The Los Angeles Kings announced today that they’ve signed defenseman Jordan Spence to a two-year contract, at a $1.5 million cap hit.
SPENNY = SIGNED! âœï¸
— LA Kings (@LAKings) August 1, 2024
We have signed D Jordan Spence to a two-year contract.
Full release 📲 https://t.co/tIOaDYirAm pic.twitter.com/ixaoYefZCr
While Spence played in a fairly sheltered role this season, he’s expected to be a bigger part of the team’s defense group in the coming year. With Matt Roy now out of the picture, it’ll be a combination of Spence and Brandt Clarke expected to play on the right side of bottom-two pairings, behind Drew Doughty.
A bridge deal for Spence makes sense, given that it’s a little hard to predict where each of the team’s right-side defenders could be performance-wise by the time the deal expires. Both Spence and Clarke could be long-term, top-four defenders who take the reins from Drew Doughty, but there’s not enough of a sample size to fully bet on that yet.
Regardless, it’s a solid short-term deal for the Kings, leaving them with a bit of cap space to spare.