The Kings and winger Taylor Ward agreed to terms on a two-year contract extension with an annual average value of $875,000, the team announced on Monday.
Ward, 27, treaded a tempered path to the NHL, making his debut last season in a Game 82 loss to the Calgary Flames in which he scored his first goal.
After playing most of the campaign to date in the minors, he has notched four points and a +3 rating in nine games while the Kings have been undermanned up front.
His father, Dixon Ward, played in the NHL as well, and of his 537 career games, 34 were on the wing with the Kings in 1993-94.
After playing in a second-tier Canadian junior league, the younger Ward spent four years at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
Now, he has a goal in each of his past two games, both wins over struggling opponents, the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. He sought to extend his streak on Monday in Columbus, but a game night became a practice day when the Kings’ match against the Blue Jackets was postponed to March 9 because of severe weather.
The Kings’ Zach Dooley reported that Alex Turcotte and Joel Edmundson were both day-to-day with injuries. It sounded as though they would be considered doubtful against Detroit, as would Anže Kopitar. The Kings’ captain last played on Jan. 5 and has been progressing toward a return.
Kenny Connors was recalled from the Ontario Reign on Monday and could make his NHL debut in Motown against former Kings coach Todd McLellan on Tuesday. In his first minor pro season, he has 24 points in 41 games after impressing in offseason camps and completing his career at UMass-Amherst.
The Glen Falls, Pa., native could face his hometown Flyers, whose youth program he played for, later in the trip.
Ward’s play as well as the ongoing health issues up front with the Kings sounded as though they would keep him in the mix for at least the time being, and now he signed a two-year, one-way extension.
At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, he has given the Kings another option on the wing in timely fashion, with Trevor Moore returning from a 12-game absence as Warren Foegele was a healthy scratch to start this trip.
Ward has played with Jeff Malott and Samuel Helenius, whose roles expanded under similar circumstances late last season. He, like Malott, toiled in the minors longer than most, but they have given the Kings a mix of size, industriousness and peripheral production in limited ice time.
“They’re big, strong guys who win puck battles, muck it up and then [it was] good to see (Ward) rewarded, finally,” Hiller said after Ward’s first goal of the season on Jan. 20. “Those guys didn’t play a lot, but I thought they played really well.”
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