The Los Angeles Kings have been busy over the last couple of months, shipping out Calvin Petersen and Sean Walker to the Philadelphia Flyers, as well as acquiring and extending Pierre-Luc Dubois from the Winnipeg Jets most recently. After those moves, the Kings have a little over $4.5MM in cap space, with only 15 roster spots filled, according to CapFriendly. Due to the nature of their cap situation, it is more than unlikely that trade deadline acquisition, Joonas Korpisalo, will be retained by the team.
Los Angeles, who currently only has Pheonix Copley under contract to mind the net, will be looking for another goalie to pair with him next season. Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period has shed some light on how exactly the Kings are looking to fill that hole in their lineup, reporting that Los Angeles is looking for a goalie in the $1MM-$1.5MM range. It is unknown at the time if the Kings are planning on using Copley as their main starter next year, but it will be tough to find a goalie better than him at that price.
Many teams still have time to qualify their eventual restricted free agents, so Los Angeles may have some options available to them after that list is more well-known. At the time, in that range of salary, the Kings will likely be looking at goalies such as Alex Stalock or David Rittich, and even a potential bounce-back candidate in Alex Nedeljkovic.
Other notes:
- Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Chicago reports that the only restricted free agent on the Chicago Blackhawks to receive a qualifying offer will be Philipp Kurashev. This means that Anders Bjork, Austin Wagner, and Caleb Jones will all go to the open market on Saturday. Jones is one of the more surprising players not to receive a qualifying offer, as he was originally brought in from the Edmonton Oilers to play with his brother, Seth Jones. Caleb is not a game-breaking player by any means but did eat just over 19 minutes a night for Chicago this season while also bringing quite the physical presence to their back end. Given that his qualifying offer would have been $1.35MM, and the Blackhawks are not in a cap crunch, it is likely that he will be playing for another team next season.
- The Colorado Avalanche did not issue a qualifying offer to defenseman Ryan Merkley, as reported by Peter Baugh of The Athletic. Merkley was originally acquired by the Avalanche along with Matthew Nieto from the San Jose Sharks for Martin Kaut and Jacob MacDonald. Coming into the 2018 NHL Draft, Merkley was one of the most talented players in the draft, but questions about his attitude and work ethic led to his slide to 21st overall. Failing to turn a corner in his professional career, Merkley will head to unrestricted free agency this Saturday.
Blake goes after an expensive forward that the Kings don’t need and doesn’t see any urgency in getting a competent goaltender, Wow!!!! If the King’s GM thinks that Copley will get the Kings deep into the playoffs he is mistaken to say the least.
They arent done making moves, you can’t judge what a gm has done in the offseason to improve a team on June 29th, that just makes no sense. The kings did need dubois, you can’t expect Kopitar to be the number 1 center at this point of his career.
Danault is there best 200 foot center right now.
Exactly
Everyone saying Blake overpaid for PLD, which may be true, but imagine how much over value he would have had to pay for any big name goalie, when everyone in the hockeysphere knows they need one. Copley went 24-6-3 last year and we all just saw Adin Hill win the Cup. The Kings’ window is now open but contrary to apparent belief it’s not a one-year window. Maybe they focus on getting their guy next off-season when the cap goes up.
Nobody can argue that Adin Hill was darn good In the playoffs, We also know that playoff hockey is a different animal, So few shots even get through to the net in an average playoff game, Bottom line is that Adin Hill will return to what he really is, A backup netminder. Logan Thompson is still there best back stop assuming Lehner doesn’t return. I actually thought Thompson had a really good shot at rookie of the year until Injuries ended that possibility.
So you’re saying Wilf, that teams with deep C’s and bigger D-men are built for playoff success, even w/average goaltenders? Kinda does…
Copley isn’t great, whomever they can afford THIS YEAR, at 1.5, also won’t be great. But like Math said, next season-two they might dial this in and find an A+ starter to put them over the top.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but over the past 40 years of following the Kings, I don’t think we’re in a bad place by any stretch.. Playoff bound, certainly… Past the 1st round, maybe.. Deep run, doubtful…
But I’m okay with being patient since I was already into my 40’s when we finally hit paydirt that first time..
Cheers, bub. -Swiney
Calgary and Boston have Vlader and Swayman to trade for. Or sign Alex Lyon for just $1.5M x 2
Didn’t seem like it was that long ago that the Sharks viewed Merkley as their next great D-man. Well, he won’t be for them and now won’t be for Colorado. Apparently this is largely all an issue with attitude. Unfortunate.
Copley won 24 games out of 33 or so. Give the man some credit! He’s no Quick but damn, you guys are brutal.
Exactly and he outperformed Quick last year!
Blake has 16 players signed out of 23 with $4.5 mil in space. So, 7 players left to sign and mostly all are Kings Restricted FA. At minimum wage being around $777, 000.00. That will cost more than he has unless there is another move with 1 or more of Arvidsson, Moore, Lizzotte, Grundstrom , Roy traded. Blake traded away most of our depth, we will be lucky to make the playoffs next year!
Mildly surprised the Hawks didn’t offer Bjork a QO. I thought they liked him after he came back from being injured when they got him. Maybe he still comes back. Kurashev should be better with some new guys to play with. Now sign Domi Sat. and most of the off season is done except for signing some draftees.