Kings look to polish their improved roster
NHL free agency will open on Wednesday, and for the Kings that will present an opportunity to fine-tune a roster that achieved beyond expectations last season and has already seen a significant upgrade this summer.
With free agency delayed from the typical July 1 start date by what the league hopes will be the last vestiges of COVID-impacted scheduling, the Kings and general manager Rob Blake made good use of their time already. The 2022 playoff qualifiers acquired forward Kevin Fiala via trade, signed him to a seven-year contract, re-signed forward Adrian Kempe to a fouryear extension and triaged their various restricted free agents, even signing two to fresh contracts already.
The team reached agreements with winger Carl Grundstrom and forward Lias Andersson on Monday, with Grundstrom set to earn $1.3 million per year over the next two seasons and Andersson to be paid $750,000 for the upcoming campaign. They tendered qualifying offers to defensemen Mikey Anderson and Sean Durzi, as well as to forwards Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Gabriel Vilardi. Of note, they did not proffer the priciest qualifying offer on the table, that of winger Brendan Lemieux at $1.65 million. He could still return to the team as soon as Wednesday if the two sides agree to a deal for a lesser sum.
For many teams, the contract extension of a 35goal scorer in Kempe and the acquisition of 85-point producer Fiala for the 19th overall draft pick plus prospect Brock Faber might be enough to deem the offseason a success.
“Rob took two forms of NHL currency, a draft pick and a player, and turned it into arguably a top-12 fiveon-five player,” Kings scouting director Mark Yannetti told reporters at the draft in Montreal, speaking of Fiala's 10th-place finish in evenstrength scoring leaguewide last season.
Yet the Kings were still hoping to add a left-handshooting defenseman and some grit to their mix if possible, Blake said earlier this summer.
Blake later indicated that defenseman Sean Walker, who has been on track in his recovery from major knee surgery, or Sean Durzi could potentially play the left side despite being right-handed shots, and that either Olli Maatta or Alex Edler, who shoot left-handed, could be back on a short-term deal. Tobias Bjornfot, a former first-round pick with 106 NHL games under his belt, also factors into the mix. But Blake's ruminations indicated that the organization was looking at various approaches to strengthening its defense corps.
Blake, along with some of the Kings' players, also discussed adding toughness to the roster. The uncertain status of Lemieux only intensifies that desire, as he led the team in fighting majors and penalty minutes while finishing second only to Grundstrom in hits per game last season.
Ideally, the Kings could add both a left-shooting defenseman and a bit of sandpaper in one fell swoop, like the Colorado Avalanche did last season when they traded for former Ducks defenseman Josh Manson. Manson is not under contract for next season and could parlay his Stanley Cup victory into a lucrative payday this week.
The issue, however, is that the Kings are now up against the hard salary cap of $82.5 million for the upcoming season. CapFriendly projects them to have just over $4.4 million available, which could be gobbled up and then some by deals for the four players the Kings qualified on Monday.
Furthermore, the market for unrestricted free agents on defense is thin, with headliners like John Klingberg and even second-tier options like Manson and Calgary's Nikita Zadorov likely lying beyond the Kings' means without a trade to facilitate cap space.