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Lemieux Returns, Doughty Update, and Kings Salary Cap Situation

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Rather than write a detailed article that really gets into the minutiae of what Kings GM Rob Blake is facing at the moment, let’s instead try to break things down into smaller, bite-size takeaways.

We’ll move through things in chronological order:

1. When Todd McLellan and group left town last week for the team’s four-game road trip, they did so with only 22 roster players, one shy of the league limit. For salary cap reasons, it’s fairly common for NHL teams to carry less than 23 players when they’re home, where it’s easier to take advantage of the savings. It’s not that common when teams are out of town because they typically want a full complement of players… just in case something goes wrong.

2. Around the same time, LA had to project the timeline / status of three players. Andreas Athanasiou and Lias Andersson were both on IR and neither were expected to be healed in time to join the team. Brenden Lemieux was also a non-roster player because he was in protocol. He didn’t travel with the team either; thus he wasn’t likely to be available immediately. However, once he was cleared, they needed an open roster spot for him (hold that thought for just a minute).

3. On the trip, during the Friday night game, Drew Doughty was the first player to get injured. The Kings immediately called up Austin Strand from AHL Ontario. That didn’t require an offsetting move because they only had 22 players on the trip.

4. Olli Maatta went in for Doughty the next game (Saturday night) and Strand was a healthy scratch. For the next game on Monday, Strand went into the lineup, with Maatta sitting out. Once Sean Walker was injured, that left LA with six healthy defensemen — Strand, Maatta, Mikey Anderson, Toby Bjornfot, Alex Edler, and Matt Roy. While Walker and Doughty were both still on the roster, they were injured.

5. Upon returning to LA, Lemieux was ready to come off the list, so at least one player needed to be removed from the group of 23. In theory, Strand was sent back down to AHL Ontario on Tuesday to make room for him. That’s an easy swap, remove Strand and add Lemieux. They were back to 23 players on the active roster.

6. At the same time, Arthur Kaliyev and Rasmus Kupari were also sent down to the Reign. This was more about cap savings. Every day a player isn’t on the NHL roster, that open cap money builds a reserve. It’s important to note that these type of moves are essentially paper transactions. Both players are expected to be called back up to LA soon – i.e. before the teams next game. These type of moves were fairly common last year for LA and will likely be common occurrences again this season. In simple math terms, with a full complement of 23-players, the Kings are only about $1M under the $81.5M salary cap. By taking Kaliyev and Kupari out of the equation for the time being, they’re at 21 players, yet will presumably be back to 23 by Thursday night.

7. Another option here — although less likely for Thursday’s game — to increase headcount from the current 21 players on the NHL roster would be to activate Andersson and/or Athanasiou. Neither of them are quite ready just yet. They are lurking in the background, though, and at least Athanasiou should be back soon (according to the four week timeline we had heard during training camp). The point here is that either one of those players coming off of IR requires an NHL roster spot, thus either costing Kaliyev/Kupari a spot with the Kings or necessitating the team putting Blake Lizotte or Carl Grundstrom on waivers.

8. Now on to the defense. Early indications are, Sean Walker appears to be out for an extended time. Moving him to IR (or more likely long-term injured reserve, LTIR). As such, we’re expecting Kale Clague to officially be called up on Wednesday. That would get the Kings back to seven defensemen… on paper.

9. Will they have seven healthy defensemen; a.k.a what about Drew Doughty’s availability? He had further tests on his knee upon returning to Los Angeles and details about his status should become available today. And this is where things get tricky. With Doughty and six other healthy bodies, the Kings should be able to forge ahead, buying time until their cap reserve builds up over the next few months, so they can afford to take on a contract via a trade. Sure, swapping out Walker’s $2.65M AAV for Clague’s hit of $761k comes with its own built in savings, yet they’ll need more cap room to take on a larger contract — if that’s something they were interested in. Should Doughty be out long enough to warrant LTIR, the savings would also be greater than simply the short-term swap of his $11M contract for Strand’s $771K. While that looks like a big gap in money, the Kings would still need to have enough cap room for Doughty to return (when healthy) and to absorb the contract of the new player.

10. What type of trade could be made? For a bigger name player, that will take time. A more immediate option could be finding a way to get Christian Wolanin back from the Sabres.

Blake and McLellan’s next moves will largely be dictated by the Doughty news that’s coming soon.

UPDATES:

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  1. So, basically we squandered our cap flexibility this preseason. And we’re saddled with Maata’s cap hit for another two years(?) to be an expensive 7th dman?

  2. I would think Strand is going to get claimed by some other team at some point. He comes up and plays well. Keeping Maata makes no sense to me. I would send Maata down and take the chance that he gets claimed even though Strand and Maata play on opposite sides.