{"id":673244,"date":"2026-09-28T04:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/673244\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T04:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T04:12:13","slug":"kings-make-multiple-roster-moves-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/673244\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings Make Multiple Roster Moves \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Kings announced what should be their final set of preseason roster moves on Sunday night, reassigning goaltender\u00a0Erik Portillo<\/a>, right-winger\u00a0Taylor Ward<\/a>, and defenseman\u00a0Scott Perunovich<\/a>\u00a0to AHL Ontario. The latter two had cleared waivers earlier today. Additionally, they placed defense prospect\u00a0Otto Salin<\/a>\u00a0on the injured non-roster list to open the season.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles is now down to the 23-player maximum before tomorrow\u2019s deadline, and could even open up another space if they elect to place winger Kevin Fiala<\/a>\u00a0on injured reserve. He\u2019s close to a return from the left leg fracture he sustained at the Olympics in February but isn\u2019t expected to be ready for opening night.<\/p>\n

Portillo, a pending Group VI unrestricted free agent in his final year of waiver-exempt status, will face some stiff competition for the third-string job this season. He joins a crowded crease in Ontario with high-end netminding prospects\u00a0Carter George<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Hampton Slukynsky<\/a>, the #2 and #3 prospects in the whole system, per NHL.com<\/a>. Now 26, the former University of Michigan star has just one NHL start under his belt back in the 2024-25 campaign but is coming off a decent season in Ontario, logging a .907 SV% and 2.45 GAA with an 18-7-4 record in 30 outings.<\/p>\n

Of the other demotions, Ward\u2019s is more surprising. The 6\u20192\u2033 forward was undrafted but has endeared himself to Kings brass while playing in Ontario over the past several seasons. That earned him a long look in a fourth-line role last year, scoring three goals and seven points in 36 games while averaging a shade under 10 minutes per game. However, L.A. added much in the way of forward depth this summer to help offset\u00a0Anze Kopitar<\/a>\u2019s loss \u2013 bringing back\u00a0Corey Perry<\/a>\u00a0and acquiring\u00a0Erik Haula<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mats Zuccarello<\/a>\u00a0in free agency \u2013 so they\u2019re hoping to not have to rely on their limited offensive depth in Ontario as much this season.<\/p>\n

Perunovich, as offensively gifted a blue-line threat as he once was, no longer appears like an NHL option. A Hobey Baker winner back in 2020, he\u2019s now on his fourth NHL organization after landing with the Kings in free agency this summer. Several injuries early in his professional career completely derailed his development, and he didn\u2019t see a single NHL contest last year while in the Mammoth system. He posted a 9-40\u201349 scoring line in 64 AHL games last season, which would have led Ontario in scoring among defensemen by a long shot, so they\u2019re clearly looking for him to be a #1 threat down there as top-ranked prospect\u00a0Henry Brzustewicz<\/a>\u00a0makes the jump to the pros to augment Perunovich atop L.A.\u2019s minor-league depth.<\/p>\n

Salin, 22, was a fifth-rounder back in 2022. He\u2019s kicking off his second season in North America and wasn\u2019t anything more than a depth option in Ontario last season, posting five points and a -3 rating in 43 outings. Undersized at 5\u201911\u201d and 192 lbs, he\u2019s an offensive-minded threat that will need more reps than that to be effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kings announced what should be their final set of preseason roster moves on Sunday night, reassigning goaltender\u00a0Erik…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5839,5,145,4,21665,7273,3286,405],"class_list":["post-673244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-erik-portillo","tag-hockey","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-nhl","tag-otto-salin","tag-scott-perunovich","tag-taylor-ward","tag-transactions"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117346719735070603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673244","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=673244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}