The Los Angeles Kings may have moved one of their biggest trade chips several weeks ago in Jake Muzzin, but don’t expect the Kings to stand pat as the deadline nears. Helene Elliott of the Los Angeles Times writes that general manager Rob Blake has spoken to veteran winger Ilya Kovalchuk, who is seriously considering waiving his no-move clause to go to a contender.
However, Kovalchuk, who signed a three-year, $18.75MM deal last summer, might not fetch a big return for the Kings. A team has to be willing to take on two more years of the 35 year-old’s contract which carries an expensive $6.25MM AAV with it. He has scored 13 goals and has 28 points in 50 games so far this year, while dealing with injuries, but few teams would be willing to give up more than a lower-level prospect to take on Kovalchuk.
Elliott also points out that Los Angeles are far more likely to hold onto defenseman Alec Martinez, who might not bring back the return they were hoping for, while few teams have shown much interest in Jeff Carter so far.
- Sportsnet’s Marc Savard tweets that the Florida Panthers are getting a lot of calls on forward Mike Hoffman and the Arizona Coyotes, who are looking to make a late playoff run, are pushing hard to acquire the speedy winger. The 29-year-old is having a nice season as he has 26 goals and 51 points, which is in line for a career year. Hoffman could bring back a signficant return as he has another year on his deal at $5.19MM and would be another significant addition of scorers for the Coyotes.
- The Anaheim Ducks may make a quiet move or two, but after agreeing to a five-year extension with Jakob Silfverberg, the team lacks any significant trade assets to move at the trade deadline. However, The Athletic’s Eric Stephens (subscription required) writes that with the play of Max Jones and the Max Comtois (currently in juniors), winger Nick Ritchie might be expendable now and be potentially available. A holdout at the beginning of the season, Ritchie eventually signed an inexpensive three-year deal, totaling just $4.6MM, which some teams might covet. Ritchie, of course, hasn’t proven he can be anything more than a 15-goal scorer.
- Kevin Kurz of The Athletic reports that Erik Karlsson, who left in the second period of Saturday’s loss to Columbus, tweaked his groin injury in the game. No word on the severity of the injury, however. Karlsson already missed a month between January and February with that lower-body injury, and more missed time would be a setback for a Sharks’ team trying to work their way to the top of the Pacific Division. Head coach Peter DeBoer said he is concerned. “Absolutely,” said DeBoer. “I thought we were as conservative and cautious as you can be but muscle injuries you don’t know. Sometimes you get in positions or over-extend it. We’ll see where it’s at tomorrow.”
Ritchie cannot skate at the NHL level. Nice job Murray!!!!!
Wow… teams don’t have an interest in Jeff Carter? What a shocker!! Wait, the return for Kovalchuk might not be much, especially with that contract? No way!!! Rob Blake used to wreck bodies on the ice…. now he’s wrecking a franchise from an office
Kovalchuk and Carter both make too much money relative to their production levels at this point in their respective careers, so I wouldn’t expect much of a return on either, especially during the season. Not to mention the complications that come along with their trade protections.
Alec Martinez, on the other hand, is the Kings best remaining trade asset. He’s under contract at a reasonable hit for two seasons beyond this one. He is a slightly lesser version of Muzzin and has more playoff experience, but he is almost two years older. I suspect that’s one of the reasons a deal hasn’t been made yet. Another reason would be that a majority of the teams in the hunt this year have deep defenses and would rather spend less on available depth pieces for injury insurance.
It’s an interesting situation because the Kings would obviously like to trade him when his value is at its highest, and as time passes he only becomes more and more likely to decline, but the market just doesn’t seem to be interested at this point in time. It might make more sense to do it at next year’s deadline. Hopefully for the Kings, he maintains his value until that time comes.
On a side note, I wonder if Jack Campbell is available for the right price.
Wait so what are you bashing Blake for? Kovalchuk was his signing but it was panned as a decent signing in the offseason, especially for a team with playoff aspirations. He got pretty good value for Muzzin and Hagelin who were some of the few movable pieces. He inherited Carter’s contract so its not his fault Carter suffered through injuries and poor play. I mean the Kings as a whole were in a dire need of a rebuild/retool. What you’re seeing right now is the rebuild.
You’re absolutely right… “the Kings as a whole were in dire need of a rebuild/retool”. That’s why you don’t sign an aging Kovalchuk to a big contract when he is the exact opposite of what that team needs (youth, speed). Anybody who was saying that was a good signing, either doesn’t know hockey…. or hadn’t been paying attention to the Kings roster/play