LA Kings Free Agency: Bobby Ryan gets “prove it” deal from Red Wings

We identified Bobby Ryan as potentially being a good fit on a one-year deal with the LA Kings, but he got the same deal with the Red Wings.

The LA Kings and Detroit Red Wings finished in the bottom two of the league in scoring last season. Earlier this morning, I identified three potential players to target in free agency to help with the Kings scoring woes, a team that tallied just 177 goals in 2019-2020. One of those players was Bobby Ryan, but it looks like he’s headed to the Wings on a one-year, $1M deal.

I have to say this is an excellent deal for the Wings, who badly needed scoring help. They were by far the worst team in the league putting the puck in the net, but this would have been an excellent addition for the LA Kings. Focusing on the home team, we knew that Rob Blake would be addressing some depth needs in free agency.

While we wait to see what comes of that, the 33-year-old Ryan has consistently been a 20-goal scorer on average in his 13-year career. He’s tailed off from 30+ goals early on in his career, but even chipping in 15 goals with 20 assists would have been a welcome addition to Los Angeles. Especially at that price.

The Kings are expected to give their prospects are look this season, but there are still a couple of openings that could be filled from the outside. Ryan would have been a nice addition to the team’s top-six with some subsequent shuffling around to accommodate the winger.

Anyway, we’ll see what the Kings have up their sleeve today.