July 10th: The deal is now official. The Kings have announced Kempe’s four-year, $5.5MM AAV contract extension.
July 8th 4:25 PM: TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that the deal has a $5.5MM average annual value. The contract carries the following year-by-year structure:
- 2022-23 $5.25M
- 2023-24 $5.75M
- 2024-25 $5.5M
- 2025-26 $5.5M
The deal also carries a modified ten-team no-trade clause for the final two years of the contract. PuckPedia was on the details of the contract first.
July 8th 3:44 PM: The NHL Draft wasn’t the only business the Los Angeles Kings’ front office took care of in Montreal. According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, the Kings have reached a deal with restricted free agent forward Adrian Kempe on a four-year extension. The official announcement of the deal is expected to come on Saturday. Word has not yet come in on the financial parameters of the deal outside of the term that LeBrun reported.
Kempe, 25, was set to become an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next Wednesday. He’s coming off a breakout season, a year where the flew past his prior career highs in both goal scoring and overall point production. Kempe led the Kings with 35 goals, more than double his previous career-high of 16, a high he set all the way back in the 2017-18 season.
Kempe became one of the most frequently relied-upon wingers on Los Angeles’ roster, averaging nearly three minutes of ice time per game on the powerplay and nearly a minute and a half of ice time short-handed. His short-handed ice time ranked fourth on the Kings, and with Alex Iafallo also on the roster, the Kings have two wingers who bring speed, (varying degrees of) goal-scoring, and reliable two-way play to their lineup.
The Kings have already been active in improving their team this offseason, adding a dynamic, point-per-game winger to their top-six in Kevin Fiala. After an encouraging run to the playoffs in coach Todd McLellan’s third season in Los Angeles, it’s clear that the Kings’ front office wants to move their organization out of their rebuild and into the next phase of their competitive cycle. Getting Kempe back on a deal that buys two of his unrestricted free agent years, as they’ve reportedly done, is one important step in that process.
Terrific!
This seems like a pretty good price. Look out for the kings next season
Steal price wise. Kings are killing it!
Blake is doing some really good work out there.
Gotta find a long term solution in net, though.
I agree Petersen isn’t the answer. Quick has 1 more year maybe just extend him for 2/3 million a season for 2/3 more season. I’d trade Petersen with a sweeter and try to make a run at Darcy
They’re not going to give up on Petersen yet. Yes, he hasn’t proven himself yet, but he missed a lot of time last season. If he doesn’t grab the reins this year, then it’ll be back to the drawing board.
Kings making another solid move… Rob Blake FTW #GoKings
It’s a good price if Kempe’s season isn’t a fluke. (Unfortunately, the hallmark of fluke scoring seasons — a shooting percentage much higher than his career average — is in play.) It’s a bad price if he reverts to the third-liner he’s been all the rest of his career. Still, at least the Kings didn’t go nutso on term.
Adding Fiala, I look for about 30/30 from Kempe, 30/40 Fiala, 25/60 Kopitar and hopefully a top 10 PP.
Hi Ethan,
Can you fix the actual total money for ‘2022-23’? Please & thank you.
‘2022-23 $5.25M’
Down below is the actual money for 2022-23 which includes salary & signing bonus.
2022-23: $4.25 million salary and a $1 million signing bonus
@Josip – It looks like @Ethan’s got somebody else’s Stanley Cup rings plugging up his ears here. Come on, @Ethan, shake ’em loose! It can happen to anybody.
Not a bad pay day for a guy that averages just 15 goals a season thus far In his career.
True, but if try to build a team without gambling on recent performance and require years of consistent production you never get a player at 5.5M.
Then you’re shopping for 9M-11M guys and if they get hurt or don’t work out you’re really in trouble.