As expected, this morning Voynov's defense attorney Craig Renetzky tweeted out the following.
Mr. Voynov pled not guilty at his arraignment this morning. The case is set for pretrial on Jan 28. A jury trial has been set for March 2nd.
— Craig Renetzky (@losangeleslegal) December 29, 2014That was followed up by L.A. Times sports enterprise reporter, Nathan Fenno, tweeting out this:
Today's Slava Voynov update: pleaded not guilty, trial set for March. http://t.co/U00U89vFGk #Kings #NHL
— Nathan Fenno (@nathanfenno) December 29, 2014The trial is set for March 2nd and pretrial will be on January 28th.
Point? Get used to not seeing him for even longer now. For all intents and purposes the Kings 24-year old defenseman is likely done for the season.
Even with a speedy trial that falls in favor of the Voynov camp, you would still be looking at an end date to the trial of around April or early May. These are all best case scenarios as well, ala the trial being done in little over 4-6 weeks. A late April or May finish would be past the regular season end and into the playoffs. Far removed from competitive playing time and team skating it wouldn't even be feasible for him to be in a lineup.
If you had any speck of hope that the Russian defenseman would return, might as well get it out of your head now. Unless something drastic changes in the next month or so it seems as though 2014-15 is over for him.
The Kings have made due, and actually received admirable performances from newcomers Brayden McNabb and Jamie McBain though. This has helped lessen the impact of his absence, however it is still being felt as Greene, Regehr, Muzzin, Martinez and Doughty are all playing above their last season averages. The latter three are playing an upwards of 3-5 minutes more this season on average compared to last.
Voynov's suspension is already the longest in league history and will continue to grow longer and longer as the games roll past.
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The World Junior Championships are currently being played in Montreal and Toronto and the Kings have three participants:
Adrian Kempe with Sweden Alex Lintuniemi with Finland and Dominik Kubalik with the Czech Republic.
Valentin Zykov did not make the Russian roster due to hernia surgery but would have been a no brainer if healthy.
Kempe looked very solid in his first game against the Czechs and was named player of the game. He potted two goals on three shots, both tallies coming on the powerplay. Check out this snipe on the first goal.
Lintuniemi is a minus-one rating in two games and has recorded one shot. However, as a defensive defenseman it's hard to value him by a boxscore. He is paired up with the free-wheeling Julius Honka, and Lintuniemi's strong defensive work as saved Honka on a few occassions.
Kubalik is a minus-three rating in two games and like the entire Czech team has struggled to open the tournament.
More updates will come as the tournament progresses.
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