The Los Angeles Kings have inked another one of their restricted free agents, signing Nick Shore to a one-year contract worth $925K. Shore was eligible for arbitration but did not file yesterday. He’ll still be a restricted free agent at the end of the contract.
Shore spent another season in the Kings’ bottom six, contributing 17 points in 70 games. While that’s a career high, it doesn’t really show the offensive skill Shore showed at the University of Denver and in the AHL. He’s always been known as a two-way player, but he’s shown an excellent playmaking ability at every other level, something that hasn’t really appeared in the NHL.
That said, he hasn’t been given a huge opportunity to showcase that skill and could still improve in the next few years. Just 24, if he was put with more skilled players or given some real powerplay time you could easily see that point total creep up. He’ll have to prove he deserves it though, by creating offense on his own lower in the lineup. He won’t be able to be a center in the top-six as long as Anze Kopitar and Jeff Carter are in LA, meaning he’d have to play the wing alongside one of them in order to move up.
The Kings amazingly only have around $6.5MM left in cap space with Kevin Gravel headed to arbitration. After just a few depth additions in Mike Cammalleri and Christian Folin, the Kings will try again with essentially the same roster that missed the playoffs last year. Getting more from players like Shore will be a necessity if they want to get back into the postseason and compete for the Stanley Cup once again.
Having a healthy Jon Quick is essential if they want to make the playoffs