The first big contract extension deal of this offseason for general manager Ken Holland and the Los Angeles Kings was young defenseman Brandt Clarke.
The Kings signed Clarke to a five-year contract extension deal right before the NHL Draft this past weekend, worth an average annual value of around $7.4 million through the end of the 2030-31 season.
Recent offer sheets and contract negotiations involving some of the league's top restricted free agents, including Leo Carlsson, Connor Bedard, Cutter Gauthier, and Adam Fantilli, among others, have highlighted just how expensive these young franchise players have become this summer.
The Los Angeles Kings' decision to extend Brandt Clarke before the latest RFA contract drama may already be paying off
When the offseason first began for the Kings a couple of months ago, I thought Clarke was going to realistically cost Holland and the front office at least $8-$9 million in average annual value on his next contract deal with the team.
If Clarke's contract negotiations stretched further into this offseason, it's realistic to think that his asking price would have climbed as other comparable young stars continued to reset expectations around the NHL.
Holland and the Kings did a nice job of avoiding having to deal with the turbulence and uncertainty of the restricted free agent market this offseason by locking up Clarke before the market really shifted in this past few days.
The biggest drama around the league in this past week has to do with the Philadelphia Flyers stunning the Anaheim Ducks and putting out an offer sheet for Carlsson for a contract that would be worth around $18 million over the course of five years.
Given how there's really been an unwritten rule in the restricted free agent market over this past decade or so that other general managers don't usually put an offer sheet on other team's top players, this news surrounding the Flyers and Carlsson really stunned the hockey media world this summer.
David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported on July 4 that Bedard is now looking for a contract in the ballpark of $17 million in average annual value for his next deal with the Blackhawks this summer.
The possibility that other teams now try to offer sheet Bedard, or another top restricted free agent this offseason like Fantilli from the Columbus Blue Jackets or Gauthier from Anaheim, is a real threat given the move the Flyers made with Carlsson this past week. Chicago probably won't mess around with Bedard's next contract given what just happened with the Ducks possibly losing Carlsson to the Flyers seemingly out of nowhere this offseason.
Regardless of whether Clarke ultimately develops into a true No. 1 defenseman or a reliable top-pairing contributor on the blue line, the Kings still removed a major bit of uncertainty for the future of the organization. With how contract negotiations have been trending around the league on the restricted free agent market getting more and more expensive, Holland's timing to get ahead of the market already looks like one of the wittiest moves of the Kings' offseason thus far.
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