Kings sign Danault to 6-year, $33M deal
On the NHL’s first day of free agency Wednesday, the Kings signed two players and re-signed a third, continuing their efforts to reshape their roster and return to competitiveness. They inked shutdown center Phillip Danault to a six-year contract at an annual average value of $5.5 million and veteran defenseman Alex Edler to a one-year pact worth $3.5 million.
Danault plied his trade previously for the Montreal Canadiens and his stellar ability to shadow top opponents aided the Habs in their longshot dash to the Stanley Cup Final last season. Edler had spent 15 years as a staple of the Vancouver Canucks’ blue line, becoming
Danault
the franchise’s leader in games played by a defenseman before signing with the Kings.
Winger Andreas Athanasiou, who was signed just prior to last season, will return to the team on a oneyear deal for $2.7 million. That figure is noticeably higher than his bargain price of $1.2 million last season.
The Kings also left their vaunted prospect pool completely intact this offseason.
Wednesday was an active day for the Kings, who had not been major players in recent free-agent frenzies. Blake said there was no mandate from ownership to make the playoffs, rather than it was an internal goal.
“We want to get better, we want to push, we want to have a legitimate chance of getting in there, and these were a couple of steps in the direction to go that way,” Kings general manager Rob Blake said.
In Danault, the Kings get an elite defensive center, whose prowess on one side of the puck may have cost him opportunities on the other in Montreal. Danault was their most relied-upon player for penalty killing and defensive-zone faceoffs, but had very little power-play time and relatively few offensivezone starts. He scored six goals last season between a truncated regular season and an extended playoff run that saw Montreal improbably reach the Stanley Cup Final, with his defense helping propel their run.
“My two-way game has always been my strongest asset, obviously trying to deny some goals while also scoring some,” Danault said, adding that the belief the Kings showed in him and the role they outlined for him contributed heavily in his decision to join the team.
Danault, 28, projects to begin the season as the Kings’ No. 2 center behind Anze Kopitar, whom he admires and anticipates learning a great deal from this season. Danault has been a top-10 finisher for the NHL’s best defensive forward award three times, Kopitar has won it twice and finished in the top 10 in voting eight times. He has also scored 199 career points and been a fixture on the power play, so Danault said he was most looking forward to gleaning tips of his own offensive game.
“We’re going to show each other our tricks and I can’t wait to learn from this guy,” said Danault, who also said he looked forward to mentoring younger players.
Blake described Kopitar and Danault as a “one-andtwo punch down the middle,” but also mentioned the organizational depth the Kings have at center. Quinton Byfield, Gabe Vilardi, Alex Turcotte, Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Rasmus Kupari are among the pivots looking to solidify their roles at the top level, and Blake said the team felt comfortable playing some of them on the wing where necessary.
Edler, 35, gives the Kings an experienced rearguard who could figure into their top four and has played in all situations over the course of his career. The Kings drafted defenseman Brandt Clarke in the first round Friday, but the market steered them toward a bridge player for the upcoming season.
Last season, the left side of the Kings defense frequently featured two firstyear players — Mikey Anderson and Tobias Bjornfot — in their top four and a revolving door of players like Olli Maatta, Kale Clague, Austin Strand and the now-departed Kurtis MacDermid, who was selected by the Seattle Kraken in the expansion draft and then traded to the Colorado Avalanche.
Blake noted that the Kings had two rookies shouldering heavy loads and hoped Edler could help slot each defender into an appropriate role.
“(Edler) really stabilizes that left side in the amount of minutes and the quality of opponents he can play against,” Blake said.
Athanasiou’s deal was agreed to in principle when the Kings tendered their qualifying offer, Blake said, and now the speedy forward will be back to add some game-breaking potential to the Kings’ attack.
In minor-league news, the Kings signed goalie Garret Sparks and forward T.J. Tynan to one-year, twoway contracts that are each worth up to $750,000.
Blake said he had been in contact with the team’s leadership, including Kopitar and defenseman Drew Doughty, both of whom had been vocal about the need to add talent to the Kings’ roster.
“Those conversations started right after the season with those two guys. I sat down and said, ‘This is how we want to get better,’” Blake said.
He concluded: “We’ve all been on the same page there and now it’s time to actually move forward. We’ve got that in place, now we’ve got to put that team on the ice to be competitive.”