Kings Make Final Cuts

The Kings have made their final cuts of training camp. The big winners were Wayne Simmonds, Oscar Moller and Erik Ersberg. Simmonds and Moller were expected to come up, get a pat on the head and then travel to their respective minor league teams but both were highly praised all camp and definitely earned this opportunity. I think Moller will play with Kopitar, but he may get slotted alongside Frolov and Stoll. Or Simmonds could. Who the fuck knows. Ersberg ended up beating out Jonathan Quick for the back-up job, which was to be expected. It's more important for Quick to play at this time and Ersberg can hold place until one of the young guys demands attention.

The big loser at training camp was Ted Purcell, who was shockingly sent down to Manchester. I guess the Kings felt the rest of his game needed rounding out (or maybe they wanted him to practice left wing, since the Kings currently have a logjam on the right side), but it still has to be a pretty big blow to him. Hopefully he takes it the right way and continues to improve.

The Kings ended up keeping only 22 players. If you're an optimist, you assume this is because Patrick O'Sullivan is on the verge of signing. If you're a pessimist, you assume this is because John Zeiler is about to come off the DL. Also, the injuries to Cliche, Clune, and Zeiler put the Kings over the cap. I think. I don't think anyone really knows.