Los Angeles Kings center to play Saturday after sitting out practice injured

Kings offseason addition Pierre-Luc Dubois hasn’t missed any of the team’s 15 games this season, a trend that will continue tonight against the Blues. Head coach Todd McLellan told reporters earlier Saturday that Dubois will stay in the lineup after the Québec-born center took an awkward fall into the post during the team’s last game and did not participate in practice Friday.

The Kings are largely on a roll with a 9-3-3 record that puts them third in the Pacific Division and fourth in the Western Conference. However, Dubois hasn’t lived up to expectations yet in Hollywood, especially considering the assets they gave up to acquire him in a sign-and-trade deal from the Jets over the summer. Owed $9M in actual money this year in the first season of an eight-year, $68M contract, Dubois is averaging a respectable 16:37 per game but has just four goals and eight points, an underwhelming offensive clip of 0.53 points per game. He’d averaged 0.80 points per game over the last two seasons with Winnipeg, including a career-high 36 assists and 63 points in 73 games last year. His defensive game has been lacking, too, barely staying above a 50% Corsi share at even strength on a team that’s dominated the stat.

Other notes on the Kings today:

• Los Angeles will lose the ability to send winger Arthur Kaliyev to the minors without needing waivers after tonight’s game, CapFriendly notes. It’s hard to imagine a universe where the Kings would want to send the 22-year-old sniper down to AHL Ontario, however. After being on pace for 41 points over an 82-game season last year, Kaliyev is again producing at a respectable clip this year with seven points in 13 games. The Kings did assign him to the minors earlier this season, but that was a paper move to stay cap-compliant while Kaliyev was serving a four-game suspension assessed during preseason play. Kaliyev was the 33rd overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft.
• On another transaction-related note, the Kings have again recalled defenseman Jacob Moverare to serve as a healthy scratch for tonight’s contest, per a team announcement. This is Moverare’s second recall in the past three days, and he was returned to AHL Ontario briefly yesterday. The 25-year-old does not currently require waivers after clearing them during the preseason, but he will if he remains on the NHL roster for 30 total days and plays more than 10 NHL games. He’s yet to make an appearance for the Kings this season, but he does have four assists and a +1 rating in 13 contests for Ontario.