|
Kings Looking to Trade Bernier... BEFORE He Gets RFA Offer Sheet |
|
|
|
|
|
A few months ago, the Los Angeles Kings were hopeful of being able to sign goaltender Jonathan Bernier to a contract extension ahead of the young goaltender reaching restricted free agent eligibility this summer. Now, it sounds more and more like Bernier will be wearing a different uniform next season.
There is motivation for the Kings to get a trade done before July 5. That's because Los Angeles realizes that they are vulnerable to an offer sheet for the restricted free agent that would not make sense to match.
Kings' starter Jonathan Quick is entrenched in the number one job. He carries a $5.8 million cap hit. Bernier, who had a $1.25 million cap hit on his soon-to-expire deal, is looking for the opportunity to be a starter and a deal that carries a higher cap hit. While the Kings are willing to give him a significant raise, the 24-year-old could get a subtantially bigger raise -- and the chance to at least compete for the number one job -- by signing an offer sheet elsewhere.
The RFA compensation rate in the new NHL-NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement works against Los Angeles as relates to EITHER matching or declining to match a Bernier offer sheet. Let's say a team signs Bernier to an offer sheet of a four-year, $13.2 million offer sheet (a cap hit of $3.3 million). That would give the Kings two equally unfavorable options:
1) Match the offer sheet, pay Bernier $3.3 million to be a backup goaltender who cannot be traded to ANY team for one full season and be on the hook for $9.1 million of cap space to their two goaltenders next season. LA is already looking at having to re-sign RFA defenseman Slava Voynov (who is their top re-signing priority) and has just 14 players signed to contracts for next season with $11.8 million of open cap space under the 2013-14 salary cap ceiling of $64.3 million. Spending more than one-third of the open space to re-sign the backup goalie is not an attractive option.
2) Decline the offer sheet and receive the specified compensation under the CBA. If Bernier signed the aforementioned offer-sheet with a $3.3 million cap hit, the Kings would get a 2014 second-round pick as compensation. That's it.
Bernier has all the incentive in the world to wait for the start of free agency and sign an offer sheet. He could more than double his current salary (increase it by up to 2.6 times with a $3.3 million per season offer sheet). The Kings, meanwhile, have all the incentive to trade Bernier before they end up in a lose-lose situation.
Look for the Kings to move Bernier either on Draft weekend or in the 24-to-48 hours before the start of free agency. As of now, it looks like Philadelphia and New Jersey are the two front-runners to be the team that ends up with Bernier.
The Flyers may very well end up buying out Ilya Bryzgalov. In cap terms, paying the tandem of Bernier and Steve Mason ($1.5 million) to compete for the number one job would still be cheaper than carrying Bryzgalov's $5.6 million cap hit. Meanwhile, the Devils would like someone considerably younger than the 40-year-old Johan Hedberg to pair with the 41-year-old Martin Brodeur. Although Hedberg is signed for next season at a $1.4 million cap hit, he is a buyout candidate. Bernier would not have to wait very long to supplant future Hall of Famer Brodeur as the New Jersey starter.
Bernier is still largely untested at the NHL level. However, scouts around the NHL believe that the former first-round pick is ready to assume the mantle of a full-time (or at least split-time) starting goaltender but is simply blocked by Quick in LA.
Join the Discussion:
»