The Los Angeles Kings are one of the few teams in the NHL with cap space to spare. That’s why we assumed that heading into the offseason, there was a good chance the Kings would take on a bad contract or two, in exchange for future assets. Especially seeing how rough the market is right now, they could seemingly get back quite the haul from a team in cap trouble.
The Kings still have roughly $13.6 million in cap space remaining and already have 19 contracts on the books for next season, not including AHL players who could take a spot with the team. However, it seems as though the team may pass up on the opportunity to use their cap space to get some assets back.
They did acquire Olli Maatta for next to nothing, but he's already 26 years old and isn't really a 'future asset' for the team's rebuild. Detroit took a second-round pick in exchange for Marc Staal, while Johnny Boychuk’s retirement helped the Islanders out of their cap jam.
Tampa Bay could be a perfect trade partner, considering their cap situation right now. They waived Tyler Johnson, a solid top-nine forward, just to see if someone would take him for free. I’m sure the Lightning would be willing to part ways with some picks, rather than lose restricted free agent forward Anthony Cirelli or defenseman Erik Cernak.
Maybe something is in the works but so far, things seems to be pretty quiet for the Kings. Perhaps they don’t want to spend the actual money, however, as we can assume this is the case for other teams around the league. I do think it would be a missed opportunity for the Kings not to take on a bad contract for draft picks or prospects, if the team was in a place to be able to spend money. However, we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and maybe the Kings could still make a move, before the start of the 2020-21 season.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Do you still think the Kings will take on a bad contract, in exchange for draft picks/prospects?
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