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We all know by now that the Kings are extremely tight in money and cap space for the future. And things got a little bit tighter Tuesday when they announced a two year extensions to forward Trevor Lewis for $1.5M per.
The good
It re-signs Lewis, a strong character player and defensive specialist for another two years. While many belly ache about the productivity of Trevor Lewis, he is a lights out defensive forward and penalty killer. He is the Kings' version of Jay McClement, who is heralded as one of the best penalty killers in the league by many pundits. He has also proven to be an extremely clutch player in the post-season, with several key goals and plays coming in the last two playoff runs.
It also lowers the amount of people needing to be re-signed this offseason. The Kings now have four major players to re-sign in Dwight King (RFA), Matt Greene, Willie Mitchell, and Marian Gaborik (All UFA's).
There are a number minor players needing to be re-signed as well in Andrew Campbell, Brayden McNabb, Linden Vey, and Andy Andreoff. The latter three can be hit with qualifying offers which eases the difficulty.
Lewis is also part of a very tight knit Los Angeles locker room and is roommates with Drew Doughty. Keeping a team together that likes one another is just as important as keeping a quality team together.
I'm a Lewis fan, and for what he brings to the team this is a fair value contract.
The bad
The Kings are going into next season with 18 players signed, and $58.3M in cap space. The cap is TENTATIVELY raising to $71.1M next year as well. That's $13.1M or so to re-sign four players and add a fifth (Vey/McNabb/Campbell). No biggie right?
Here comes the hammer, and this has been a factor outside of the Lewis contract for some time. The Lewis contract just pushes it closer to reality.
Dwight King is making 750K and will be in line for some form of a raise. Gaborik is making a cool $3.75M against the Kings cap right now but is holding a contract of $7.5M for the year. Mitchell is making $3.5M, Greene $2.95M. Now factor in a minimum league contract to someone like say, Campbell, who would likely make 550k-650k.
Do you get where I am going here? That's a lot of money to fit into five spaces and $13.1M of space.
It raises the inevitable question...who do you sign? Who do you let go? That's always a tough thing to do when you have a team that has won the cup together and been a contender together for some time.
Dean Lombardi has already thrown it out there that he intends on retaining Marian Gaborik. What that will take though is up in the air. No way does Gaborik make that 7.5 he is making this year, but something in the range of 6.0-6.5 is not out of the question considering Gaborik is still as capable a winger as anyone else in the league. Furthermore, Dwight King will likely hit at least the $1.75M range given his contributions.
The Kings are going to essentially be left with around $4.5-5M in space for three players; Greene, Mitchell, and a young guy.
Very interesting and difficult decisions no doubt.
The uncertain
With all the talk of money, contribution, and worth, there have been conversations coming up on several Kings fan forums about the value of players the Kings currently have on the roster and the impending free agents they will have in the next 2-3 years. Most notably the talk has been floating around Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, Jarret Stoll, and Justin Williams.
And here's why:
after the 2014-15 season the Kings will have several major young players coming up for contract. Toffoli, Pearson, Muzzin, Nolan, Martinez, Jones, and Clifford. Not to mention Regehr, Stoll, and Williams.
Between Williams, Regehr, and Stoll you have close to $10M, Richards makes $5.75M, and Dustin Brown has a $5.875M dollar contract kicking in after this season. The latter contract would make Brown the third highest paid player on the team behind Doughty and Kopitar.
Here is where the math starts hurting my head.
Officially the Kings have Eight players are under contract after next season. Doughty, Kopitar, Quick, Brown, Richards, Carter, Voynov, Lewis. Those eight players total $42.16M for the Kings. That's around 60-percent of the Kings money into eight players. With a 23-man roster that leaves the Kings around $29M to sign 15 players. An average of $1.9M per player. Now imagine if Gaborik signs up for something around 5 years at $6.5M or something. Oi vey.
Have what discussion you will here, because there is definitely plenty to be had in terms of player performance and value when it comes to some of the bigger contracts of the Kings.
I'm not saying that the Kings are going into a period of contractual hell, but I am saying
prepare yourselves for a facelift of the roster in the next 1-2 years. It may start as early as this upcoming offseason.
The Kings have a ton of young talent ready to step in and transition if everything goes according to plan. McNabb, Forbort, Gravel, Mersch, Shore, Zykov, Vey, Prokhorkin etc. all wait to make their contributions, and the time is definitely coming up quickly.
Now, was this really all brought on by a contract that gave Trevor Lewis a small $175K raise? No, it has been apparent for some time that a transition period is coming. This just pushed my brain into cap mode. Also keep in mind, this doesn't mean a downward turn by any stretch of the imagination. The Chicago Blackhawks went through the same thing after the 2009-10 cup winning season and they have come out just fine.
These are simply things to keep in mind and ponder as the season comes to a close and we get ready for another Kings postseason.
Tonight starts the first game of an Alberta province back to back with Calgary and Edmonton.
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In other major Pacific Division news, Vancouver axed general manager Mike Gillis Tuesday after being eliminated from the playoffs officially.
I, for one, think it's the right move for Vancouver. I've said it time and time again, this whole organization from top to bottom was mentally taken to the woodshed by the Boston Bruins series in the finals and never recovered. It just had to happen. Also, after Gillis coming out and not necessarily backing the owners decision to go with Tortorella, as well as the goalie situation mismanagement....it was inevitable.
I think the real question with Vancouver is do we see the same core back? Are the Sedins going to remain Canucks? Is Kesler going to remain a Canuck? What about Edler? Bieksa?
Time will tell. I think it might be time for the Canucks to embrace a rebuild. With Horvat, Gaunce and Shinkaruk still in the juniors they have plenty of time to start molding a core around those talented players.
That's just my opinion though.
Don't go the route of Calgary and play with the notion of rebuild for too long. It hurts worse. Much much worse.
Good luck to Linden and crew.
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