Los Angeles Kings: List of 2023 Restricted Free Agents Part. 1
Zack MacEwan – Right Wing – 26 years old – Restricted Free Agent
Zack MacEwan was arguably the most head-scratching move by Rob Blake at the trade deadline. MacEwan was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers for Brendan Lemieux and a 2024 5th-round pick on March 3rd.
Since joining the Kings, he has only appeared in 10 games and has largely been a non-contributor during the time he has spent on the ice. In those 10 games, he only has one even-strength assist and an average ice time of 8:11. The only consistent stat he has produced since coming to the City of Angels is hitting the other team. He has a total of 20 hits in 10 games, which is arguably one of the only uses a player like him has at the NHL level.
Now, he is a restricted free agent, and with his production on the ice, I wouldn’t think it would be too far out of the realm of possibility for another team to offer sheet him with little to no compensation required. I’m unsure of his fit with this team and it may be better for both sides to cut their losses and move on.
Rasmus Kupari – Center – 23 years old – Restricted Free Agent
Rasmus Kupari has spent his entire NHL career within the Los Angeles Kings organization. Drafted in the first round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft with the 20th overall pick, Rasmus Kupari spent time back in his native Finland and on the Ontario Reign before finding a home in the Los Angeles Kings rotation.
Kupari is still so young and has a very bright future ahead of him, and hopefully, that future will be on the Los Angeles Kings. The right-handed forward has played in 130 NHL games already, only 70 shy of the minimum amount of games to achieve the NHL pension plan. In those 130 games, he has recorded 9 goals and 20 assists for 29 points.
Nine goals may seem underwhelming for a 23-year-old who has played in 130 games, but his goal conversion is not from a lack of trying. He has a total of 112 shots on goal, which is nearly a shot on goal per game (0.86%).
I think he will continue to develop as a part of the young core on this roster and remain a solid bottom-six option for the Kings.
Gabriel Vilardi – Right Wing – 23 years old – Restricted Free Agent
Much like Rasmus Kupari, Gabriel Vilardi has been with the Los Angeles Kings organization for his entire NHL career. Drafted with the 11th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, Gabriel Vilardi has shown steady improvement on this team, and this year he really took his game to another level.
The 2022-2023 season was the first time he scored over 20 goals in his four-year career. Vilardi finished the season with 23 goals and 18 assists for 41 points. A near 50-point season is quite the improvement from his second-highest scoring season, the 2020-2021 season, when he scored 10 goals and 13 assists for 23 points.
He posted his best statistical season thus far even despite missing 19 regular season games due to injury. Gabriel Vilardi will be a special player for this Kings team going forward and I would imagine extending his contract would be pretty high up on the list of Rob Blake’s to-do list.
Jaret Anderson-Dolan – Center – 23 years old – Restricted Free Agent
Jaret Anderson-Dolan has been with the Los Angeles Kings organization since 2017. Like Gabriel Vilardi, he was drafted in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft with the 41st overall pick. His development into an NHL player has taken some time, but he has progressed well.
During the 2018-2019 season, Anderson-Dolan played only five games at the NHL level. But last season, the 2022-2023 season, he played in 46 games. He only scored seven goals and five assists for a total of 12 points. But, he came off of an impressive season with the Ontario Reign last year.
In 54 games with the Reign, he recorded 24 goals and 23 assists for 47 points. An impressive season that helped nudge him into the NHL lineup more frequently. Now, he hopes to continue to build on a 46-game appearance with some more production.
He’s still a ways away from becoming a Top Six player, but he could certainly get there one day fairly easily. Going into this offseason with a new contract to say, at this point, it is expected that he will return to the Kings. But, it also wouldn’t surprise me if someone offer-sheets him and persuades him to join another team.
Jacob Ingham – Goalie – 22 years old – Restricted Free Agent
Jacob Ingham was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft in the sixth round with the 175th overall pick. He signed his entry-level contract on April 18, 2020, for three years and a value of $2,550,000.
Ingham is a 6-foot-4, left-catching goaltender that has yet to see the NHL ice. But, he could continue to develop into an NHL-level goaltender, especially with the goalie situation that the Los Angeles Kings are currently in. He didn’t play a whole lot of games last season because he was injured.
He suffered a back injury late last year and underwent surgery in October 2022. He was expected to miss 5-6 months to recover from it. Meaning that the time he did spend on the ice was for the Kings’ ECHL affiliate, Greenville Swamp Rabbits. He played in 16 games last season and recorded a .909 save percentage.
Not a bad showing for a sixth-round pick, but his performance at the AHL level was not as impressive. In five games with the Reign, he recorded a .861 save percentage. But, with the uncertainties in the Kings’ crease, Ingham could see more playing time at the AHL level because Matt Villalta and David Hrenak are also restricted free agents.
Although there are a lot of things that still need to fall into place before that happens, it will be interesting to see how Jacob Ingham falls into the mix for the Los Angeles Kings organization. There will be more restricted free agents coming soon.
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