Murray Content With Team’s Rookie Moves

DALLAS — With rookies Alexander Frolov and Micheal Cammalleri playing regularly for the Kings, how long will it be before the club calls on Jared Aulin or Yanick Lehoux, the other young forwards they touted so heavily last summer?

Playing for the Kings’ American Hockey League team at Manchester, N.H., Aulin has 19 points in 25 games, Lehoux 14 in 24.

“We’re following that pretty good,” Coach Andy Murray said. “You’ve got to be careful that you don’t have too many young guys all at once. You don’t want to send a signal to your team that, ‘They’re going with all the young guys here; I don’t fit into their plans.’ We don’t want guys to think that.

“Bryan Smolinski is in the last year of his contract and I’d like him to think that we want him here. Play good and you’ll create that situation for yourself.”

The Kings, though, continue to search for secondary scoring. Brad Chartrand, who hasn’t scored a goal since Oct. 12, has been scratched from the last three games. Steve Heinze, who hasn’t scored a goal since Jan. 15 and started the season in the minors, has been scratched from the last two.

“You can only have so many guys in your lineup who aren’t generating any offense,” Murray said. “We can switch one or two guys and we’re the same.”

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Derek Armstrong, a surprise for the Kings with 10 points in 19 games, sat out Wednesday night’s game against the Dallas Stars because of a groin injury. Brad Norton took his place, while Chartrand and Heinze continued to sit.

“Against the Stars, we felt we might want a bigger guy,” Murray said of the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Norton. “They’ve got a lot of big defensemen.”

-- Jerry Crowe