Kings sign Caleb Jones to a 1-year, two-way contract

The Kings signed free agent defenseman Caleb Jones to a one-year, two-way contract worth up to $775,000, the team announced in a news release on Friday.

Jones, 27, spent last year in the Colorado Avalanche organization, skating in 25 games with the Avs and a dozen more with their top minor-league affiliate. He had five points at the NHL level and six in the minors.

In his career, he has accumulated 55 points in 242 games played for the Edmonton Oilers, who drafted him in the fourth round in 2015, as well as the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado.

Jones comes from an athletic family. Not only is his brother, Chicago’s Seth Jones, an All-Star defenseman, but both brothers were born in the Dallas area because their father Ron “Popeye” Jones was then a power forward for the NBA’s Mavericks. He won an NBA championship as an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets last year.

Until last year with Colorado, Caleb had limited opportunities to pursue a championship of his own, having played in just two playoff games as part of Edmonton’s ephemeral showing in 2020. He skated in three postseason contests with the Avs last year before they lost in the second round.

Jones is a two-way defenseman with puck-moving skills, a little offense in his game and some physicality as well, though he’s struggled to stick as a full-time NHL player with that package. His most frequent dressing and deployment came with Chicago in 2021-22 and 2022-23, when he averaged 62 games per campaign while playing in the same lineup as his brother.

The Kings have been reconfiguring their defense corps to a significant degree this offseason. They let Matt Roy walk in free agency (he signed with Washington), traded for Kyle Burroughs, signed Joel Edmundson and appear likely to expand the role of prospect Brandt Clarke. Like Burroughs, Andreas Englund and Jacob Moverare, Jones currently projects as a depth blue-liner who seems destined for either the minor leagues or an interstitial position as a rostered but scratched player.