And so it begins; the LA Kings summer re-tool is officially in full swing. Sure, there are still several key decisions to be made by General Manager Rob Blake – i.e. who will join head coach John Stevens behind the bench, which players will get protected in the Expansion Draft (more on that below), etc. – however, there is too much work to be done for any sort of a linear approach. Thus, multiple things are in play simultaneously. Case in point, how can the organization create enough cap space to sign Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson to new deals, while also leaving enough flexibility to address other roster concerns/needs?
Let’s start there. How much wiggle room is Blake working with and what are some likely scenarios or possible assumptions that can be layered in?
Assuming guys like Ben Bishop and Jarome Iginla will be allowed to walk away as unrestricted free agents, the Kings whiteboard looks something like this (and ignore the line combinations/defensive pairings, those are separate arguments for a different day):
| Gaborik | Kopitar | Toffoli |
| 4,875,000 | 10,000,000 | 3,250,000 |
| Pearson | Carter | Brodzinski |
| 1,400,000 | 5,272,727 | 808,750 |
| Kempe | Dowd | Brown |
| 894,167 | 640,000 | 5,875,000 |
| Clifford | Shore | Lewis |
| 1,600,000 | 600,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Nolan | Andreoff | |
| 950,000 | 587,500 | |
| Muzzin | Doughty | |
| 4,000,000 | 7,000,000 | |
| Martinez | LaDue | |
| 4,000,000 | 925,000 | |
| Forbort | Gravel | |
| 650,000 | 667,500 | |
| McNabb | ||
| 1,700,000 | ||
| Quick | Campbell | |
| 5,800,000 | 612,500 |
The above 23-man roster would come at a price tag of $65,678,144 (including the $1.57M penalty the Kings are paying next season for terminating Mike Richards’ contract).
Also of note, this grouping does not include Matt Greene. There are several different scenarios to consider with the veteran defenseman, who is not expected to play again. He could be bought out (however, that would come at a cap “tax” of about $833K each of the next two seasons). Another option would be to place him on long term injured reserve, where his contract would not count against the cap. There is also the possibility he simply retires this summer, which means his full $2.5M comes off the books. However, why would he simply walk away from milions of dollars guaranteed to him? To isolate the variables here, let’s assume it’s LTIR, meaning his contract doesn’t really need to be factored into the remainder of the article.
Point of clarification – if the NHLPA votes to activate the inflation clause in the CBA, next year’s salary cap could rise to as much as $75.5-76M. For the purpose of this article, we chose to take the more conservative approach in all of our calculations. Any increase over $73M would obviously benefit the Kings and other teams currently up against the cap ceiling.
Now, why are some salaries listed in red? Those are guys who require new contracts this summer. We’ll delve into that next, after a few more observations:
– Some people were surprised to hear us say that the Kings were planning on protecting defenseman Derek Forbort in the upcoming Expansion Draft. Put aside any commentary about him being a top-4 defenseman, improving this year, the importance of holding onto a costly asset (he is a former first round pick), etc. There is one other major factor at play here. Look at his contract. Forbort will carry a cap hit of only $650K next season. As you know, the Kings are really in a tough spot with the cap. Thus, almost more important to protect Forbort’s contract in the Expansion Draft than it is to protect Forbort the player. Regardless of where you land on Forbort’s position on the depth chart. He is a bargain at that price for any of the seven blueline positions.
– We could even make the argument that perhaps one of the reasons Kevin Gravel played such limited minutes this year was to keep his production low, which would only help with contract negotiations this summer. Again, every dollar matters to a team strapped for cap room. If this wasn’t intentional, it was at least a happy coincidence.
– Jack Campbell should be the backup goaltender in Los Angeles next season. Not only has he earned the spot with this stellar play in AHL Ontario this year, but – again – look at his contract. For a team needing cap help, why would you want to spend more than the absolute least amount of cap space possible on a backup goalie? Campbell is more than capable and at $612K, he is another bargain.
– When all is said and done, assuming the Kings protect one goalie, four defenseman and four forwards in the Expansion Draft (Quick, Doughty, Martinez, Muzzin, Forbort, Carter, Kopitar, Toffoli, and Pearson), that leaves one of four player as the most likely to be selected by Las Vegas – Dustin Brown, Nic Dowd, Trevor Lewis, and Brayden McNabb. We’ll assume the Kings aren’t willing to include the extra incentive needed (i.e. draft picks and/or prospects) to entice the Golden Knights into taking Brown’s contract. We’ll also assume they’ll find players whom they believe are better than McNabb on defense. And when left to a Dowd vs. Lewis decision (remember, Vegas will take one player from every NHL team), we see Lewis as the most likely candidate to land in Sin City.
– One more note on Dowd: If he is selected in the Expansion Draft over Lewis, that actually hurts the Kings, from a cap perspective, because he makes less money than Lewis. In other words, it will “cost” the Kings more to replace Dowd than Lewis on the 2017-18 roster.
– New contracts: The big two that need to get taken care of are Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson. We’re going to assume Toffoli’s new deal comes in around $5.5M per season and Pearson’s will shake out around $4.25M.
– The kids are alright: Jonny Brodzinski, Nick Shore, Andy Andreoff, Paul LaDue, and Kevin Gravel all need new deals. They are RFAs, so they don’t have as much bargaining power. LaDue will most likely have the largest cap hit of the five guys come opening night, yet we’ll assume the average across each of them will come out to be about $1M each. That’s a pretty safe assumption.
– So, let’s take a look at a revised 23-man roster using these assumptions:
| Gaborik | Kopitar | Toffoli |
| 4,875,000 | 10,000,000 | 5,500,000 |
| Pearson | Carter | Brodzinski |
| 4,250,000 | 5,272,727 | 1,000,000 |
| Kempe | Dowd | Brown |
| 894,167 | 640,000 | 5,875,000 |
| Clifford | Shore | OPEN |
| 1,600,000 | 1,000,000 | 0 |
| Nolan | Andreoff | |
| 950,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| Muzzin | Doughty | |
| 4,000,000 | 7,000,000 | |
| Martinez | LaDue | |
| 4,000,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| Forbort | Gravel | |
| 650,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| McNabb | ||
| 1,700,000 | ||
| Quick | Campbell | |
| 5,800,000 | 612,500 |
This is where things get tricky.
The above roster comes at a salary cap cost of $70,189,394. According to Cap Friendly, we’re probably looking at a cap limit of around $73M next season. If that’s the case, the Kings would have roughly $2,810,606 left to work with. And there are an almost endless list of items to contend with, even if all of the above fell into place.
– For starters, if Greene has to be bought out, that $2.8M in wiggle room is now down to about $2M.
– The Lewis slot needs to be filled. If you go outside the organization, you can safely assume that would cost at least $1M. If you chose to slide Brodzinski into that third line role, that moves the OPEN slot up to the second line. And a second line winger (with speed and an offensive touch) should cost you more than $2M on the open market.
– Which brings us to Marian Gaborik. Now that he is injured he can’t be bought out. Which means either a trade (and that would most certainly have to include the Kings sending a prospect/pick in the deal to sweeten things) or LTIR, which comes with its own set of problems once he is finally healthy enough to play. Said differently, that is only a temporary solution.
– If you’re looking to upgrade some of the bottom six players, where is the cap money going to come from?
– In the pipeline: As of now, there are three players who are likely to push for a roster spot in camp – prospects Justin Auger and Michael Mersch (both forwards) and Kurtis MacDermid (defenseman). On the plus side, none of them expected to carry a cap hit north of $1M. Conversely, none of them have NHL experience to speak of and, realistically, how many youngsters can the Kings effectively have on their roster. More likely, if any of the three make the team, that probably means they pushed some combination of Shore, Andreoff, Nolan, Gravel, and/or McNabb off the NHL roster. From a cap perspective, that would essentially be a wash, as the dollars would pretty much cancel each other out.
– More on the Reign trio: Auger, Mersch, and MacDermid all require waivers next season. Thus, if they don’t secure an NHL roster spot, the Kings will risk losing them to another team when they attempt to send them back to Ontario.
– How can you create more cap dollars? You trade one of Jake Muzzin or Alec Martinez. This isn’t a condemnation of either player. Instead, this is all about asset management. If you move either of those contracts, you get an extra $2-3M to work with (assuming a replacement for their defensive slot costs about $1-2M).
What would we recommend?
Here’s how to make the math work:
– Assume Greene is not put on LTIR (and why would he retire, walking away from all that money?). Prepare for a worst-case scenario instead. Buy him out and take the $833K penalty.
– Place Gaborik on LTIR and create some cap space. It’s a gamble, but you’ll deal with him coming back if-and-when he’s ready to return (which, admittedly, will require some additional cap gymnastics at that point it time, but we can’t be handcuffed by the idea in the present).
– Replace Shore with a new roster player, either through trade of free agency; spending no more than $1.5M on that slot.
– Replace Andreoff’s roster spot with Mersch. He’s earned a look and should play perfectly into the Kings new net-front presence methodology.
– Oscar Fantenberg is an option on defense, and he wouldn’t cost very much, yet we believe he will start the season in AHL Ontario.
– Replace McNabb with MacDermid. Of all the moves, this is the least significant, yet it does come with a cap advantage and is relatively low risk. Go for it.
| OPEN | Kopitar | Toffoli |
| 0 | 10,000,000 | 5,500,000 |
| Pearson | Carter | Brodzinski |
| 4,250,000 | 5,272,727 | 1,000,000 |
| Kempe | Dowd | Brown |
| 894,167 | 640,000 | 5,875,000 |
| Clifford | OPEN | Auger |
| 1,600,000 | 1,500,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Nolan | Mersch | |
| 950,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| Muzzin | Doughty | |
| 4,000,000 | 7,000,000 | |
| Forbort | LaDue | |
| 650,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| Martinez | Gravel | |
| 4,000,000 | 1,000,000 | |
| MacDermid | ||
| 1,000,000 | ||
| Quick | Campbell | |
| 5,800,000 | 612,500 |
Our proposed roster comes at cap cost just shy of $67M. Assuming a 2017-18 salary cap of $73M, that leaves a cool $6M to go out and get a legit winger to play with Kopitar. And, of equal importance, the Kings are able to keep intact a defensive core that was one of the best in the league during the 2016-17 campaign.
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I think the Kings would be crazy to protect Forbort which would expose Muzzin or Martinez if they do the 3 D-men. If they protect 8 players, then you are exposing guys like Nick Shore, Trevor Lewis, people more likely to get taken anyways. Vegas has to have a minimum amt they spend so that would make it harder to pick Forbort… Who likely wont be among the top D-men left exposed, meaning Vegas would already have the limit of D-men taken. Besides the Kings can easily have left shooting D-men, Forbort is not worth protecting under any scenario. I think they would take McNabb, Lewis, Shore, depending on who the Kings expose…
As for how to free up cap space, I’d offer 2 first round picks to anybody who would take Brown’s contract intact. You can always trade back to pick late in the 1st round for somebody like Zykov or Pearson. Pearson was an older prospect meaning he had less time needed to get into NHL. Kings have drafted Hickey in top 5 who they lost on waivers for Islanders currently a 2.2M cap hit… HE scored an OT goal to win, lets see what was the reason they lost him? Maybe traded two 2nd round picks for Robyn Regehr :)? Aki Berg was an early 1st round pick, even Trevor Lewis I think they took him over who was it Logan Couture… Point being the Kings do better drafted in the later rounds anyways… One of there best draft picks ever was Kimmo Timmonen who they traded to Nashville to keep Gary Galley the HOFer if anyone was Kimmo though :).
I had wanted Kings to trade for Justin Schultz over the Penguins getting him… That is a player who would have made a difference for sure… If nothing else just giving them a chance to compete, other day Penguins pulled goalie down a goal before losing in OT… Sure enough Schultz was the guy who tied up the game to even give them a chance to win.
Kings need 3 Right Shooting D-men or they should expect an early draft pick again. Gravel I think played less so he wouldn’t be eligible for the expansion draft. I’d rather take my chances losing Forbort then plugging in Gravel than protecting him. I’d protect Carter, Pearson, Tyler, depending of they are under contract by the expansion draft… Then Drew, Muzzin, Martinez seem the most likely of the 3 D-men… Forced to protect Kopitar by his awful contract, so that leaves Lewis, Shore, with a decision about Dowd, Cliford, since Brown I’d imagine would be exposed.
You wouldn’t find any NHL team who would give a 1st round pick for Forbort. I doubt they would even be able to get a 2nd rounder. Having a cheap player is good for a team that can’t spend to max cap like the Islanders or Coyotes. Yet if the Post Season or Cup is what the goal is then keeping Forbort unprotected isn’t based in logic. Is Gravel or McNabb among other options who could easily be obtained from the minors, FAs, or trades any worse? My memory of Forbort is him blowing a clear with less than 1 minute left in game against I think it was Coyotes allowing them to score on Ben Bishop.
Campbell supposedly got hurt, then Zatkoff by a shock was injured again, Quick has missed time with injuries… Though I don’t think they would expose him to the expansion draft so Zatkoff probably will be the goalie.
Dean would have probably signed Tyler/Pearson to 5M cap hit for 8 years at 40M. I don’t think Tyler will get over 5M with the year he had. Though both of them might try to get 6M which could complicate things. Another team could try to get them to an offer sheet which would be the biggest concern. If the Kings lose Tyler/Pearson one or both of them they will have some dire straights ahead. You can probably find a team to eat the 2.5M of Greene’s final year or take Nolan which would give them 950K.
If the Kings trade Muzzin or Martinez they might as well ship them to Vegas… As for younger players I like Amadio, guys like Auger, Mersch should get a chance to play with Gaborik hurt. I’m expecting another rough year with young players getting a chance to be the next Tyler or Pearson. After this season Brown will be bought out which will help a little bit though still make life rocky. If Brown ends up on Vegas just to get them to cap minimum alone then this season would really be interesting. I think Lewis will be most likely player given the 2M cost with ability to play all 3 forward positions along with PK. I see better D-men exposed barring trades or other movement then anything the Kings would leave unprotected. I’d rather keep Shore over Dowd since the team seemed to struggle a bit when he got hurt after the trades this year. Amadio or Kempe can play center, I’m not sure Kings can afford 1.6M on Clifford… So moving him opens up LW for probably Mersch if/when Gaborik returns.
Kings were like top 5 payroll finished below top 5 payroll teams like Carolina and Winnipeg… The players they can sign if they move Brown even including 2 first round picks is better than any scenario keeping him or buying out. I’d call Vegas tell them will give them 2 conditional 1st rounders to take Brown with all the contract. Maybe allow a delay in case Kings finish real bad to have it be another year or some safeguard. At this point I’d even consider trading them Greene/Gaborik including two 2nd round picks or a 1st and 2nd rounder. Any team at this point any team that is willing to take on their full contracts would be a consideration. Otherwise each year will be about trying to handle the cap issues especially when have to resign Drew. Gaborik only has 3 years left after this season so 4.8M isn’t as bad as nearly 6M for Brown :). I’d ban any of these players from playing in World Cups or anything non NHL since they are expensive injury prone guys including Quick. If Gaborik don’t get hurt playing in something he had no business along with Quick… Maybe Sutter still is here or Dean, Gaborik could have had 20-30 goals this year if healthy. Now it sounds like he wont bounce back to ever have another year like his first full one with Kings :(. Either way I think Tyler/Pearson will cost 10M to 12M to keep in combined cap hit for this season. If Kings have 6M left they need a legit Right Shooting D-man to give them 3.. .A guy like Justin Schultz would help a lot more than playing two left shooting D-men together with some winger… I’ll take my chances with a few young wingers which has a higher chance to succeed than finding a quality right shooting D-man who can play 20-30 minutes a night… When Drew isn’t on the ice the team isn’t a Cup Contender or even a fringe Post Season team. All the teams know it, they do all they can to get him off the ice or lose his cool emotionally. I hope Ladue does well, though he isn’t as good as Miller having hardest shot along with fastest skater in AHL All Star game/skills etc. Maybe they can get a Cody Franson type player, lets see how many teams are in SCF with a pairing of two left shooting D this year or over next decade :).
Great article! I always enjoy seeing in-depth insight on other team’s rosters. I don’t claim to know about the Kings like you do, but I wonder though: would LA be interested in some sort of swap involving Jeff Carter for Matt Barzal from the Islanders? While Carter is still very effective, at 32, how many more productive years does he reasonably have? He would definitely fill a void for NY as a second line center (and go a long ways in convincing Tavares to stick around), they don’t seem to be interested in actually developing their elite talent (see: Nino Niederreiter) and they have the cap space that the Kings don’t (that is if Grabovski is either bought out or put on LTIR). From the Kings’ perspective, they clear some cap space and get a dominant junior player that will be an NHL star in a couple of years. Sure this would be a one-year or so setback, but I think that they would be better off for it in the long run. Again, I appreciate the insight and just wanted to see your thoughts. Thanks
While the Kings did have interest in Barzal at the time he was drafted, see here: http://mayorsmanor.com/2015/06/la-kings-2015-nhl-draft-predictions/ – we don’t see a scenario where Carter is traded this summer.
Carter is the King’s Most Popular player so trading him would be a major negative in reaction and return :). It might not be as bad as who they traded Wayne for, who was quite productive though the fans really got on him since he wasn’t Wayne :). Carter has a nice cap hit contract for a guy scoring 20-30 goals… Also he can develop players unlike Kopitar with his 10M, remember “That 70s Line” bringing along young players like Tyler/Pearson to 20-30 goal solid players who might become stars. Jeff is one of the only players able to be a RW or Center on a top line or secondary not to mention the PK and PP. He is the Real Great One who they wouldn’t have 2 Cups if not for him being here :). I think him along with Drew are probably the only two players who the Kings wouldn’t trade.
Kings would be more likely to trade a Muzzin or Martinez, maybe even Quick before a Jeff Carter who I Expect will finish his career with LA. Maybe in 2-3 years if they don’t make Post Season, Quick is hurt unable to play, Blake/Stevens are fired it might be a different story. Unless Jeff decides he don’t want to be with LA anymore for personal reasons or players emerge bumping him to the 3rd/4th line etc… Islanders made some bad trades because the ownership don’t want to pay max Cap Hit along with an inept GM. Islanders resign PA only to lose him on what waivers ;)? There are lots of players who wont play in Brooklyn with the bad ice/arena sight lines. Russians are more comfortable there with the heavy Russian areas where they can feel more at home. Remember Kings supposedly were going to trade for Andrew MacDonald when he was making like 500K :). Then Islanders had that D-man who wanted to be traded to get closer to home until he changed his mind. Hickey has done fine on Islanders scoring an OT goal who they got on waivers from Kings the former 5th overall pick like Schenn another guy who was here a short time but can’t pay him 1.25M like Coyotes ;)?
The Kings absolutely have to get rid of Brown’s contract. It’s killing them. Offer Brown along with 2 1st round picks or a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.
Protect:
Kopitar, Carter, Toffoli, Pearson, Doughty, Muzzin, Martinez, Quick.
That still leaves 1 skater to protect. I get that Forbort is a bargain, but if the Kings could get a 2nd pairing D-man for Brown and the draft picks, that’s a moot point. If the Kings really want to shake things up, they can trade Muzzin or Martinez for someone, but they’ll be stuck with whatever contract they get.
The 3rd and 4th lines haven’t proven their worth. Andreoff is inconsistent, Shore forgot how to be a center and can’t win a faceoff to save his life, and on and on. Mersch or any of the young guys in Ontario could definitely be on the 4th line.
The Kings need to take advantage of Quick’s presence as long as he’s healthy. That means maintaining a solid D. The team doesn’t need all 4 lines to score. Consistent scoring from the top 2 lines is fine.
I see some on here know nothing about hockey and are posting irrational ideas… So let’s throw out some facts!
The Kings will protect 8 skaters and a G…
Kopitar, Carter, Toffoli, Pearson, Doughty, Muzzin, Martinez, Forbort and Quick…
The Kings will not Trade 2-1st round picks to move Brown ever!..period….
Greene is LTIR bound as is Gaborik, so look for the FO to try an add a TJ Oshie type player with added cap space and make trades later….
Finally, expect Michael Amadio to force his way onto the Kings next season and solidify the 3C position with a really good chance of becoming our 2C of the future…
The Kings plan has been to protect Forbort, as we verified by multiple sources quite some time ago. I’ve even reported it in multiple places, including here http://mayorsmanor.com/2017/04/latest-thoughts-on-changes-coming-to-the-la-kings/.
Obviously, anything can change before the final list is submitted. However, to say it’s a fact they will protect 8/3 is more than a stretch. It’s an option, at best.
Sources are more important here than opinions.
Bravo here is a free education about hockey and reality :)… I’m not sure any team is dumb enough to take brown’s anchor contract even if the Kings give them 2 first round picks… He is making almost as much as Forsberg (6M) age 22 who can score 30+ goals… He is getting paid more than James “The REal Deal” Neal who is at 5M cap hit… Even Johansen is getting 4M cap hit who can score 30+ goals. So I’d be dancing with joy if the Kings traded Brown with 2 first round picks or any method that don’t lose a player to be rid of his full contract :).
This is the same Kings team who traded a 1st round pick along with McKeown to have Sekear play like 16 games before leaving to get 5.5M from Edmonton… Sekera had been traded to Carolina for McBain the former King along with a 2nd round pick… Vey along with a 2nd round pick were traded just to draft McKeown in the first place. Kings already lost Hickey for nothing who was a 4th overall pick claimed on waivers… They traded like two 2nd round picks for Robyn Regehr. 1st round picks are over rated unless maybe the top two while even then there are many duds…
If Kings think Forbort has any value try trading him… They would be lucky to get a 5th round pick for him or a late 4th or 3rd… Lets look at the first two picks of drafts since the Kings 1st Cup… 2012 the Pearson 30th overall draft… 1st overall Nail Yakupov, 2nd Ryan Murray, what is Yakupov worth right now ;)? 2013 was better with 1st overall Mackinnon, 2nd Barkov, while the Kings had no first rounder from the Jeff Carter Trade… 2014 1st overall Ekblad, 2nd Reinhart, while Kings got Kempe 29th… 2015 the big deal McDavid, 2nd Eichel, while Kings had no 1st rounder from the awful abysmal Lucic, Miller, Jones trade… 2016 1st overall Matthews, 2nd overall Laine, Kings had no pick from the Sekera trade… So Jones, Miller (AHL All STar fastest skaer/hardest shot), Lucic, including a 1st round pick were all lost for nothing in return… Trading Brown w/ 2 first round picks to any team taking his contract is better than that by far :)…
AS for 2nd round picks, PK Subban along with Roman Josi were 2nd round picks… Tyler Toffoli was a 47th overall pick. So there is a lot of talent that can be found in 2nd round even Zykov was a 2nd rounder. Schenn was a 5th overall pick who LA let walk to Coyotes who gets paid 1.25M… Kings need a right shooting D-man that can play 20-30 quality minutes… 3 Right Shooting D-men to play not this leftist BS… Nashville is in the Finals after ditching the leftist pair… They were able to trade Seth Jones for Johansen. So right shooting D-men have more value even in trades to obtain needed players.
I’d rather have Gravel or MacDermid over Forbort who maybe can score 5 goals if anything… I think Vegas would take McNabb over Forbort if they took a D-man anyways. Otherwise it will be Gary GAlley 2.0 protecting Forbort. Likely leading to the Kings losing Auger, Mersch, MacDermid, or even Forbort on waivers. Don’t expect to see Lucky Luc, Stevens, or Blake with team 3 years from now if they protect Forbort anyways :). Kings have always done better drafting players in later rounds anyways. IN 2006 Kings took Bernier 11th overall with Lewis 17th overall for example… In 2010 they took the bust Forbort over the all star Tarasenko who went the next pick at 16 overall… BTW in 2007 when the Kings took Hickey 4th overall, Logan Couture went 9th. Even Voracek went 7th in that year to give an idea how bad the Kings are in 1st round picking :). Pearson at 30th overall is probably the best 1st round pick they had since like Drew at 2nd overall with Stamkos going first that year…
Jones was an undrafted free agent who took the Sharks to their only SCF. You need to clear up the Brown contract otherwise he will be bought out after this season anyways. Lot easier to sign talent at 6M per year than draft a gem in the 1st round who pans out anyways. Brown went 13th overall right before Brent Seabrook, Kings had 3 first round picks getting Boyle 26, with Tambellini 27th, while Corey Perry went 28th :). GEtzlaf went 19th that draft, so Kings miss badly in the 1st round historically. Burns went 20th overall, 2003 was a good draft class, Kings even with 3 first rounders only really have Brown to show for that ;). Missing on Perry two picks in row is pretty bad, Carter was 11th overall then. You probably wont see another year like 2003 for a deep solid draft class in 1st round anytime soon if ever again. Quick was 72nd overall that worked out pretty well, so this notion of needing 1st round picks is really comical :).
I do like Amadio though I don’t know if he is that close to breaking into NHL. IF Kings could trade 2 first rounders/any assortment of picks to get Vegas to take Brown that would solve many issues though :). Considering last time the Kings had 3 first round picks all they had pan out was Brown though I think Boyle is a good player… None of these people are going to make HOF like many who the Kings missed or passed on in that draft alone. Kings as a franchise do better with later round picks who they develop in the minors. One of their best Draft picks ever was lost to Nashville 250th Overall Kimmo Timonen who maybe would have got them a Cup before 2012 :). Lucky Luc was 171st overall, even HOF legend 4 Cup Winner Billy Smith was 59th overall so :).
The Brown scenario proposed here, giving up 2 first round picks to anyone who will take his contract…is laughable. First of all, Brown is absolutely overpaid for the amount of production we are currently getting…but he’s also been primarily playing on the third line, seeing very little PP time…I’m guessing that may change. Second, IF the plan is to open things up offensively, players like Brown and even Gaborik will be the biggest beneficiaries. Third, if you were somehow able to move Brown and free up his cap space…I’m guessing the plan would be to sign someone (example) Oshie @ $5M cap hit over 4-5 years? Last, whether its Oshie, Duchene, Landskog, (insert name here) there are no guarantees any of these players will produce significanly more than Brown with the defensive style the Kings will continue to play…and you’re giving up 2 first round draft picks to save $1M worth of cap space. I’m not a huge Brown fan, but I do know there is more to hockey than simply scoring goals and putting up points. With the amount of rookies this team will be taking on next season…someone needs to set the example and lead this team (Kopi does his leading by scoring) and a former team captain that lead his team too two cups is not a bad place to start. Why I would also be in favor of bringing back Iginla, if nothing more than to show all these young players how to play the game the right way.