinton Byfield

Byfield has recorded points in three of his last four games, including an assist on Arthur Kaliyev‘s goal last Wednesday.

Tyler Madden

Madden recorded a secondary assist on Blaine Byron’s goal in last Wednesday’s 2-1 win. He has three apples in seven games for the Reign this year.

Arthur Kaliyev

Kaliyev recorded his first AHL goal in the Reign’s 2-1 win last Wednesday.

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Cole Hults

A lot of firsts this week — Hults logged his first professional goal in the Reign’s 4-2 loss on Friday while also tallying four shots on net from the blue line.

Akil Thomas

After recording his first professional goal last week, Akil Thomas got his second in as many weeks against the Henderson Silver Knights on Sunday.

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