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The Los Angeles Kings had a fairly quiet free agency day, but did make a few additions.
Most notably, the Kings signed Cam Talbot to a one-year contract, which carries a $1 million cap hit, along with an additional $1 million in performance bonuses (which he'll reach upon playing 10 games). Talbot saw a huge decline in his performance this season, posting just an .898 save percentage in 36 games with the Ottawa Senators.
We've signed G Cam Talbot to a one-year contract worth an AAV of $1M and is eligible to earn an additional $1M in games played bonuses.
— LA Kings (@LAKings) July 1, 2023
🔗 https://t.co/yDJbYHlMLq#GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/cMBkPrvvlA
The team also re-signed Jaret Anderson-Dolan to a one-year contract, worth $775,000. The forward hadn’t received a qualifying offer but did play 46 games with the Kings this past season. Zack MacEwen was notably not issued a qualifying offer either, but was not signed afterwards.
The Kings also brought back Trevor Lewis on a one-year deal, worth $775,000. Lewis notably spent most of his career with the Kings, winning two Stanley Cups with the team, and managed 20 points in 82 games with the Calgary Flames this season.
Other smaller signings were: Andreas Englund, Taylor Ward, Mikhail Maltsev and Steven Santini.
Meanwhile, Joonas Korpisalo signed a five-year contract with the Ottawa Senators, which carries a $4M cap hit. The deal comes in longer than I had projected, at HockeyComparables.com:
I’m not sold on the term, which came in longer than anticipated, but after letting Korpisalo go, I still think the Kings are in a tough spot in net.
It looks like as of now, the Kings will go with Pheonix Copley and Cam Talbot, with David Rittch as a third goalie. To me, I don’t see how this is going to work out well. We saw how devastating goaltending issues can be and the Kings taking a gamble in net isn’t the right decision.
But we’ll see how it goes, and whether the Kings are done making moves.
All UFA contract projections are available at HockeyComparables.com