Editor’s Note – As as part of our coverage of the future of the LA Kings, we will be introducing different writers to contribute feature stories here on LA Kings Insider to cover those within the pipeline. Excited to introduce Kyle Garcia today with a story on Erik Portillo, who has successfully returned from a back injury to re-assume the starter’s role in net for the Ontario Reign. Kyle covers the Reign on a day-to-day basis with Hockey Royalty and will be contributing player-based feature stories on LAKI this season. Welcome, Kyle!
235 days.
That is the number of days Erik Portillo went between regular-season starts after a back injury sidelined him after a February 17th start in Calgary. After a long road back, Portillo is happy to be on the ice again.
“It’s so much fun to be back,” Portillo said. “The feeling of competing and being around the team is what you miss the most.”
The back injury Portillo was dealing with wasn’t one that happened overnight, it happened over time, beginning around January, according to Portillo himself.
“I was battling with it for one to one and a half months, and it consistently got worse,” he said. “In Calgary, that was the final [straw]. That’s when they took me to the side. I saw five good spine surgeons. It was building up to that day.”
If you look at Portillo’s numbers before January of last season, they were outstanding. He posted a .913 save percentage in 12 starts for the Reign from October to December. In that time frame, Portillo also got a call-up to the Kings and made his NHL debut against the Anaheim Ducks.
A strong debut saw Portillo stop 28 of 29 shots to earn the first victory of his NHL career. His debut made an impression on his head coach, who called him “fantastic” after his first career NHL game, noting that Portillo “couldn’t have had a better debut.”
For Portillo, he was notified that he would be starting that game the day before. Despite the nerves and excitement before his NHL start, it was still all about focus, playing goal as he always has.
“It was a lot of different emotions,” he said. “I just tried to stay calm, prepare the same way, and stick to my routine. That was the most important part of my day.”
Portillo’s stint with the Kings was abbreviated, as expected, and he was loaned back to the Kings the following week as goaltender Darcy Kuemper returned from his injury. When he returned to the Reign, Portillo continued to play well, showcasing himself should another opportunity in the NHL surface. He was ready to go, should opportunity have arisen.
Photo by Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images
Then things took a turn for the worse.
As the calendar flipped to 2025, Portillo’s numbers drastically plummeted, and his save percentage in 11 starts and one relief appearance was .859. Then the back injury, which was impacting him, took him out for good after his start in Calgary.
Even though his numbers took a dip as a result of the injury and hampering him, Portillo did all he could to get back onto the ice, back to form, but to no avail. Ultimately, he was forced to sit out the rest of the season due to the doctors’ advice.
“It was a tough day when the doctors told me, ‘this is it, we won’t push it anymore, we need you to have a healthy career and long-term success’……that was a tough day,” Portillo recalled when the doctors advised him it’s best not to push through his injury any longer.
Having done everything he could to return and treatment not responding, Portillo missed the remainder of the season while Pheonix Copley assumed the number-one goalie duties for the Reign in his absence. Copley started both games in the Calder Cup Playoffs, which cost Portillo the opportunity to follow up on a strong postseason run in 2024.
Not being on the ice and having to watch, as the Reign lost in Round 1, was a tough pill to swallow.
“It was very challenging,” Portillo admitted. “We tried to get back twice and failed. We did a bunch of different treatments on my back and really pushed for me to get back to the playoffs. It just didn’t work.”
Back injuries are tricky. The timetable for a player to return is fickle. Having to rehab during the summer is challenging, not knowing when you’ll be back on the ice.
Luckily for Portillo, he was able to get back on the ice in training camp for the Kings and was able to start a preseason game before he was eventually loaned to Ontario with the Kings trimming their roster.
In a 5-3 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, as he played the full 60 in preseason, it wasn’t the result the goaltender wanted, but it was a good step in the right direction, getting back out on the ice.
“It felt really good. I mean, battling through this injury has been a journey, and I’ve learned a lot on during the road here,” he said after the exhibition defeat. “We were battling hard every single day to get the core stronger, get it to heal, and all the things along the way. It’s definitely been a long journey.”
Sometimes those long journeys can be worth it in the end.
Portillo finds himself now under a new bench boss this season in Head Coach Andrew Lord for the next stage of his journey. Lord himself knows how difficult it can be to return from a long-term injury, having gone through one himself in his playing career.
“It’s hard,” Lord said. “I actually missed a whole season in the AHL due to an injury. I can relate. It’s challenging. Mentally, you’re wondering when you’re going to get back. You’re not around the team as much. You’re on your own rehab schedule and not traveling with the team if you’re out for a long period of time. It presents a lot of different challenges. It sounds like he did a great job with it, and it’s showing he’s ready to go.”
The American Hockey League is six games old for the Reign, and Portillo has been the starter in five of them. The numbers may not be spectacular to start due to five goals allowed in the season opener, but he has quietly strung together four solid consecutive starts, surrendering no more than two goals in those starts.
Slowly getting back into a game rhythm and getting his timing back after missing that much time will require patience, but so far, he has looked good in goal.
He may have been thrown a curve in his development, but he battled through it and is ready to compete with his main goal of making the NHL still at the forefront.
“We keep pushing for the same goal. That is the NHL long term,” Portillo said.
How can he get there?
“[The goalie coaches] want me to focus on in and do what I’m good at. They don’t want me to focus too much on technique or all these things. They just want me to play on instinct, free, and my game,” he said.
Backstopping the team with the top winning percentage in the Pacific Division, he’s certainly off to a good start on that front.
Oh Ports?!?! He’s CRUSHING it!!!#ReignTrain | #TUCvsONT pic.twitter.com/HGYUGoaV8Z
— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) October 11, 2025