Kings Notebook : Numbers Are Up as Time to Make Cuts Approaches

General Manager Rogie Vachon of the Kings stood at the top of Robert Guertin Arena, staring down to the ice, where dozens of hockey players in black and silver sweaters were skating through warmups. He has been here all week and will be here into next week, helping the coaching staff sort the talent.

There are massive cuts to be made, some very obvious. There are also some very tough decisions to be made.

Already, Vachon is dreading Oct. 2, the day of the waiver draft.

Since the end of last season, the Kings have signed five free agents--defenseman Larry Robinson from Montreal, right winger Kevin Crowder from Boston, defenseman Barry Beck, whose rights belonged to the New York Rangers; goalie Mario Gosselin from Quebec, and left winger Scott Bjugstad, who had left the Pittsburgh Penguins last season.

Add those players to the talent pool left from last season, and then consider the equation facing Vachon, who will be able to protect 18 players plus two goalies from other teams.

“That’s why we had to let Glenn Healy go,” Vachon said. “If we didn’t, we would lose him or Gosselin in the waiver draft, anyway.”

Healy, a goalie who won 25 games for the Kings last season, went to the New York Islanders as a free agent last summer.

Vachon picked up a roster and started checking off the players he would obviously want to keep. He reached 24, not counting players such as Ken Baumgartner, who he hopes will be categorized as a second-year pro, making him exempt.

“That leaves at least six players available, and we could lose as many as three of those,” Vachon said. “We’re going to end up losing somebody we don’t want to lose.”

That’s a strange situation for the Kings, who never before have had an embarrassment of riches in the talent department.

Owner Bruce McNall arrived here late Monday and was at practice Tuesday, agreeing that the waiver draft might present some problems for the Kings.

“That’s why we try to make deals, if necessary, to not lose someone like that,” he said. “It’s tough. It makes for some guessing games. We might end up losing somebody.

“It’s flattering though, right? We used to have a problem of not having any depth. They all told me to add depth. I was just following directions.”

Coach Tom Webster is puzzling over where and how to use the talent, but he’s not complaining.

“It’s here,” Webster said of the talent. “Now we just have to do it.”

The coaches and staff will get a good look at the players in a full-scale scrimmage tonight. They will have a final day of ice time on Thursday before heading to Quebec for the first exhibition game Friday night.

The Kings will take 32 players on the road for the 11-game exhibition tour. As Vachon pointed out, they will need that many. The players’ association dictates that each player can play in no more than eight exhibitions.

The more than 30 players who do not make the first team will stay together into next week, playing a rookie game Friday night in Quebec against the Nordiques’ American Hockey League team, Halifax, coached by former King Coach Robbie Ftorek. They will also play on Saturday before returning to play at Robert Guertin for a game.

Vachon will make cuts after that, sending some players back to their junior teams, sending some others to New Haven, sending some to the Kings’ new affiliate at Phoenix, and cutting some lose as free agents.

Of the 32 players left, at least eight can expect to be sent to New Haven or Phoenix before the start of the regular season.

And of the 24 or so picked as the basis of the Kings’ squad, several will have to survive the waiver draft.

Jim Fox, for example, is concerned about whether he will be protected this time around. Fox, who played for the Kings for eight years before sitting out last season after surgery on both knees, was protected last season.

But he said Tuesday morning: “I’m fifth on the all-time scoring list for the Kings, but I can’t seem to get on the ice with anyone now. I was protected last year, and we lost a player because of it. I don’t know if I’ll be protected this time. I hope my statistics speak for themselves.

“I don’t want to leave L.A. now. I didn’t work at rehabilitating myself for 16 months to play junior hockey. I’ve never played a game in the AHL, and I don’t want to start now.”

But after working last year in the front office, Fox knows how the numbers can work out.

He has to prove to the Kings that his knees are strong enough so that he can play the way he did a few years ago. If so, he can compete with the other right wingers on the roster.

Then again, the Kings could leave him unprotected, gambling that other teams won’t take chances on his knees.

Such are the games they play while Fox, and others like him, count names on the roster.

King Notes

Goalie Mario Gosselin, who suffered a mild concussion when he was hit in the forehead with a puck during a scrimmage Monday, was held out of practice Tuesday. . . . Ron Duguay, one of the few players left in the league who doesn’t wear a helmet, has been trying out some Kareem-like goggles in practice. He may decide to use the protective eyewear in practice only.

Tickets for tonight’s intra-squad scrimmage, high point of the weeklong camp, were sold out days ago--at $9.50 each--and were being scalped outside the Robert Guertin Arena on Tuesday morning. As is the case with the $2-practice sessions, all profits will go to local junior hockey leagues.