A little sarcasm on this fine Tuesday… With the departure of Ron Hextall on Monday, Kings GM Dean Lombardi moved quickly to replace his Flyers quotient by adding left wing Daniel Carcillo on Tuesday.
[Happy now? Back to playing it straight for a few minutes.]
In Carcillo the Kings add a left wing (and a left shot) with a cap hit of just $825K next season. He’ll also be an Unrestricted Free Agent in the summer of 2014.
He’s scored 87 points (40 goals, 47 assists) in 333 NHL games, but is probably known more for his 1,079 penalty minutes. The Kings haven’t had a pest-like player of his ilk since probably Sean Avery.
At 6-foot, 205lbs, Carcillo has had as many as 22 fights in a single NHL season. However, last year, he was limited to just one scrap over 23 games with the Blackshawks – it was a decisive win over Nikita Nikitin of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Take a look:
As a member of the Philadelphia Flyers from 2008-11, Carcillo bonded with Mike Richards and LA’s assistant coach John Stevens.
To acquire Carcillo, Lombardi sent a conditional draft pick to the Blackhawks. It currently stands as a sixth-rounder in 2015. However, if he appears in more than 40 regular season games for the Kings this coming season, it bumps up to a fifth-round pick.
Departing Los Angeles on Tuesday was another left wing, big Dustin Penner. The two-time Stanley Cup champion signed a one-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks worth $2 million.
What this means, if anything, for the future of Kyle Clifford remains to be seen. He currently remains unsigned, as a Restricted Free Agent. Curiously, he didn’t file for salary arbitration like Trevor Lewis, Jordan Nolan, et al.
GM Dean Lombardi spoke with MayorsManor about the overall situation with those players just last week (linked here), saying “Every nickel counts.”
Also, as noted in our latest salary cap review article, the Kings were already on pace to be over the NHL roster limit of 23. So, adding Carcillo only complicates an already ultra-tricky situation.
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news or interviews from this site please include a link to www.MayorsManor.com
I love Carcillo but not at the cost of Clifford. Lombardi screwed up by adding 3 extra D. Why re-sign Ellerby and sign Schultz when Martinez and Muzzin are battling for 1 spot? Now you have 4 guys battling for 1 spot…
That might cost us one of Lewis, Nolan or Clifford…who have more value than Schultz or Ellerby.