There was so much news out of LA Kings headquarters on Thursday it was dizzying at times. And one of the little nuggets that could have easily slipped through the cracks was a brief mention about the previously announced acquisition of Dan Carcillo.
According to GM Dean Lombardi, the trade is actually not a 100% done deal at this point.
The revelation came during a conversation with the team’s GM, where MayorsManor asked about Carcillo joining the Kings and what it possibly meant for LA’s three Restricted Free Agents – Kyle Clifford, Trevor Lewis and Jordan Nolan.
“Certainly we expect a lot of these young players to get better,” Lombardi began. “Some of these guys that are just in entering their prime, I still think there’s upside. There’s still improvement within this team. The one area though, is you always, when you look at a good team, the quality of players and their depth – if you look at it, we have a lot of right shots, but we’re going to have to play on the off-side. So, we’re more than set up on the right wing, but we were looking, just from a depth perspective and having some flexibility with a left shot, that was an area we thought we could improve the team.
“That said, in terms of Danny, the way he plays kind of fits our M.O. He’s certainly gone over the line at times in his career, but all the research we did on him as a person… he’s started to mature in that regard, where he probably went over the edge too much early in his career. But, clearly he’s a guy that provides you with juice, energy, he’s tough. The thing about it is, we’ve seen he’s capable playing with good players. He played with Carter and Richards in Philly, and this year he was on a line with Hossa and Sharp, I believe. So, he has that versatility where he can play a lot of positions for you and move up and play with skilled guys and be a piece of their line by providing space and energy.
“The biggest thing though is he has to get through his physical, which is going on today. This isn’t done yet because there are some things that we have to do, based on the particular way this player plays, and he plays with no holds barred. We’re also familiar with him too, Johnny [Stevens] coached him a bit in Philadelphia, Richie and Carts played with him.
“Plus, going back to the [salary] cap, it was a number that we could handle as far as our cap so that we could get Lewis and Clifford and Nolan in. As far as those guys, the only thing I can tell you is it’s a process – still talking. You always have the arbitration date that always serves as its own real, unofficial deadline. I guess it’s fair to say, were closest on Nolan. The other two, it’s not that it’s that far apart I don’t expect it not to get done. It just has to play out.”
To recap, a new contract for Nolan is close, the Carcillo trade isn’t finalized just yet and there’s nothing new to report on Clifford and Lewis.
[UPDATE – Nolan contract is done. He gets a two-year deal worth $700K per season]
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About John Hoven
The typo on “no holds barred” as “no holes barred” made me chuckle. No disrespect,,,just thought that was funny. Of course, if this were an article about Luongo…
I like Carcillio. He’s always been the player you wish you had on your team as far as toughness. But then Clifford came into my life as a King. The kid impressed me. Sign Clifford and add Carcillo, and it’s going to be a fun year to watch.
No offense to Jordan, but I think Clifford would’ve been the one I locked down first. I wasn’t overly impressed with Nolan this season, even though it was a short one. I think Clifford has more potential.
I’m still ambivalent about Carcillo given his history. I’d like to think the Kings aren’t just trying to add goon power to the team. And as much as Lombardi has talked about wanting players with good character, Carcillo’s past makes him a pretty dubious choice in that regard. He consistently takes moronic penalties that end up hurting his teammates, and he’s got a self-absorption streak a mile long which indicates that he’s anything but a team player in the big picture. Are the Kings trying to find their own Raffi Torres? If so, who needs that crap?
Hey TSJ it’s hysterical you used that example as I was thinking it as I read what you were saying…as long as we don’t bring back a “sean avery” in the locker room. I really wanted him to succeed, but it turns out he set the locker room back years of potential therapy. So somewhere on a beach is exactly where THAT TYPE belongs!
Surprisingly, Carcillo has drawn more penalties than he takes, while Clifford is the opposite. Something to think about. Brown’s ratio is off the charts good. I think everyone just thinks about Carcillo acting like an idiot and assume he takes a lot of bad penalties.