Kings cut roster to 34 players before making trip to Denver

You could call Saturday moving day at the Kings’ headquarters.

And it wasn’t about the team getting ready to catch a flight to Denver later in the afternoon following practice. Management made a major round of cuts, reducing the roster to a more manageable 34 players.

Assigned to their American Hockey League team in nearby Ontario were goalie Patrik Bartosak; defensemen Nick Ebert, Kevin Gravel, Zachary Leslie, Alex Lintuniemi, Kurtis MacDermid and Alex Roach; and forwards Justin Auger, Jonny Brodzinski, Nic Dowd, Adrian Kempe, Maxim Kitsyn, Scott Sabourin and Valentin Zykov.

Additionally, four others were released from their pro tryout: forwards Sean Backman, Paul Bissonnette and Ryan Horvat as well as defenseman Kevin Raine.

The final three preseason games, especially the next two, will be particularly crucial in terms of finalizing the roster. The Kings play at Colorado on Sunday night and host the Ducks on Tuesday.

“I’d like to get him a whole game, obviously,” Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said of goalie Jhonas Enroth, who played the third period at Anaheim on Friday night.

“One of these ... we will. We haven’t even looked at it like that. We’ve told them who is starting and who is backing up. And I want to be fair to Peter [Budaj] too because I respect guys that have played a long time.”

Forward Jordan Nolan (low ankle) is close to being ready to play in a game. He has been practicing and said he is feeling better every day. “That was my first time,” he said of the ankle injury. “I really didn’t know how to treat it. Or how it would feel my first time out there. But it didn’t feel too bad.”

Nolan was due to have his ankle checked out later Saturday and if all goes well, he could play Sunday at Denver.

Said Sutter: “We would like to play him in altitude there.”