With the salary cap making the jump this season, up to $95.5 million, the Los Angeles Kings are in good shape in terms of their salary cap. They are around the middle of the league in terms of cap space at around $22 million.
However, they could help themselves create even more cap space if they make a few trades over the next few weeks leading up to July 1st. One of the players that could be traded is defenseman Jordan Spence, who is reportedly being made available by Los Angeles.
How much cap space would the LA Kings gain by trading Jordan Spence?
If the Los Angeles Kings were to trade Spence and only get a draft pick in return, it would have the maximum impact on their salary cap. The Kings would not be getting any salary in return but even in that situation, the impact on the salary cap would be marginal.
Spence is entering the final year of his contract and he has a cap hit of $1.5 million for this upcoming season.
However, the idea of trading Spence for a draft pick doesn't make sense as the Kings are trying to win now and a draft pick doesn't help in that regards. They would also have to add a player to replace Spence and it would be almost impossible to find a free agent at that AAV that would have the same impact Spence has.
A more likely scenario is that the Kings might package Spence with a player like Trevor Moore who has an AAV of $4.2 million over the next three seasons. By combining those two they could create close to $7 million in cap space and those two could bring back a veteran that can help them win now. Depending on who that player is and their contract, it could still create some cap space for the Kings to use this summer.