{"id":484511,"date":"2026-03-04T08:33:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/484511\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T08:33:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T08:33:19","slug":"kings-reassign-erik-portillo-angus-booth-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/484511\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings Reassign Erik Portillo, Angus Booth \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 3:\u00a0The Kings returned Portillo to AHL Ontario after he backed up\u00a0Anton Forsberg<\/a> last night, per John Hoven of Mayor\u2019s Manor<\/a>. Defenseman Angus Booth<\/a>\u00a0joins him on the road back to the AHL after scoring in his debut last night with a +1 rating in 12:18 of ice time.<\/p>\n

March 2: The Los Angeles Kings have recalled<\/a> goaltender Erik Portillo<\/a> from their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign. The move comes as the incumbent No. 1 netminder Darcy Kuemper<\/a> is set to miss at least tonight\u2019s game against the Colorado Avalanche with an illness, per team reporter Zach Dooley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t Portillo\u2019s first opportunity to serve as a fill-in for an unavailable Kuemper \u2013 over the Olympic break, the Swedish netminder was recalled<\/a> to practice with the team while Kuemper was in Italy representing Canada at the Olympic tournament. Today\u2019s recall is in a similar vein, although there is an actual game to be played in this case, and Portillo is set to serve as the backup.<\/p>\n

A 2019 third-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres, Portillo has developed well over the last two-and-a-half years as a member of the Kings organization. Once a high-end goaltender both in the USHL with the Dubuque Fighting Saints and NCAA with the Michigan Wolverines, Portillo has become a solid goaltender at the AHL level. He made his professional debut in 2023-24, posting a .918 save percentage across 39 games with the Reign. Portillo earned a greater share of starts than most goalies can typically expect in their first season in the pro ranks, and Portillo appeared to respond well to the increased responsibility and workload.<\/p>\n

The following season, Portillo\u2019s numbers took a step back, regressing from a .918 save percentage in 2023-24 to an .889 in 2024-25. It\u2019s possible the trickle-down effect of the Kings\u2019 addition of Kuemper may have played a role. In 2023-24, David Rittich<\/a>\u2018s stellar play kept him in the NHL, meaning the Kings didn\u2019t have a veteran to pair with Portillo until they signed Aaron Dell<\/a> in late January of 2024. That allowed Portillo to play a regular starting netminder\u2019s schedule, something he got used to (albeit with a smaller pool of total available games) when he was at Michigan.<\/p>\n

In 2024-25, Kuemper arrived, and emerged as a Vezina Trophy candidate with the Kings. Having Kuemper and Rittich entrenched in the NHL forced Pheonix Copley<\/a>, who had played in 37 NHL games in 2022-23, and spent most of 2023-24 injured, off the Kings\u2019 NHL roster. As a result, he received the lion\u2019s share of starts in Ontario, and Portillo had to settle for a backup goalie\u2019s schedule of starts, rather than a starter. Many goalies have commented on<\/a> the difficulty posed by a backup\u2019s schedule, in terms of being less capable of finding a rhythm that paves the way to on-ice success. Being a backup isn\u2019t something Portillo had to deal with in several years, and it\u2019s therefore not a huge surprise that his numbers fell back as he tried to make that adjustment.<\/p>\n

So far this season, Portillo appears to have largely rebounded from his difficult 2024-25. He\u2019s come close to splitting starts with Copley, with 20 games played compared to the veteran\u2019s 26. He\u2019s winning frequently, with a 14-3-1 record and .905 save percentage, well above Copley\u2019s .891 mark. With another season on his deal at a $783K cap hit, the time could be quickly approaching where the Kings look to Portillo as a legitimate NHL option, although it\u2019s important to note that both Kuemper and Forsberg remain under contract through next season as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 3:\u00a0The Kings returned Portillo to AHL Ontario after he backed up\u00a0Anton Forsberg last night, per John Hoven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5126],"tags":[19910,5839,5,186,1760,240,5303,793,145,5304,5302,4,405],"class_list":["post-484511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-los-angeles-kings","tag-angus-booth","tag-erik-portillo","tag-hockey","tag-kings","tag-la","tag-la-kings","tag-lakings","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleskings","tag-nhl","tag-transactions"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116169985537661966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}