Kings Re-Sign Francesco Pinelli

The Kings re-signed one of their pending restricted free agents back on Wednesday.  The team announced that they’ve inked Francesco Pinelli to a one-year, two-way deal.  The agreement will pay $850K at the NHL level and $100K in the minors.

The 23-year-old was a second-round pick by Los Angeles in 2021, going 42nd overall.  Pinelli had a breakout year in his final junior season with OHL Kitchener, potting 41 goals and 49 assists in 60 games.  Unfortunately for him and the Kings, that hasn’t translated to much success offensively in the AHL thus far.

Pinelli’s offensive progress has been gradual thus far.  After tallying 20 points in his rookie year, he upped it by nine in 2024-25.  He then beat that slightly this past season, recording 14 goals and 21 assists in 65 games with AHL Ontario; that progress was good enough to earn him another look.

Pinelli will be waiver-eligible for the first time next season but it seems rather unlikely that he’d be claimed.  Instead, the likeliest outcome is that he returns to the Reign and pushes to play in a higher role on the depth chart to try to help his chances of securing his first NHL recall in 2026-27.