The Los Angeles Kings will be without forward Kevin Fiala due to a lower-body injury. News of his absence was announced on Saturday afternoon. The Atlhetic’s Eric Stephens broke the news of Fiala’s injury. Kings coach Todd McLellan said Fiala would be day-to-day with the injury.
News piece on Kevin Fiala being sidelined and how the @LAKings can adjust and handle the injury to their leading scorer.https://t.co/q3UokHFuSe
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) March 11, 2023
Kevin Fiala Injury Considered Day-to-Day
The Swiss forward left Thursday’s 5-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche with an apparent leg injury. Fiala had a knee-on-knee collision with Colorado’s Andrew Cogliano at 9:21 of the second period. The 26-year-old returned in the third period on Phillip Danault’s goal. However, Fiala only played one more shift afterwards.
Fiala has played for the Nashville Predators, Minnesota Wild and the Kings over his nine-year NHL career. He has 22 goals and 46 assists for 68 points in 66 games this season. His Corsi for is 58.3 and his relative Corsi is 9.7. Fiala has 146 goals and 205 assists for 351 points in 485 career games.
The St Gallen, Switzerland native came over to the Kings in the off-season. Fiala signed a seven-year deal worth over $55 million deal last summer. He’s played for his home country of Switzerland at the junior and senior level. His best season was last season when he scored 33 goals and got 85 points in a full 82-game season with the Wild.
Impact of Kevin Fiala Injury
The Kings are in the mix for the Pacific Division, but they will miss his scoring. Trevor Moore will likely reunite with Danault and Viktor Arvidsson and that unit had plenty of chemistry. They were a solid group last season and can hopefully rekindle that mojo.
Moore has dealt with injury spells during this season that’s limited to only 43 games this season. It’s hard to replace the point per game pace that Fiala has produced this season and Moore will need time to get adjusted. Fiala will definitely miss Saturday’s game against one of his old clubs in Nashville.
Main photo by: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
