Kings To Ramp Up Extension Talks With Adrian Kempe
Kings forward Adrian Kempe is now eligible for a contract extension and is currently slated to be one of the better options in a 2026 UFA pool. In an appearance on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio earlier this week (Twitter link), GM Ken Holland acknowledged that he’d like to get a deal done with Kempe and intends to ramp up discussions on that front soon.
The 28-year-old was a first-round pick by Los Angeles in 2014, going 29th overall. At the time, he was playing a regular role in the SHL which is impressive in itself for a draft-eligible player but Kempe wasn’t producing much offensively. Accordingly, one of the bigger questions at the time was around his potential to become a legitimate threat offensively, complementing his strong defensive game.
It has taken a while but Kempe has done just that. After having limited offensive production in the minors soon after being drafted with AHL Manchester and his first few seasons with Los Angeles, Kempe had a breakout year in 2021-22, notching 35 goals and making his first (and only) All-Star appearance. Considering his sluggish production beforehand, it was fair to question whether this was a blip or a sign of things to come so the two sides negotiated a four-year, $22MM contract that summer, one that bought the Kings two years of extra club control.
Kempe has certainly outperformed that contract in the first three seasons of it. He has notched at least 67 points in each one and is coming off a 35-goal, 73-point campaign in 2024-25, one that saw him edge past 19 minutes per night of playing time, a career best. Kempe has also been quite productive in the playoffs over that stretch, potting 13 goals and 10 assists in 17 postseason games, all against Edmonton. Suffice it to say, he’s looking at a substantial raise next time out.
Earlier this offseason, AFP Analytics projected a seven-year, $64.225MM deal for Kempe, one that would carry a $9.175MM AAV. When this contract kicks in for the 2026-27 campaign, the salary cap is expected to be $104MM at that time, a jump of $8.5MM. This year, the biggest contract for a winger was Nikolaj Ehlers’ six-year, $51MM deal with Carolina (a cap hit of $8.5MM) so it would make sense that Kempe’s number should check in a bit above that, at least based on the way the market has operated this summer.
A contract in that price range would make Kempe their highest-paid forward and second-highest-paid player behind defenseman Drew Doughty. With Kempe being among several contracts set to expire next summer, the Kings have nearly $38MM in room for that season, per PuckPedia, so Holland will have plenty of flexibility to work with to get a deal done for his top scorer from 2024-25.
Lord Officially Named Head Coach In Ontario
- As expected, the AHL’s Ontario Reign, affiliate of the Kings, announced today that Andrew Lord has been named as the fourth head coach in team history. He takes the place of Marco Sturm who held the post the last three seasons before being named as Boston’s head coach earlier this offseason. Lord was the head coach with QMJHL Halifax last season after spending the previous four years as the coach and GM (for three seasons) of ECHL Greenville.
Ontario Reign Expected To Name Andrew Lord Head Coach
Throughout the past few days, there have been several unconfirmed rumors that New York Islanders’ netminder Ilya Sorokin could be in play, particularly for the Edmonton Oilers. Those rumors were squashed earlier today when Sorokin’s agent, Dan Milstein, bluntly said that Sorokin hasn’t been involved in trade discussions and wouldn’t waive his no-movement clause.
Such is the way for this time of the NHL calendar when ideas for good fits sometimes become unsubstantiated rumors. There’s little argument against Sorokin being an objective improvement in the crease for most teams in the NHL, but it doesn’t appear that he’ll be moved this summer.
Still, he may be a goaltender to keep on the radar. He’s been one of the game’s best goalies over the last four years, managing a 112-83-33 record in 227 starts with a .916 SV% and 2.62 GAA, including 19 shutouts. Sorokin will have a full no-movement clause through the 2027-28 season before transitioning to a 16-team no-trade list ahead of the 2028-29 campaign.
More snapshots:
- An impressive development camp may have led to a pair of entry-level contracts for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Although the team hasn’t confirmed the news, Mark Scheig of The Hockey Writers reported earlier that the Blue Jackets are working on an entry-level contract with defenseman Will Bishop and forward Nicholas Sima. Columbus drafted neither player, as they were invited to the team’s development camp from the OHL.
- Team Canada’s World Junior team is expected to have a new look at the top of their coaching staff. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, Hockey Canada will announce Dale Hunter as the head coach of Team Canada’s U20 team. The successful, longtime head coach of the OHL’s London Knights will replace Dave Cameron as the team’s head coach in Canada’s attempt to return to the gold medal game for the first time since 2023.
- After Marco Sturm departed to become the new head coach of the Boston Bruins, the AHL’s Ontario Reign began seeking a new bench boss. According to a new report from Anthony Collazo of The Mayor’s Manor, the Reign are expected to name Andrew Lord as the team’s new head coach. If he’s eventually named Ontario’s new head coach, it would be Lord’s first coaching role in the AHL after serving as the head coach of the ECHL’s Greenville Swamp Rabbits for four years and the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads’ head coach last season.
Examining The Kings’ New-Look Defense
The Kings have been eliminated by the Oilers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the last four seasons and were expected to make changes this summer as they try to get past the first round. Newly hired general manager Ken Holland moved quickly to address concerns with the defensive unit, making several early summer moves to revamp the group.
Holland has moved on from a couple of twenty-something defensemen to acquire defensively minded veterans in their 30s, which will bring a different dynamic to the back end. However, since the Oilers’ speed exposed the Kings’ slower, heavier parts of the defense, the changes the Kings have made are unlikely to push them past Edmonton if they face each other in the playoffs again.
Los Angeles struggled to deal with the Oilers’ transition game in the playoffs, as well as their puck movement and speed. The faster Oilers were able to expose the Kings, leading to some head-scratching decisions.
They were unable to keep Vladislav Gavrikov, one of the few Kings defenders who could use his active stick and gap control to stop transition plays and zone entries. Gavrikov’s size helped him disrupt the Oilers, allowing him to stay on the right side of the puck and make his presence felt.
Although he didn’t control the puck often, it didn’t matter much when he was playing a shutdown role. Los Angeles will feel the loss of Gavrikov, especially if they face teams with speed in the playoffs next season.
Another move that wasn’t ideal was trading right-shot defenseman Jordan Spence to the Senators for a third and sixth-round pick. Spence was dependable for the Kings in sheltered minutes, but at just 24 years old, he was looking for an elevated role and was blocked by fellow right-shot defenseman Brandt Clarke.
Spence has a lot of potential and could have been a key part of Los Angeles for many years, but the Kings made the decision to send him to Ottawa for an underwhelming return. The trade handcuffed the Kings and forced them into a state of desperation when free agency opened on July 1. The Kings were down two defenders, and that was where their biggest mistake was made.
It wasn’t long into free agency before the Kings made a couple of defensive signings that left many in the hockey world scratching their heads. Los Angeles signed 33-year-old Brian Dumoulin and 31-year-old Cody Ceci to lucrative multi-year deals with AAVs above $4MM.
One of these signings alone wouldn’t have been a big deal, but it’s free agency, and almost everyone overpays, so most would have shrugged it off as part of the business. However, overpaying for two older, slower defenseman who are collectively a downgrade in talent from Gavrikov and Spence could be a problem that haunts the Kings for years.
The main criticism of the deals is that if Los Angeles had kept Gavrikov for the same money he received with the New York Rangers ($7MM annually on a seven-year deal), then the combined salary for him and Spence would have matched what Los Angeles is paying Dumoulin ($4MM annually) and Ceci ($4.5MM annually).
Dumoulin can still disrupt plays in the defensive zone and prevent teams from getting the puck into dangerous areas with his stick, but he doesn’t excel at much else anymore and often takes penalties. His foot speed has slowed down in recent seasons, which isn’t ideal if the Kings face the Oilers again in the playoffs.
For Ceci, he doesn’t excel at much but always manages to persuade coaches to give him plenty of ice time. His performance became an issue for Dallas in the playoffs, especially against Edmonton, where he finished with a -5 rating in five games and recorded a disappointing 46.75% expected goals share at five-on-five.
Combine Ceci and Dumoulin with Joel Edmundson and Drew Doughty, and Los Angeles has the makings of a defense core that is old, slow, and likely to struggle in transition. All these factors could be disastrous if the Kings face the Oilers in the playoffs again or another team with good speed. Doughty remains a solid defenseman, but with an $11MM cap hit and an aging defensive group around him, he will be asked to do too much, which could reduce his productivity.
Edmundson will likely be asked to perform beyond his usual capabilities, which could cause issues if that means placing him in the top two defensive pairs. Although Edmundson is large, physical, and tough to play against near the net, he isn’t well-suited for the transition game or facing opponents with speed and skill. Some might argue that the 32-year-old helps keep the front of the Kings’ net clear, but he certainly allows many scoring chances around it.
Los Angeles entered the offseason with a chance to do something special with their defensive core, but unfortunately, they missed out on the opportunity to improve. The losses of Gavrikov and Spence will sting, but replacing them with Dumoulin and Ceci for essentially the same money will probably be fans’ biggest frustration. The Kings are set to spend $30MM on a defensive core that is much older, slower, and likely not built to take down the Oilers or any other team with a quick forward group.
Photo by Robert Hanashiro-Imagn Images
Kings Sign Samuel Bolduc, Logan Brown, Cole Guttman
The LA Kings continue to bolster their depth on the second day of free agency, signing defenseman Samuel Bolduc and forwards Logan Brown and Cole Guttman to two-way contracts, per a team release. In that same release, the team also confirmed the signing of forward Taylor Ward, who was previously reported to have inked a one-year, two-way deal with the team.
Bolduc’s one-year deal comes with an $775K AAV at the NHL level. Bolduc, 24, appeared in just one game for the New York Islanders last season, spending most of the season with the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders. In 52 career games at the NHL level, the 6’4″, 220-pound defender has produced four goals and eight assists. However, he had produced far better offensive numbers in the AHL, including last year when he secured nine goals and 35 points in 69 games for Bridgeport.
Brown, 27, was selected 11th overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 2016 NHL Draft. He has appeared in 99 NHL games over six seasons, posting seven goals and 27 points. However, he hasn’t appeared at the top level since a 30-game stint with the St. Louis Blues during the 2022-23 season. He spent last season in the Tampa Bay Lightning organization but only secured playing time in the AHL with the Syracuse Crunch, where he posted 29 points in 33 games. His contract is a one-year deal with a $775K AAV.
Guttman’s two-year deal also comes with a $775K AAV at the NHL level. Guttman, 26, last appeared in the NHL with the Blackhawks during the 2023-24 season, where he posted four goals and eight points in 27 games. While he didn’t appear in an NHL game last season, Guttman had his best year as a professional, posting 23 goals and 57 points for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs.
Kings Re-Sign Taylor Ward
The Kings are using Day 2 of free agency to round out their depth after being one of the bigger spenders on Day 1, signing forward Taylor Ward to a one-year, two-way deal, PuckPedia reports.
Ward, 27, was an unrestricted free agent for less than 24 hours. The undrafted pickup by the Kings back in 2022 now signs his fourth consecutive one-year deal with the club, this one carrying a $775K NHL salary and $300K AHL salary, per PuckPedia. That’s nearly double the $165K AHL salary he earned on last year’s two-way deal.
While Ward again spent the vast majority of the season with AHL Ontario, he was called up for his NHL debut in the Kings’ final game of the season. He scored L.A.’s lone goal in a 5-1 loss to the Flames, recording four shots and three hits in 14:52 of ice time.
Down with Ontario, the University of Nebraska-Omaha product had 12 goals, 15 assists, and 27 points in 66 games with a plus-six rating. He has a 35-60–95 scoring line in 224 AHL games over the last four seasons.
Ward had to clear waivers to head to Ontario at the beginning of last season and likely won’t have a problem doing so again this fall. L.A. has now filled 44 of its 50 contract slots for this season.
Kings Sign Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin, Anton Forsberg
3:51 p.m.: The first two seasons of Dumoulin’s contract are paid mostly via signing bonus, per PuckPedia. He also has a 10-team no-trade list throughout the deal.
1:38 p.m.: The Kings have signed defenseman Cody Ceci to a four-year contract carrying a $4.5MM cap hit and defenseman Brian Dumoulin to a three-year deal with a $4MM cap hit, the team announced. They’ve also signed goaltender Anton Forsberg to a two-year deal at $2.25MM per season to serve as Darcy Kuemper‘s backup, per Frank Seravalli.
Los Angeles will lock in a bottom-pair defense in these moves, bringing in two veteran presences in Ceci and Dumoulin. Both are past their primes but still managed to fill top-end roles split between two teams this season. Ceci averaged over 21 games this season, after beginning the year as the clear top defender on a shallow San Jose Sharks club.
He recorded 15 points, 100 blocked shots, and 52 hits while playing nearly 22 minutes a night for 54 games in San Jose. That hardy performance was enough to convince the Dallas Stars to add him as playoff reassurance at the Trade Deadline, in a deal that sent a 2025 first-round pick to the Sharks in exchange for Ceci and Mikael Granlund. Ceci added nine assists in 31 games with the Stars, and played in 85 total games on the season due to the mid-year trade.
Ceci has played through 12 seasons in the NHL. Much of that has been headlined by questions around his two-way performance, but Ceci has remained a pillar of consistency each season, routinely filling top-end minutes and rivaling 25 points a season. He’s totaled 235 points, a plus-two, and an average of 21 minutes of ice time through 871 career games in the NHL.
Dumoulin’s career hasn’t spanned six different clubs like Ceci’s has, though he will be joining his fifth club in the last three years with this move. He was once the proud pillar of the Pittsburgh Penguins blue-line, routinely averaging top-four minutes and modest scoring while operating alongside or behind Kris Letang. Dumoulin’s responsible style and routine rivaling of 100 hits helped him earn a commanding role on both of Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup wins. He’s been a bit less exciting in the years since his days in Pittsburgh – most recently recording 22 points, 109 blocked shots, and 74 hits between the Anaheim Ducks and New Jersey Devils this season. He continued to average over 19 minutes of ice time through this season, bringing his career-long average to just over 20 minutes across 706 career games. Dumoulin has chipped in 177 points, a plus-95, and over 1,000 blocked shots in those appearances.
Backing up the pair of heavily-used vets will be career-long backup goaltender Forsberg. He has spent the last three seasons serving as backup for the Ottawa Senators, after a one-season jump to the Senators’ starting role in 2021-22. He managed a .917 save percentage in 46 games during that starting season, and has since routinely rivaled a near-exact .900 save percentage while routinely appearing in 30 games. Those are quaint numbers over a multi-year span, but Forsberg has nonetheless shown he can handle a modest backup role. He’s set a .904 save percentage and 74-81-14 record in 190 career games, dating back to the 2014-15 season. While Los Angeles prepares to lockstep Ceci and Dumoulin, Forsberg will fill the backup role vacated by David Rittich.
PHR’s Gabriel Foley contributed significantly to this article.
Kings Sign Corey Perry, Joel Armia
The Kings are signing winger Corey Perry, TSN’s Bob McKenzie said on the network’s TV coverage of free agency today. It’s a one-year, bonus-laden contract for the 40-year-old, per McKenzie. Furthermore, Frank Seravalli adds that the Kings are also expected to sign Joel Armia. It’s a two-year deal for him, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. LeBrun adds it’s a $2.5MM cap hit for Armia. The team confirmed both deals and a $2MM cap hit for Perry with an additional $2MM in potential performance bonuses.
This news will be headlined by Perry’s journey to yet another Pacific Division team. He was a legendary feature of the early-2000s Anaheim Ducks, even joining the squad on their run to the 2007 Stanley Cup. Perry was the gut punch backing Ryan Getzlaf‘s jab – a role he filled for 14 seasons behind the Ducks captain. Perry recorded multiple impressive seasons across that span, routinely rivaling north of 30 goals and nearly 100 penalty minutes even through challenges with injury.
His career year stands proudly as the 2010-11 campaign, when he amassed 50 goals and 98 points, to go along with a staggering 104 penalty minutes. Perry led the NHL in goals, ranked fifth in total points, and was one of 43 players to record over 100 penalty minutes. He also led the league in even-strength goals, with 32. That red-hot season was enough to earn Perry the Hart Trophy as league MVP and the Rocket Richard Trophy as top scorer. It was one of many dominant seasons that led him to 372 goals, 776 points, and 1,110 penalty minutes over the course of 988 games in Anaheim. He remains the club’s all-time leader in penalty minutes, and top-three in all-time goals and points.
But while Perry will long be remembered for his time in Anaheim, he’s blazed an impressive career since leaving the club in the 2019-20 season, at the age of 34. That year kicked off a string of short-term stops across the league, including one year in Dallas, Montreal, and Chicago, as well as two years in Tampa Bay. He was never able to rediscover his flashy mix of goals and penalty minutes. He instead leaned heavily on the grinder role, even amassing 95 penalty minutes in 81 games of the 2021-22 season with the Lightning.
Perry seemed set on filling a stout, bottom-end role through the remainder of his career, until an unexpected split with the Blackhawks opened the door for him to join the Edmonton Oilers partway through the 2023-24 campaign. He finished that season with fairly quiet totals – 13 points in 38 games with the Oilers – but found a much stronger stride back to offense this season. Perry finished the year with 19 goals and 30 points in 81 games. He finished the year ranked fifth on the team in goals and eighth in points. He then climbed to fifth on the team in scoring during the 2025 playoffs, where he filled a pivotal role en route to 10 goals and 14 points in 22 games.
Perry will enter the 2025-26 season at 40 years old. He’s shown a persistent ability to contribute to the lineup and showed no signs of slowing down in Edmonton’s recent run to a Cup Final elimination. Even then, he doesn’t seem to be an assured bet for more than lofty penalty minutes and a third-line role. His grit could be exactly what the Kings need behind a skilled top-six.
The same can be said for Armia, who joins the team as a stout bet for bottom-six center after filling that role for the last seven years in Montreal. Armia challenged his career-high in scoring this year, with 11 goals and 29 points in 81 games, falling just shy of the 30 points in 58 games he managed in 2019-20. He added to his stat line this season a comfortable minus-two and only 16 penalty minutes. Armia stands at an imposing 6-foot-3, 216 pounds, but his 87 hits this season didn’t rank in even the top-1o of Canadiens players. Instead, Armia earned his keep through fluid plays and a drive into the low slot on both ends of the ice. He’s a diligent forward who has amassed 586 career appearances across 11 years in the NHL. He’s scored 103 goals and 207 points in those appearances. That should be hardy enough to command a bottom-end role, likely rotating through the third and fourth line, in the Kings’ system.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports.
UFA Notes: Allen, Schmidt, Ceci, Perry, Asplund
The Devils are likely to go “down to the wire” on extension talks with goaltender Jake Allen before the market opens at 11 a.m. CT today, independent insider Frank Seravalli reports.
Allen was a spectacular backup option to Jacob Markström in his first full season in Jersey. There’s no surprise that they’ve expressed strong interest in retaining him, but they’ll likely have to commit significant financial resources to do so. He’s the clear top goalie available amid a weak market and could very well have multiple offers out there for three or more years with an AAV north of $5MM.
Would the Devils be willing to make him their highest-paid goaltender for a season? Markström has some salary retained by the Flames, so he only costs $4.125MM against the cap as he enters the final season of his contract. A multi-year commitment to the 34-year-old Allen might still be a good idea to help guard against a potential Markström departure next summer, especially with no true blue-chip prospects in the system.
Despite a 13-16-1 record, Allen put up better numbers than Markström last year in 20 fewer starts with a .906 SV% and 5.0 GSAA while tying him with four shutouts. He may decide to at least wait to test the market to see if a goalie-needy team like the Sharks, who also need to add nearly $20MM in cap hits next season to reach the floor, gives him an offer he can’t refuse.
Other notes of interest before the market opens:
- While the Panthers have managed to get extensions done for Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand, and now depth forward Tomas Nosek in the last few days, the same won’t happen for defenseman Nate Schmidt. He’ll head elsewhere on the open market today after recouping some market value on a one-year deal with Florida following a buyout by the Jets, according to Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. Schmidt, 34 in July, had 19 points in 80 regular-season games but broke out for a 3-9–12 scoring line and a plus-nine rating in all 23 playoff games for the Cats.
- Another UFA Florida will lose is depth forward Rasmus Asplund. Swiss National League club HC Davos announced they’ve signed him to a two-year contract. Asplund, 27, saw just six games of NHL action with Florida this year and instead spent most of the season with AHL Charlotte, where he had 20 goals and 43 points in 63 games.
- With the Kings expecting to lose Vladislav Gavrikov in free agency today, they’ve shown interest in inking Cody Ceci on the open market to help recoup some defensive depth, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. A righty compared to Gavrikov’s left-shot, Ceci might be more of a direct replacement for the recently-traded Jordan Spence rather than Gavrikov. The 31-year-old had 24 points and a plus-six rating in 85 games last season between the Sharks and Stars while averaging 21:13 per game, his fourth straight season above the 20-minute mark.
- The Flyers will make a play for veteran winger Corey Perry today, Friedman says. The 40-year-old may have priced himself out of a new deal with the Oilers following a renaissance postseason performance for Edmonton, ranking second on the team with 10 goals in 22 games.
Latest On Rasmus Andersson
Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson is eligible to sign a contract extension as of today but talks between him and the team showed that there is still a considerable bridge to gap. While GM Craig Conroy has said they’re comfortable with having the blueliner in training camp without a new deal in place, the gap in discussions has certainly fueled trade speculation.
To that end, TSN’s Darren Dreger recently reported on Edmonton Sports Talk (video link) that the Kings were believed to have a trade in place to acquire the 28-year-old but Andersson made it known that he doesn’t want to play for them. He only has a six-team no-trade list but presumably, Los Angeles would have found out about Andersson’s lack of desire to play there when hypothetically discussing what an extension would look like.
At the moment, it appears that Andersson has his eyes set on one trade destination in particular. Pierre LeBrun reports in his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link) that the team on the top of Andersson’s wish list is the Golden Knights. He adds that there have been discussions between the two teams over the past week but Calgary hasn’t been excited about the offers on the table just yet.
There’s a logical fit for Andersson in Vegas, with Alex Pietrangelo’s playing days appearing to be over now. Pietrangelo’s absence would open up a significant hole on the right side of their back end, one that Andersson would be capable of filling.
The 28-year-old has been an all-situations player for several years in Calgary and has reached at least 30 points in four straight years. Andersson is coming off a quieter year but he still managed 10 goals and 21 assists in 81 games for Calgary last season while logging 23:59 per night of playing time. While he wouldn’t be quite as impactful as a healthy Pietrangelo, he would certainly be a quality replacement.
Of course, fitting him onto the books for the upcoming season is a whole other challenge. Vegas used the LTIR relief from Pietrangelo to acquire Mitch Marner from Toronto. Even with the LTIR savings, that will put them over the cap by the time they fill the remaining open roster spots, meaning that some salary would need to be cleared to open up room for Andersson and his $4.55MM cap charge for next season.
Meanwhile, should Andersson get moved to his preferred team, it stands to reason that an extension would need to be worked out. Given the contracts that have been handed out to some blueliners in recent days, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that he could come close to doubling his current price tag on a long-term contract.
With Vegas taking on Marner at $12MM per season and Jack Eichel expected to receive an extension at some point as well, that’s a lot of money to be adding to their future books so if the Golden Knights are able to land Andersson, they’re going to have to clear up some significant cap room – both present and future – to do so.