New defenseman (#16) and other notes.

Chris Huxley was the co-captain at Harvard University last year. He played on the Crimson’s top defensive pair with a recent NHL draft pick, Danny Biega. He once was presented an academic/athletic excellence award (the John Carlton Memorial Award) by former Boston Bruin Johnny Bucyk.

Now, he’s just a number. Number 16 in the line of defensemen who have been under contract to the Reign since July 1, and number (TBA) in your program tomorrow night against the Stockton Thunder.

“He’s one of those durable guys that can come in and have a little offensive side to him,” coach Jason Christie said. “He’s a competitor.”

Huxley will give the Reign six defensemen — three full pairs — for the first (and only) time since the opening weekend of the regular season. Pat Bowen isn’t ready to be rushed into game action and Philippe Seydoux still doesn’t have his P-1 (work) visa. Christie hopes both players will be ready to go by next week.

A few more notes:

  • Expect Darcy Kuemper to start tomorrow against Stockton and J-F Berube to start Saturday against Colorado.
  • Geoff Irwin will skate at left wing, with C.J. Stretch at center and Derek Couture at right wing, in Jordan Morrison’s vacated spot on the top line.
  • Christie said he hasn’t talked to Eddie DelGrosso since the defenseman was claimed off waivers from the Las Vegas Wranglers. “If he decides to shut ‘er down, he shuts it down,” Christie said. “No sense having him here either if he’s not committed to playing. Hopefully he’ll come around. Maybe he just needed time to regroup.”
  • Dustin Carlson might stick around as the team’s third goalie for a while, as Christie is wary of either Berube or Kuemper getting recalled to the AHL at a moment’s notice. “You never know when that call’s going to come,” he said. So why release Jase Weslosky? “At the end of the day you want what’s best for the players and making sure that they have a situation where they can play and be counted on. We couldn’t give him that, having the contracts.”
  • I have received a couple different lists of which Kings alumni will play Saturday, and they don’t look exactly the same. Here’s every name I’ve been given: Ian Turnbull, Billy Huard, Brad Norton, Brandon Convery, Jason Doig, Mark Hardy, Val Bure, Glen Murray (coach,
    not playing), John Holmes (former Kings trainer on the bench,
    not playing), Jamie Storr, J.F. Jomphe, Matt Kopitar (father of Anze Kopitar).
  • If you long for the old rumors about the Reign becoming an AHL team, you’ll like this story. I’ll be following it closely.
  • The Reign were forced to practice off-site today because a crew was filming a commercial starring … Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Blake Griffin of the Clippers. The CBBA ice was covered by a basketball court.