Kenny Connors

So just from a composition of 22 players, any surprises, anything you're concerned about, any observations from the preseason about Connors, Wright, Kursanov, some of the kids that appear to be NHL ready, but that were sent to the AHL?

Yeah, I think one of the takeaways for me was that Laviola had to make a decision on Kenny Connors.

He could have been on the starting roster tomorrow night in Denver.

And Andre Lee? he earned that spot.

trades

and players that blossom, et cetera.

And will Kenny Connors join? And will Angus Booth join? And how does that youth help? And what happens with the goaltending as well? The Kings do have essentially three goaltenders because you have to factor in, for now, Eric Portillo as being an option.

Neither of their two young goaltenders who will get the bulk of starts in Ontario.

that's just veteran

solid third line checking and i think i think i heard that like laviolette kind of mentioned something about like how he wanted those first two lines to be he really defined them like as their first two lines like the scoring lines a third checking line and the fourth line to go out there and just make things happen Um, and you have like a legitimate fourth line with a, your Mia, you got Hellenist in there where I think I would have liked to see Kenny Connors play.

Cause I thought he looked incredible in the preseason.

There's a player there.

It's my only hiccup or like hang up.

I think with the forward group is, is I I'm just not into Hellenist and I just really, really Kenny Connors was one of the few guys that really impressed me of the young punch.

And if anything, I mean, it's fourth line.

We're not like, I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but even then, and then you have a Lee.

I said he would make the final roster, and so far that has been the case.

Kenny Connors and Jared Wright, a couple of forwards, as well as goalie Eric Portillo, were sent down to Ontario.

None of them had to clear waivers and they were all waiver exempt.

However, Taylor Ward and Scott Perinovich did have to clear waivers.

He got his first, and then Lavoie got his first, both very late in the period, and they're up 2-0 after one.

Andre Lee gets his first from Kenny Connors and Scott Perinovich at the 122nd mark in the second period, and that's how the second period ends, Vegas 2, Kings 1.

This was a decently competitive game.

And then Lane Pettersson scores his first from Gutman, his first, and Wright, his first, to tie the game at the 12.06 mark in the third period.

What's that?

The Kings have announced the following players have been loaned to the Ontario Reign.

Kenny Connors and Jared Wright.

Okay, that's new because they were probably part of the 29-man roster.

But we do wanna talk about, and we talked about this in our previous show, who are the players still on the roster that are fighting for those final roster spots.

Taylor Ward, Jared Wright, Kenny Connors, Andre Lee.

They are all still currently on the Kings roster.

Now, I believe that Lee, Andre Lee, and Kenny Connors have earned spots on the roster based on what I've seen in training camp.

But I think that it is possible that Taylor Ward may get the nod over Kenny Connors because he's not waiver exempt and Connor is, but we shall see about that.

As far as the defensemen, nine defensemen still on the roster.

Uh, Scott Perunovich is one of them.

So will the final spots be decided by anything that we see on Saturday? In the Kings' final preseason game in LA against the Ducks.

We would have Eric Haula making his LA Kings debut, centering the second line with Joel Armia and Andre Lee.

Kenny Connors was the third line center with Ottu Yemson and Jared Wright.

Lane Pedersen was the fourth line center alongside Taylor Ward and Martin Chromiak.

The defensive pairings were new Kings captain Drew Doughty along with Brian Dumoulin, Angus Booth and Scott Perunovich, and Kirill Keshtanov with Erik Gustafsson.

If he can continue to work and produce, maybe if there's some injuries, possible that Martin Chromiak could get a look.

I don't see him, though, as, uh, earning an NHL roster spot to start the season.

So, to me, it comes down to two players, Taylor Ward or Kenny Connors.

Ward played in all three preseason games.