Los Angeles Kings forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan is day to day with an upper-body injury. He will not play in Saturday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes.
“I’m not sure he’ll be available to us on this trip,” McLellan said, of JAD. “…We’ll know more over the next day or two….” https://t.co/r0l4t2gNMm
— lisa dillman (@reallisa) February 19, 2021
Jaret Anderson-Dolan Out With Injury
Kings centre Jaret Anderson-Dolan reportedly did not skate with the team during practice on Friday morning. According to Kings coach Todd McLellan, he is out with an upper-body injury and will miss Saturday’s game. There is a chance Anderson-Dolan could still play on the Kings road trip at some point, however, we do not know for sure. The last game on the trip is against the Minnesota Wild on February 27th.
Anderson-Dolan’s Hot Start
Losing Anderson-Dolan could potentially be a big loss for the Kings. He has had a very hot start to his season and has been a big contributor to the team’s offence as of late. Through six games, Anderson-Dolan has scored three goals and two assists for five total points. This puts him second on the team in rookie scoring, trailing Gabriel Vilardi with six points in nine more games played. Andrson-Dolan only has six games on the season due to spending most of his time on the Kings taxi squad.
Who Replaces Him
Losing Anderson-Dolan will result in the Kings having to break up their dominant third line. Anderson-Dolan was playing in between wingers Carl Grundstrom and Trevor Moore. According to Natural Stat Trick, the line had a GF% of 75 percent and an xGF% of 53.42 percent. With Anderson-Dolan out, the team has two main options to replace him.
Option One
Their first option would require the least amount of roster moves. It would be to simply put Michael Amadio back into the team’s lineup, as he has been a healthy scratch of late. If they were to go this route, McLellan would likely put Amadio on the fourth line while sliding Blake Lizotte up to the third line where Anderson-Dolan was.
Option Two
The team’s second option would require a few more roster moves but could be just as likely to happen. This option entails calling Lias Andersson up from the taxi squad and putting him into Anderson-Dolan’s spot in the lineup either on the third or fourth line. Andersson was playing regularly with the team while Lizotte was on the NHL’s Covid protocol list, but has been on the taxi squad since Lizotte’s return.
At the time of writing this, the team currently has six players on the taxi squad. The league minimum is four, meaning if the Kings were to recall Andersson, they would not have to move anyone up from the Ontario Reign, their AHL affiliate.
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