Kings are working short-handed
LOS ANGELES » The Kings went into battle for the first time this season Wednesday, yet when they hosted the Colorado Avalanche they were far from full force or even complete attendance.
Carrying 21 players due to salary-cap constraints and down all the way to 19 in uniform at game time as a result of Arthur Kaliyev's suspension and Viktor Arvidsson's lowerbody injury, the Kings also dressed an unbalanced defense corps due, in large part, to other logistical concerns.
For the players in the dressing room, this is the new normal.
“Take it day-to-day and try to stay in the present. We know we have a good team, but when you're missing a soldier, it can have an impact,” said center Phillip Danault, who said while he felt confident in the team's culture, the situation definitely presented a novel challenge.
In some ways it mirrored the situation the Kings and other teams experienced in the long shadow of the pandemic, which wreaked havoc on seemingly everything, including all the best-laid plans in sports between 2020 and 2022.
That upheaval also went beyond the playing surface. As a result of the vast adjustments that had to be made in order to complete the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs and play two seasons with varying fan attendance capacity, the NHL and its players' association drastically reworked their collective bargaining agreement to reflect the new economic realities, reconfigure escrow processes and implement what has been a nearly flat salary ceiling to this day, likely to see its first significant increase next season.
As General Manager Rob Blake and coach Todd McLellan have been very quick to point out, the Kings are not the only organization in this situation or a similar one with a shortened roster and, sometimes, a short bench, too.
“Three or four teams are now forced to dress 19 skaters as they are choking for cap space,” player agent Allan Walsh said via text message. On top of that, many teams are being forced to carry less than 23-man rosters for the same lack of cap space. As it stands now, the players have collectively lost 28 NHL jobs from opening night rosters,”
“Allowing the Upper Limit to rise just another $1 million would have alleviated this issue,” he added. “The NHLPA approached Gary Bettman this past summer to negotiate some flexibility to the upper limit and were rebuffed. The NHLPA understood very well what was coming.”
MCCLARY HONORED » The Kings sported stickers on their helmets on Wednesday in honor of Lou McClary, the team's NHL security representative for 42 years from its inception in 1967 all the way through 2009. McClary died in August at age 96.