RAITIS IVANANS
This season: 76 games, 2 games, 0 assists, 145 penalty minutes, 6:22 average ice time.
The good: Well, how much do you expect for six minutes a night? Dean Lombardi said he wouldn’t put Ivanans in the “battleship” category of enforcers — those who just skate around and look imposing — but clearly that’s what Ivanans does best. Terry Murray has noted, a couple times, that he believes opposing teams play the Kings differently when Ivanans isn’t in the lineup, so clearly Ivanans’ primary purpose is to serve as a deterrent. At 6-foot-3 and 263 pounds, he’s a pretty effective deterrent.
The bad: If Ivanans isn’t a “battleship,” he’s doing a pretty good job of hiding his other skills. Ivanans has a maddeningly tendency to take bad penalties, particularly in the offensive zone, that negate the positives he brings to the team. Then there’s the Tampa Bay incident. When Evgeny Artyukhin took out Drew Doughty with a hit, the Kings famously lacked a response. Where was Ivanans?
Going forward: Ivanans has three things going in his favor: 1) Terry Murray thinks it’s valuable to have an “enforcer” in the lineup. 2) Ivanans is under contract for next season. 3) Kevin Westgarth didn’t light the world on fire during his time with the Kings this season. Those three factors make it likely that Ivanans will be back next season, but it’s definitely not out of the question that Westgarth could earn the spot in training camp.