Los Angeles — The Los Angeles Kings have extended defenseman Joe Hicketts to a two-year, two-way contract extension through the 2026-2027 season worth $776,000 with the Ontario Reign AHL (American Hockey League) affiliate team.

Hicketts is a 5’8”, 180 pound left handed defenseman who was born in Kamloops, Canada on May 4, 1996. From playing youth hockey with the Victoria Royals, to professionally in Canada and the United States, to winning bronze with the Canadian Winter Youth Olympic Team in 2012, he has been around the game his whole life.

With two seasons with the Reign under his belt, Hicketts stays with the team after accruing 47 points in 82 games with his teammates. At 28-years-old, Hicketts has played 52 games as captain for Ontario during this tenure, and earned himself 27 points with 37 penalty minutes (PIM) while wearing the “C”.

Starting in the Canadian hockey circuit with the Okanagan Hockey Academy U18 as a youth, Hicketts worked his way through the system. At one point, he played for the Victoria Royals A & C teams, until he landed an opportunity with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2016, an American Hockey League minor league affiliate for the Detroit Red Wings.

Hicketts went on to play just 22 games in the National Hockey League with the Red Wings, before being sent back down to the minor leagues to play for the Griffins again. He played a few seasons with the Iowa Wild — AHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild —, before landing in Los Angeles playing for the Ontario Reign.

Throughout his career, Hicketts has played in multiple Calder Cup playoff runs with the Griffins and the Reign. In 39 Calder Cup playoff games that he played in, he scored 18 points, and in his first AHL season with Grand Rapids, his team won the Calder Cup.