On Monday afternoon (Nov. 16), it was reported finally that the Los Angeles Kings had agreed to an eight-year contract extension with forward Adrian Kempe. This news that Kempe and the Kings had agreed to a contract extension came after it seemed like the two camps were very far apart in negotiations and discussions for a matter of weeks this fall.
A long anticipated contract extension for Adrian Kempe and the Los Angeles Kings finally gets done early this week on Monday
But the deal finally got done early this week on Monday that saw the Kings lock up Kempe over the long term. The Kings signed Kempe to an eight-year contract extension worth around $10.625 million in average annual value.
This deal was long in the making for Kempe and the Kings. The contract extension negotiations between Kempe's camp and the Kings' front office and management was one of the dominant overarching storylines for the team early this regular season, in the past month this fall.
We knew that once other star forwards around the league in the NHL, like Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, Martin Necas of the Colorado Avalanche, and Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild, were each signed down to long-term contract extensions, it was only a matter of time before Kempe and the Kings got a deal done this fall.
After the news was announced on Monday that the Kings had signed Kempe to an eight-year contract extension deal, the star forward said that he's "excited" to be with the franchise for a long time into the future.
"I'm very happy. It feels good. Haven't really been thinking about it too much. Just focus on playing. Once you get the call and everything's agreed on, you obviously get very excited. Very happy and proud of myself. Thankful for teammates, fans, everybody. "Adrian Kempe
Kempe also said that he's "excited to be here for another eight" with the Kings franchise heading into the future. It was made clear that Kempe wanted to get a long-term deal done to stay in Los Angeles with the Kings for his next contract extension deal.
The Kings got a pretty team-friendly deal done with Kempe's contract negotiations, which will help to build the roster into the future, especially with Anze Kopitar retiring at the end of this 2025-26 season for LA.
As the Kings shift the focus of the faces of the franchise going into the future, Kempe's deal gives the team some additional room to add other pieces around him.
"For the team and for myself, that's what we were looking to do before we signed it. We want to keep adding players in the future and it's hard to say where the cap and all that kind of stuff is going, so it's hard to predict what players you can add and stuff like that, but I think we're in a good spot right now."Kempe
Both head coach Jim Hiller and forward Kevin Fiala were happy to see the deal get done between the Kings and Kempe this fall.
"Very nice to see, you know, that he gets rewarded, and so it's done now. Very nice for him and the team. We're very excited for him to have him for another eight years."Kevin Fiala on Kempe
"He's been here for a long time, important player for the team and I think for the organization, homegrown, so lots of good stuff there. He gets his money, and we get our player, so everybody's happy."Jim Hiller on Kempe
The Kings have a good core to build around with the forward group in the top six heading into the future. Fiala and Kempe lead a group that has a lot of young talent and goal scorers, also including center Quinton Byfield and former first-round NHL Draft pick from the 2024 class, forward Liam Greentree.