The Los Angeles Kings were expected to be big players this summer after a frustratingly quick first-round exit last season. The same issue that had plagued them in recent years—a lack of goal scoring—popped up again in their series with the Vegas Golden Knights as the team scored just three goals while being swept out in four games. While Marc-Andre Fleury played extremely well for the Golden Knights, seeing the Kings struggle to put the puck in the net was nothing new for fans of the team. The 239 goals they scored in the 2017-18 were the second fewest among all playoff teams, and actually a substantial increase over the 201 they had scored in 2016-17. Even with an MVP-level season from Anze Kopitar, the team needed more offense.
In came Ilya Kovalchuk as the team’s big offseason move, bringing back the 35-year old sniper from the KHL on a three-year, $18.75MM deal. Kovalchuk was fresh off another exceptional season in the KHL and had won the Olympic MVP while taking home gold with Russia. The former Atlanta Thrashers and New Jersey Devils forward should bring some added scoring punch to the lineup this season, though there is no guarantee he is still the elite player he once was. The fact that he’s heading into the back half of his thirties should also give pause to any lofty expectations, despite his big contract.
That big contract though, and the eight-year $88MM extension given to Drew Doughty ahead of the final year of his current deal, could also contribute to an extreme salary cap crunch for the Kings next summer. While the team currently has just over $2.1MM in cap space according to CapFriendly with a roster of 21 players (including Jack Campbell as a third goaltender) next offseason is where it could get really difficult. With Doughty’s deal kicking in and big-money contracts still owed to Kovalchuk, Kopitar and others, the team projects to have just around $5.3MM in cap space with only 15 players under contract. Among those who will need new deals as restricted free agents are Adrian Kempe and Alex Iafallo, both of whom will have to be key pieces to an offensive turnaround.
Eight of those players under contract for the 2019-20 season are already in their thirties, while Jake Muzzin will be joining them in February. That’s a ton of money dedicated to players on the back half of their careers, and will create quite a dilemma for the Kings going forward. The team does have some very intriguing prospects like Gabe Vilardi, Rasmus Kupari, Akil Thomas and Kale Clague in the system, but will they be enough to supplement an aging roster that is taking up a huge part of the cap? Even just finding enough money to put together a 23-man roster next summer could be challenging, especially if either Iafallo or Kempe really break out and demand a big pay raise.
The other issue is that the cap crunch will prevent the team from really chasing any more scoring help in trade unless the player comes without a contract for the 2019-20 season. Though rentals certainly can be helpful for a playoff run, they often cost more in future assets than they’re worth and bring nothing but more disappointment and regret in the postseason. The lack of future flexibility the Kings find themselves with makes it tough to really be contenders on the trade market, unless they’re prepared to send salary the other way. The defense corps, which took on Dion Phaneuf and his expensive contract last season, would be the obvious target for any salary shedding, but it is also the strongest part of the team.
The Kings should be in the playoff hunt this season, and could experience an offensive renaissance with Kovalchuk in the mix. If they don’t though, prepare for plenty of speculation about them shedding some of their aging contracts at the deadline in an attempt to gain some flexibility going forward. As it stands, they may have to move out a valuable asset just to get under the cap in 2019.
Martinez or Muzzin are easily tradeable. Try like heck to get Phaneuf out of there next summer. Only 2 years left on the deal. Tie some draft picks to him
This is exactly why (as you and I have already discussed) I didn’t like a Doughty extension. Now, technically, it has more to do with not liking the brown contract… or to a lesser extent… the kopitar contract. But either way, we were stuck with them, so decisions moving forward needed to be adjusted. But nope…. not the kings. Shelled out another big contract, did ZERO to address the OBVIOUS offensive needs…. and now we are strapped for cash for a LONG time. The kovalchuk signing is a joke…. if he has a 20 goal season, I’ll be shocked. He will help as a shooter on the power play, but that’s about it.
The team needed an influx of speed/skill players who can carry the puck and CREAE offense, as the “big body, slow the game down” style of their cup years has passed them by. Now, they drafted those players…. minus vilardi, who is essentially a larger toffoli (good hands, questionable skating, questionable speed)… but those draft picks won’t be ready for a few years.
Trading Doughty would’ve left you money, brought in offensive talent to address the MAJOR need, and left your defense plenty strong to compete. Ladue, Brinkley…. guys they keep talking up, but probably now won’t contribute much. The defensive depth could have survived Doughtys absence. That’s just a fact. Would it have been as good? No, certainly not. But it would’ve been deep enough to compete. The offense? Can NOT survive without another influx of talent. The only thing they got…. was older and slower with kovalchuk.
Sorry kings fans…. the future (young draft picks) looks decent, especially this years class…. but the kings are likely headed for a 2-3 year period of slow…. mediocre hockey…. with no money to help bring in help from free agency
Would have trading Doughty really saved money? They would only trade him for a high level offensive player. Lets just say Nylander for the heck of it. Nylanders contract will be anywhere from 4-5 million dollars a season. Doughty had 7 million AAV before the extension. So trading Doughty would have basically been 1 for 1 swap for an offensive player with about 2-3 milliom extra of cap room. That cap room would not help much to sign anyone significant. And you really underrate Kovalchuk. Last year Iafallo played LW on the top line most of the season. Kovy is a massive massive upgrade.
Clearly, LA’s only viable maneuver is to trade from D- Corps for salary relief. More likely during trade deadline when perhaps a playoff team will seek that one extra piece. Kings still aways from being legit SC contenders. They should have tried to trade Brown while he regained some of his value with a decent season.