The Los Angeles Kings announced the signing of pending restricted free agent winger Tyler Toffoli to a three year contract. The deal is worth $13.8MM for a $4.6MM cap hit. He was due a $3.9MM qualifying offer from the team at the end of June.
Toffoli is coming off a bit of a down year, one that saw him miss 19 games due to a leg injury while also playing through a separate leg issue for part of the year as well. On the season, he played in 63 games, scoring 16 goals while adding 18 assists.
The 25 year old was a second round pick of the Kings (47th overall) back in 2010 and he has emerged into one of their top threats on the wing. He’s only one year removed from a 31 goal season and should be a top liner for Los Angeles heading into next season.
It’s worth noting that this new contract only covers one of Toffoli’s UFA years. While this played a big role in keeping the cap hit lower, it also will allow him to enter the open market in the prime of his career which should set him up for a big pay day in three years time.
The contract takes care of the biggest deal to be done on the to-do list for the Kings but it also takes a big chunk out of their limited cap space. The team now has over $67.5MM committed to 18 players for next season and with the salary cap not expected to jump by a significant amount, that doesn’t leave them a lot of wiggle room to work with. Los Angeles still has a trio of NHL players that are slated to become restricted free agents this summer in defenseman Kevin Gravel as well as forwards Andy Andreoff and Nick Shore.
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