During the Los Angeles Kings' last road trip, the defense got their top player back as Drew Doughty took the ice for the first time this season. The return of Doughty certainly should be a boost as the season progresses, even if he showed some rust in his return.
However, Doughty's return came at the expense of Brandt Clarke's ice time. The young defenseman had been a regular part of the rotation for the entire season but Jim Hiller made the decision to make him a healthy scratch for the first two games Doughty was back.
It seemed like this was going to be a regular thing but Mikey Anderson suffered a hand injury that has forced him to miss the last two games. This created a chance for Clarke to return to the lineup and the former first round pick has certainly made the most of that opportunity.
On Wednesday against the Canadiens, Clarke would score his fourth goal of the season about 15 seconds into the third period to give the Kings a 3-1 lead as they would go on to win 6-3.
Nothin but net pic.twitter.com/k9HDMkWHSD
— LA Kings (@LAKings) February 6, 2025
Brandt Clarke should have a few more chances to demonstrate why he needs to remain in Los Angeles Kings lineup
The Los Angeles Kings got some good news on Mikey Anderson as he won't require any surgery and it will just require some time to heal. My guess is with the 4 Nation Faceoff coming up, the earliest Anderson could return would be after the extended break.
This means Clarke has two more games to show the Kings why he should remain in the lineup once Anderson returns. The challenge for the Kings is that they don't have a spot to slot him in unless they return back to the 11/7 roster alignment which Jim Hiller said they probably will return to soon.
If Clarke can continue to play well leading into the break, the Kings not only should return to that roster alignment but give him more ice time, which has gone down every month this season.