Now, we know that Lee and Ward are the players joining the Kings.<\/p>\n
You want a strange stat? Both players are coming into tonight\u2019s game after scoring in their most recent NHL game. Lee scored his first career NHL goal on New Year\u2019s Day last season, but was assigned to the AHL after two players returned from injury the following game. Ward was recalled to play in Game 82 last season against Calgary and scored the only Kings goal in a 5-1 defeat. So, if they play tonight, both players would be in line to get on a goal streak, multiple seasons in the making. <\/p>\n
Wrote a bit about Lee yesterday, but he was the most obvious choice here. We know that Jim Hiller likes him a lot and will be comfortable thrusting him into the lineup if needed. Best example I can pull is that in November of last season, after Lee was assigned to the AHL for the first time, he was recalled just after Thanksgiving to play a game in Anaheim, versus the Ducks. With the Kings leading 2-1, Hiller had Lee on the ice for two shifts inside the final three minutes of the game. There\u2019s some trust built there. Lee is Ontario\u2019s leading scorer, both goals and points, and is deserving of the recall today.<\/p>\n
Ward is not all that surprising either. I know the Kings were really impressed by his game last season against Calgary. It was a throwaway game for the Kings, with the second seed already locked in, which gave a guy like Ward the chance to play. Certainly wasn\u2019t a throwaway game for him, though. It was an opportunity and he made the most of it. He plays the game hard and works with the best of them, things we saw in that game. He was dangerous offensively too and scored in the third period. Now, should he play tonight, the stakes are different. These are important games for the team and everyone needs to be up to speed. Good test for Ward, who has 12 goals in the AHL this season and was the team\u2019s best player over the first month or so. <\/p>\n
On Perry, I don\u2019t have a ton of information to add here, but expecting Jim Hiller to provide the context when he speaks shortly. Perry is not expected to play tonight against San Jose but there\u2019s not a ton to add beyond that right now. Will have the update on social media and in today\u2019s game preview once we get the chance to speak with Hiller. <\/p>\n
So, as the Kings hit the ice for morning skate later this morning, here\u2019s what we should be looking out for \u2013 <\/p>\n
\u2013 Are Anze Kopitar or Joel Armia on the ice and potentially able to play in tonight\u2019s game?
\u2013 Is Trevor Moore participating and is he an option to check back into the lineup tonight, after missing three games?
\u2013 Does it look like Jacob Moverare will play tonight and if so, does that mean the Kings are likely to go with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen?
\u2013 Where do Andre Lee and Taylor Ward slot in and does it appear likely that both players will play tonight against San Jose?<\/p>\n
There are a ton of scenarios at play here and those four bullets create one of those \u201cif X, then Y\u201d situations. Whether or not Kopitar, Armia and Moore are available is Step 1. Step 2 is whether or not the Kings will go 11\/7 or 12\/6 and Step 3 is whether or not one or both of Lee\/Ward will play, as a result of the injuries and configuration. <\/p>\n
Many questions right now, answers to follow shortly and will be covered in the game preview in a few hours!<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2210128476-640x427.jpg\" "\\"Calgary")
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Photo by Gary A. Vasquez\/NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning, Insiders. The LA Kings have announced the following roster moves. \u2013 Forwards Andre Lee and Taylor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-395228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}