Kings’ Oscar Moller to play in Sweden

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Kings forward Oscar Moller, a restricted free agent, is expected to return to his native Sweden to play in the Elite League next season but the Kings will retain his NHL rights.

General Manager Dean Lombardi said the move was Moller’s choice. The fleet but small winger — he’s listed at 5 feet 10 and 189 pounds — played only 13 games during the season and only one playoff game. He acquitted himself well while filling in for the suspended Jarret Stoll in the second game of the Kings’ playoff series against San Jose but didn’t get another chance to play.

His fatal flaw apparently is his size, at least in the eyes of Lombardi and Coach Terry Murray. Moller has skill and his speed is an element Kings forwards sorely lack, but he couldn’t win a regular spot. And he has little to prove in the American Hockey League after scoring 23 goals and 50 points in 59 games with the Kings’ Manchester farm team last season.

“It is a chance for him to mature more physically. He still has a young body,” Lombardi said via email.

But not a big enough body for the Kings, it seems. Too bad.

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--Helene Elliott