A team is obviously not entirely made up of stars. In the cap era your success is made as much on your star players as it is on your role players.
Look what has happened to the Anaheim Ducks. Time and time again they rely so heavily on their star players, that when the time comes for their depth to be tested, they realize they do not have much. You could say something similar of the Washington Capitals in the past, and also the San Jose Sharks of old.
Depth players are essential, role players are essential. Looking at the new cap era Cup-winning teams, up and down the lineups there are players who could have elevated roles with other teams or make more in another market. It was part of the reason the first exodus of Chicago happened after their cup win, and to a degree after their most recent win. Players like Byfuglien, Versteeg, Pirri, Saad, etc. started to grow into large enough roles that it was going to create a cap nightmare for Chicago. They did the difficult, yet prudent thing and let them go/dealt them.
While the Kings are not facing THAT significant of an issue with their current structure, they still are in a bit of bind in terms of money allocation and impending free agents.
One of those key role players who might be in limbo with the Kings is Trevor Lewis.
Trevor Lewis has been a full time member of the Kings since 2010-11 after playing several seasons in the AHL. At age 24, in 2010-11, Lewis was on a one-year deal with the Kings making just above 800K.
While by no means did Lewis show flashes of high skill goal scoring ability when he came into the league, he brought an element of speed, versatility, and defensive responsibility to the team. It was enough to earn him a two year deal at 750K.
In the years following his rookie season, from age 25-28 Lewis would earn himself two more contracts aside from the one listed above. A one-year contract at $1.325, and a two-year contract which is about to expire at $1.5 AAV per year. The Kings have always been safe with the term and money allocated to Lewis, mainly because they know they cannot afford either the term or the contract given the state of the team cap and the style of player Trevor Lewis is.
Lewis is, for all intents and purposes, a toss in player to a successful team. He is not going to make or break your Stanley Cup run, but he is going to play a good solid role on the team. Much like he did in the 2011-12 cup run where he had 9 points in 20 games from the Kings 3rd line. He is an ideal bottom six player in many regards. His utility at even strength is serviceable, and he does a ton of those "Little things" right. He can move up and down the lineup, he has always been a very good "Kings" style player, and he has that low key, workmanlike attitude that seems to permeate from the Kings locker room under Darryl Sutter.
The problem the Kings face with a player like Lewis, who is now pushing 30, is that as he has developed more and more over the years, the league has noticed more of a demand for players of his ilk.
25-year old Marcus Kruger with the Blackhawks is coming off the last year of a contract where he was making $1.5 million a year. However, given his propensity towards good defensive hockey from a key depth position in the lineup, Chicago forked up a cap hit of just over $3MM dollars for him until 2018-19. This contract has certainly set the stage for some other players and agents to evaluate their own worth to their respective teams. A player you can look at who is looking for a raise perhaps is RFA Casey Cizikas of the New York Islanders. On what is widely considered the best 4th line in hockey alongside Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin, Cizikas is making one million dollars a season. His heavy defensive zone usages (43% O 57% D zone) and passable possession numbers given his deployment (47.6 career CF%), make him a valuable piece to the team, despite a limited monetary value. Cizikas also had 30 points this past season (.38 PPG), which is a massive lift over the likes of even Kruger (.27 career PPG) or Lewis (.21 PPG).
Each of these players, while similar on the surface, do have differences. Kruger is a more primary defensive player, with a whopping 29-71 Ozone to Dzone start split. He is also a historically better faceoff man than Cizikas and especially Lewis. Lewis, by virtue of Darryl Sutter design, sees a lot of offensive zone starts (54-46). Player to player there are a lot of differences aesthetically and scouting wise. Cizikas is a more physical skilled type, Lewis a more speed oriented player etc. etc.
Overall point being, no two players are the same obviously. With that being said, their value to their respective teams cannot be talked about enough. However, by design these are very difficult players to hold onto on cheap contracts. They grow, and so do their contracts.
We highlighted just two here, but there are others like Lewis who are good solid depth players but sort of in between realms in a cap era. Riley Nash with Carolina, Zemgus Girgensons with Buffalo, Eric Fehr with Pittsburgh, etc. etc.
You could go down the list of each NHL team and find a close to comparable.
So What About Lewis?
In evaluating Lewis overall, he has some things going against him if he wants the upper level of the "Role player" contract. He is older than most at 29. He has never really had a breakout offensive season with 25 points and 9 goals being his career high. He is also coming of a $1.525 million dollar contract, which I doubt gets lowered at all. There is really no room for him in a top 6 role, so it is hard to see him late blooming into a top six player at this point (Good for you if you hold out hope though, those times have past.)
He does, however, know the team, the system, and the coach. He is a proven valuable player with the Kings and an unsung hero (In which he wins the award almost every year). As a versatile penalty killer, jack-of-all-trades, and familiar player, Lewis could push for the 2 or 2.5 with Los Angeles. Unfortunately that would be quite an asking price for a team still trying to re-sign Lucic, McNabb and Nic Dowd, and do so with roughly all of their money on the table. It would be tough to justify moving on a 2+ contract for Lewis given that in the future it will likely be Shore and Dowd in the center group, with a hefty group of bottom six wingers already signed.
Could this be one of those areas where the Kings do the difficult thing and move on to a younger group? Hard to say. The window is not necessarily closed for the Kings but they have to start thinking about moving away from certain contracts and players in favor of other more viable long term options. They have tightened up with certain long term deals, and a player like Lewis could be one that ends up on the cutting room floor due to that. A locked up Jordan Nolan and Kyle Clifford secure the 4th line for quite a while, and a younger center group and expiring 2016-17 Dwight King contract leave the Kings with few options.
What Happens Now?
We wait. The big domino is Lucic. He could take the Kings right up to the cap with his extension if it gets done. This would almost entirely force the hand of the organization to cut ties with some players they maybe do not entirely want to. The cap era business is a cruel beast. If the Kings fail to draw ink with their Boston acquisition (Which would largely be considered a critical failure in all likelihood), it leaves plenty of money to lock up a number of players.
It seems to be a writing on the wall scenario with the roster and the current market price set by players like Kruger and Eric Fehr over the past few offseasons. Although Dominic Moore's travels between 1-1.5 in his aging career are a glimmer of hope.
So what happens now is we wait for the first shoe to fall. It makes for a tense pre July 1st build up, but so it goes.
Can the Kings keep Lewis? Do they intend to? Would they even want to?
Reign Update
I know there have been a bevy of Reign articles recently, but as they departed to Cleveland for the home section of the Lake Erie series, live coverage from myself was impossible.
Last night the Reign dug the hole a little deeper, as they lost 4-0 to Lake Erie to go down 3-0 in the series. They now must win four straight, including two in the Monsters' building. Things look incredibly dire, and if the Reign want to crawl back in they have to win starting Thursday.
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