LA Kings: TSN confirms Kings will be big players in free agency
By Ryan Sikes
More or less what we already knew coming out of Rob Blake‘s exit interview after the LA Kings 2021 regular season, but now TSN has hopped aboard the Kings free agency train. According to Darren Dreger, Los Angeles will be looking for two top-six forwards this offseason.
With expansion draft looming, there’s more trade discussion developing around the NHL. The LA Kings could be a big player this offseason. The Kings are hoping to acquire two top 6 forwards through trade or free agency.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 8, 2021
The Kings struggled to get consistent secondary scoring all year long, finishing with the fifth-fewest goals in the NHL. It was a step in the right direction from last year, although it couldn’t really have gotten much worse, sitting with the second-fewest goals only to the Red Wings.
In what figures to be a full season of Quinton Byfield – no, he’s not being traded for Jack Eichel – in the 2021-22 campaign, the Kings front office will be looking to provide Anze Kopitar with some help.
Related Story. A tiered approach of left wingers to trade for this offseason. light
It’ll be really interesting to see what happens around Seattle’s expansion draft, set for July 21, and what moves the Kings make to set themselves up to make a run at a couple of forwards when the free agency period opens up on July 28.
For now, we can only speculate, but we should have some clarity on the situation in the next month or so.
Perhaps the Kings will revisit Eichel, though, with non-Byfield pieces potentially going to Buffalo. However, proven wingers would seem to make more sense, given how deep the LA Kings are up the middle and Eichel’s injury concerns.