Los Angeles Kings Sign Trevor Moore To Five-Year Extension
The Los Angeles Kings have reached an agreement on a contract extension with forward Trevor Moore. Per a team announcement, Moore has signed a five-year, $4.2MM AAV contract that will expire in the summer of 2028.
Moore, 27, is a local product, hailing from Thousand Oaks, California, which is around 40 miles away from Crypto.com Arena, the home of the Kings.
Before he was in Toronto, Moore was an undrafted prospect who became a college hockey star at the University of Denver. In three seasons at Denver Moore played in 121 games, scoring 120 points.
Moore had been at Toronto Maple Leafs development camp as an unsigned prospect, and chose to sign his entry-level deal with the Maple Leafs in 2016.
After three years of solid production in the AHL for the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs began to provide Moore with NHL opportunities, but his NCAA and AHL production would not consistently translate to NHL numbers. In Moore’s 52 NHL games with Toronto, he scored just 13 points.
He was traded to Los Angeles in the Jack Campbell / Kyle Clifford deal and has established himself as a two-way winger on the Kings. Finding an excellent fit on a line with Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson, Moore flew past his career-high totals last season. In 81 games he scored 17 goals and 48 points, and also added five points in the Kings’ seven-game playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Moore has 18 points in 32 games so far this season, which is a 46-point pace. That, combined with Moore’s versatility, work ethic, and defensive ability (he plays on the Kings’ penalty kill) led the negotiation to this price point on a long-term deal.
The contract will expire when Moore is 33 years old, meaning there isn’t a major age-related downside risk to this contract. Given Moore’s all-around ability and fit with Danault, this is the sort of contract that is more than fair for both Moore and the Kings.
Picture courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Pacific Notes: Moore, Samorukov, Keeper
Trevor Moore was one of the bright spots for the Kings last season as he broke out with 48 points in 81 after putting up 41 in his first 123 NHL contests. He’s under contract for the upcoming season at a below-market $1.875MM and is eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer for the first time. Eric Stephens of The Athletic suggests (subscription link) that if the team feels that this type of production is a sign of things to come, offering the 27-year-old a shorter-term extension in the $3MM range might be enough to get something done. The UFA market hasn’t been kind to middle-six wingers lately and Moore’s limited track record at this point doesn’t help from a leverage standpoint so that type of offer might be good enough to get him to commit early.
More from the Pacific Division:
- Dmitri Samorukov’s NHL debut with the Oilers last season was one to forget. He played 2:28 of the first period, was on the ice for two goals allowed, and then was on the bench the rest of the way before being quickly sent down to the minors. However, Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal points out that despite the fact that his NHL experience is limited to that one appearance, Edmonton might be hesitant to try to sneak the 23-year-old through waivers next month in training camp. After all, young defensemen with some size at a low price tag ($775K) are often appealing to rebuilding teams which could result in him breaking camp with the team over someone like Philip Broberg who remains waiver-exempt.
- Canucks defenseman Brady Keeper has fully recovered from the broken leg he sustained back in training camp, notes Patrick Johnston of the Vancouver Province. The 26-year-old signed with Vancouver as an unrestricted free agent last summer and had a chance to push for a spot on the roster but instead, he wound up missing the entire year. Depending on Tucker Poolman’s availability, Keeper could have a chance to push for the sixth or seventh spot on the back end in training camp.
Offseason Checklist: Los Angeles Kings
With the offseason in full swing aside from the two teams in the Stanley Cup Final, it’s time to examine what each squad will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Los Angeles Kings.
Before the season began, not many people were picking the Kings to make the playoffs, let alone push Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers to a deciding game seven. The club had brought in valuable veteran players like Viktor Arvidsson and Phillip Danault but was still considered to be in the early stages of a rebuild, focusing on Quinton Byfield and the rest of the young talent in a deep prospect pool. Not only did the team as a whole exceed expectations but mid-twenties players like Trevor Moore, Adrian Kempe, and Sean Durzi emerged as legitimate difference-makers that could quickly give the Kings depth that will make them a real contender in the Pacific Division.
With that in mind, this offseason could be time for general manager Rob Blake to push some of the chips to the middle and accelerate the plan.
Lock Up The RFAs
Before anything huge can happen, there is a lot of work to be done on the restricted free agent front. Kempe, Durzi, Lias Andersson, Carl Grundstrom, Brendan Lemieux, Gabriel Vilardi, and Mikey Anderson are all without contracts for next season, with at least some of those names deserving of long-term extensions. How much cap space Blake and company have to work with will be directly tied to how many years they include on these RFA contracts, buying out UFA years wherever possible.
Kempe, for instance, is coming off a breakout 35-goal campaign and would qualify for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2024. Any long-term extension will be expensive, and drastically affect the spending limits in free agency. Durzi and Anderson are two other key negotiations after having outstanding runs this year, but are ineligible for arbitration at this point and could be extended on short-term deals that keep costs low.
Decide If The Defense Needs A Big Addition
From the moment his name hit the hot stove, Jakob Chychrun has been speculatively linked to the Kings as a “perfect fit.” The question now though is whether Los Angeles even needs to go out and get that kind of impact name, or just allow their young players to develop and grow into bigger roles. Anderson and Durzi have proven they can play at a high level, while Tobias Bjornfot and Jordan Spence still appear to have legitimate upside. Names like Brandt Clarke and Helge Grans are on their way in a couple of years, meaning if they wait, the Kings could have a stable of capable options without making any moves at all.
Still, the temptation will be there to cash in one or two of those prospects to improve the club for the start of next season and add another experienced, effective option to the top four. There will be names outside of Chychrun that appear on the block this summer, ones that can provide improvement now and still be good enough to contribute for years to come.
Sign Moore To An Extension
Unless you think it was a mirage, Moore is going to be an important player in the NHL for a long time, with his enviable brand of speed, energy, and tenacity. He showed exactly what kind of player he can be in the playoffs, adding five points in seven games while being given brutal defensive deployment against some of the best players in the world.
He’ll also be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, meaning an extension could be in line before he even gets close to the open market. The Kings have plenty of young players coming but it’s difficult to replace a heart-and-soul player like Moore at the best of times, and his exit would likely be felt even more dramatically now that Dustin Brown is out of the picture.
Fix Cal Petersen
The saying “goalies are voodoo” was felt nowhere more than Los Angeles this season, when their two netminders both experienced the complete opposite of what was expected of them. While Jonathan Quick had a rebound year that saw him post his best save percentage since 2018, Cal Petersen crumbled and made his three-year, $15MM extension that kicks in next season look extremely worrying. An .895 save percentage and nearly -12 goals saved above average was a huge dip for a goaltender who was expected to take over the lion’s share of the work, and now it’s unclear what the Kings will have in net once the 36-year-old Quick is out of the picture.
If he has another down season it will be almost impossible to get rid of his $5MM cap hit, making this an interesting summer for the Kings in regards to goaltending. Do they move one or the other and get another netminder capable of stepping into the starter role on a long-term basis? Do they put faith in Petersen to bounce back, and hope Quick can stave off father time a little longer?
It’s a tricky situation and one that could drag down a potential Stanley Cup contender over the next few years. They only have to look at the team that beat them for an example of young talent being held back by inconsistent goaltending. It’s not an experiment they will want to test.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Los Angeles Kings Extend Trevor Moore
The Los Angeles Kings announced today that they re-signed forward Trevor Moore to a two-year contract extension. The deal is one-way and pays him $1.88MM per season, per CapFriendly.
Moore’s developed nicely for Los Angeles after being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2020. He’s posted 28 points in 71 games across two seasons with the Kings, scoring 13 goals. Now 26 years old, Moore likely doesn’t have anything more than third-line upside, but that’s where Moore likely slots in next season with Los Angeles’ young core. He’s an adequate two-way forward, and will likely focus on continuing the improvement of his defensive game.
Moore will be 28 at the expiration of the deal. He’ll be hitting unrestricted free agency, and Moore could definitely see a pay raise if he impresses with Los Angeles in the near future. Across 123 total NHL games, Moore’s scored 18 goals and 41 points. Moore’s only playoff experience came in 2019 with the Maple Leafs, playing in all seven games against the Boston Bruins in their First Round series that year. Moore scored one goal in those seven games.
2021 King Clancy Trophy Nominees Announced
The NHL has announced the 31 nominees for the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, annually presented to “the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.” Last year’s winner was Matt Dumba of the Minnesota Wild.
Each team submits one nominee. This year’s are:
Anaheim: Cam Fowler
Arizona: Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Boston: Charlie Coyle
Buffalo: Jack Eichel
Calgary: Mikael Backlund
Carolina: Jordan Staal
Chicago: Connor Murphy
Colorado: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare
Columbus: Cam Atkinson
Dallas: Esa Lindell
Detroit: Dylan Larkin
Edmonton: Kyle Turris
Florida: Sergei Bobrovsky
Los Angeles: Trevor Moore
Minnesota: Mats Zuccarello
Montreal: Jonathan Drouin
Nashville: Pekka Rinne
New Jersey: P.K. Subban
NY Islanders: Anders Lee
NY Rangers: Chris Kreider
Ottawa: Thomas Chabot
Philadelphia: Scott Laughton
Pittsburgh: Sidney Crosby
San Jose: Kurtis Gabriel
St. Louis: Ryan O’Reilly
Tampa Bay: Alex Killorn
Toronto: John Tavares
Vancouver: Tyler Motte
Vegas: Marc-Andre Fleury
Washington: Garnet Hathaway
Winnipeg: Blake Wheeler
Toronto Maple Leafs Acquire Jack Campbell, Kyle Clifford
The Toronto Maple Leafs will not wait any longer for an upgrade in net. After falling to the New York Rangers tonight, the team has acquired Jack Campbell and Kyle Clifford from the Los Angeles Kings. In return, the Kings will receive depth forward Trevor Moore, a third-round pick in 2020 (CBJ) and a conditional third-round pick in 2021. That pick will become a second if the team re-signs Clifford or the Maple Leafs make the playoffs and Campbell wins six regular season games. The Kings will also retain 50% of Clifford’s remaining salary.
Toronto had been struggling all season to find a reliable backup goaltender and with Frederik Andersen‘s recent injury, were forced to play Michael Hutchinson again this evening. After four goals against—including one laughable mishap where Hutchinson fell down and lost his stick—Maple Leafs’ GM Kyle Dubas had apparently seen enough. It comes as little surprise that Campbell would be a target of Dubas, who once traded for the goaltender while still running the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.
Campbell, 28, comes to Toronto after quite the journey. The 11th overall pick in 2010, the big goaltender had shown plenty of promise as part of the U.S. National Team Development Program. Unfortunately that success didn’t really carry over to the CHL or AHL ranks, and he struggled to even make it up the Dallas Stars’ depth chart. By 2015-16 he was splitting time between the AHL and ECHL, looking like a failed draft pick.
In came the Kings and goaltending coach Bill Ranford, who turned Campbell from a failed prospect to a part-time starter last season. Now through 58 career NHL games, he carries a .916 save percentage and a lot of hope for Maple Leafs’ fans.
Not to be forgotten in the deal is Clifford, who will cost just what remains of $800K for Toronto down the stretch. That essentially makes him the same price as Moore, though he comes with some very obvious stylistic differences. Clifford is an extremely physical forward who is willing to stand up for his teammates and punish defenders as they go back for the puck. A lack of physicality has been a critique of the Maple Leafs for some time, though we’ll have to wait and see if he can bring that on a regular basis.
For the Kings, Moore represents another potential forward piece for their rebuild. The 24-year old was signed out of the University of Denver in 2016 and produced very well at the minor league level, but was limited to mostly fourth line duties in Toronto. He has 13 points through 52 career games, but brings a ton of speed to a lineup that has been looking for it. Not only will Moore likely get a bigger opportunity in Los Angeles, but the Thousand Oaks, California native will be a lot closer to home.
Injury Notes: Benning, Maple Leafs, Heiskanen
The Edmonton Oilers have recalled Matt Benning from his conditioning stint with the Bakersfield Condors. Benning hasn’t played in the NHL since the beginning of December, after suffering two head injuries in short succession. He played three games in the AHL on his conditioning stint, scoring one point.
Benning’s return to full health would be a very interesting addition for the Oilers, who have come to rely heavily on some of their other young defenders in his absence. The 25-year old had played in more than 200 games for the team over the last several years and will give the team even more options to consider as the trade deadline approaches. Technically Benning is still on long-term injured reserve, though the team does have the roster room to activate him if they choose.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs are also getting some injured bodies back, activating Jake Muzzin and Trevor Moore from injured reserve today. The Maple Leafs are back in action tonight and are expected to keep young defenseman Rasmus Sandin in the lineup even with Muzzin returning, meaning the first year of his entry-level contract will kick in.
- Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen is expected to return tonight after missing the team’s last game with a concussion. Heiskanen suffered the injury on January 16th, but with the bye week and All-Star break will apparently only be out a single game. In 47 games during his sophomore season Heiskanen has 24 points and is averaging more than 24 minutes a night for the Stars.
Minor Transactions: 1/25/20
With regular games resuming on Monday, there should be a bit of roster activity today as teams that are playing that first game back get their rosters ready. We’ll keep track of any movement here.
- The Maple Leafs announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Trevor Moore and defenseman Jake Muzzin from their conditioning stints. As both players are on LTIR, they were eligible to play in up to three games (with an option for an extra two if approved by the league) but neither did. Moore suited up twice, recording a goal and an assist along the way while Muzzin’s stint started and ended with their loss to Cleveland on Friday. With Toronto playing on Monday, this suggests that both players should be ready to go for that one. They’re only carrying the minimum-sized roster at the moment so no corresponding demotions will need to be made to activate them.
Snapshots: Kassian, Moore, Arvidsson
Zack Kassian is just a point away from tying his career-high already this season and will likely set a new high water mark in goals as well. It’s perfect timing for that kind of performance as he heads towards unrestricted free agency in the summer. According to Mark Spector of Sportsnet however, the big forward may never get there.
Spector tweets that Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland has spoken several times with the representatives for Kassian and believes that the team will announce a multi-year contract before the trade deadline. That would take the 28-year old off the market and provide the team with a little more cost certainty up front. The Oilers currently have seven rostered forwards on track to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs have assigned Trevor Moore to the minor leagues on a conditioning loan, indicating the speedy forward is getting closer to a return. Moore has played just a single game since the middle of November as he dealt with various injuries, but could be another boost to a Maple Leafs’ team that is built around their offensive depth. The team has just one game before their bye week and All-Star break, meaning Moore will have plenty of time to recover fully.
- Viktor Arvidsson has been fined $2,000 for his second citation of embellishment this season. The first incident, which comes with just a warning, was against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the end of December. This newest one came against the Boston Bruins on January 7th. Though the punishment is not very expensive at this point, it does escalate for repeat offenders and can even cause fines for a head coach eventually.
Eastern Notes: Gostisbehere, Johnsson, Moore, Wolanin
The Philadelphia Flyers have a lot to like as they sit in a playoff spot at the midway point of the season. While injuries have ruled the team’s first half, the team also has a lot of impressive play from members of the team. One member of the team who didn’t get much of a rating from The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor (subscription required) — Shayne Gostisbehere.
While teammate Ivan Provorov has had quite the impact season, getting A’s across the board, Gostisbehere’s final grade was a C-. For a second straight season, the 26-year-old’s offense has disappeared as he is on pace for a 23-point season. What the big problem is, however, Gostisbehere’s defense has also disappeared and his usage is starting to drop. He has averaged just 18:24, more than three minutes below his career high of two years ago. The scribe writes that there is no positive spin on the blueliner and he must find his game quickly for the Flyers’ sake.
- TSN’s Kristen Shilton reports that the Toronto Maple Leafs may be close to getting back a pair of forwards. Andreas Johnsson and Trevor Moore were both seen at Toronto’s morning optional skate. Johnsson, who has been out with a leg injury since Dec. 4, wore a non-contact jersey, while Moore, who has been out with a concussion since Dec. 23 was in a regular jersey, but hasn’t been cleared yet. “Very encouraging,” said Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe. “They were skating a little bit while we were away, so today was a positive step. Both are still in non-contact situations but just to see them around the building and around the group is a good sign.”
- The Athletic’s Graeme Nichols (subscription required) writes that the Ottawa Senators finally got an update on injured defenseman as general manager Pierre Dorion stated that Christian Wolanin, who has been out all season with a torn labrum, is targeting a return in mid to late February. Wolanin, who had surgery back on Sept. 21 and given a four-month timetable, is expected to immediately report to the Belleville Senators with the AHL once he’s been cleared to play. The 24-year-old could be with Ottawa in March if everything pans out.