Kings Fill Holes Through Free Agency, But Did They Get Better?

Before free agency opened, the Los Angeles Kings and general manager (GM) Ken Holland knew they had lots of work to do to try and fill their glaring holes while also wanting to ice a roster that had improved. The main message that has been received since Holland took over has been the Kings’ need to take the next step and finally achieve some postseason success. Holland’s job was to make those necessary moves to try to turn that goal into a reality. 

Multiple moves were made by the Kings on Day 1 of free agency, and their roster holes were most definitely filled. The question is, though, were those the right moves? Did those moves make the Kings a better team? Does the projected roster now have a better chance of finding playoff success than last year’s group?

Holland signed a total of six players who would be a part of the NHL roster next season, three of whom were forwards, two were defensemen, and one was a backup goaltender. None of those players involved a needle-moving forward that the Kings have been needing and supposedly wanting for a while, and none of them were a Vladislav Gavrikov replacement either. Now, to be fair, there wasn’t anyone available through free agency to fill Gavrikov’s shoes, but the Kings filled all their roster spots on the backend with mediocrity at best and spent a lot of cap space to do so. A trade would be the only way the Kings could have found a top-four defenseman, but even then, would they have even been able to make a trade for a defenseman who would want to play in Los Angeles? Because right now, it doesn’t seem like LA is a place on many players’ lists.

Holland’s job doesn’t get any easier when no one wants to play in LA, which seems to be the case with more than a few elite players the Kings have tried to target. After they have missed out on multiple players, including Rasmus Andersson, Brad Marchand, Linus Ullmark, Mikko Rantanen, Mitch Marner (was reportedly open to LA but wanted Vegas more), and Gavrikov, who clearly just wanted to leave LA and sign with the New York Rangers, not to mention Jordan Spence who was sick of his situation and requested to be dealt somewhere else, there’s obviously a deeper problem here. 

More questions need to be asked about why that’s the case, and the reason why players either want out or don’t want to play here because there is clearly a pattern, but as far as what Holland can control, you have to ask the question, did he do the best he could at filling in the holes based on this situation? 

Who Has Been Brought In to Fill the Kings’ Holes?

We don’t know every player the Kings had discussions with or were interested in signing, but it’s very possible the options were limited, especially with defensemen, which could have aided the decision to sign both Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin. It’s tough for fans to look at those two signings and be content with them after knowing these are the players that were brought in to replace Gavrikov and Spence, while also expecting the Kings to land a big fish, with all of the elite talents they were connected to in various rumors. Whatever the case may be, the additions of Ceci and Dumoulin aren’t horrible, but there’s no justifying the term and money given on both contracts, which is just unacceptable, and it would be reasonable to assume that that’s where most of the backlash is being directed.

Throwing money away, aka overpaying, is something Holland has had experience doing during his managing career, most notably when he decided to give defenseman Darnell Nurse an eight-year extension with the Edmonton Oilers that carried a cap hit of $9.25 million. While it wasn’t to the same extent, Holland reenacted his ability to throw away money by signing two bottom-pair, depth defensemen to multi-year contracts that were both over $4 million average annual value (AAV). 

It makes the situation worse when half the defensive corps is filled with third-pairing players, especially when you take a look at the amount of cap space they are eating up. The Kings now have three bottom-pairing defensemen, over the age of 30, making $12.35 million for the next three seasons, barring any of them being traded during that time. Ceci at $4.5 million, Dumoulin at $4 million, and Joel Edmundson at $3.85 million. That’s a lot of money to give to three players who shouldn’t have significant roles on a competitive playoff team. 

When it comes to the forward group, the Kings do look better on paper than they did last season. There’s no Marner or Brock Boeser or Ehlers that’s been added that is going to bring a significant boost or improvement to the Kings’ offensive output, but important depth signings were made that rounded out a bottom six that head coach Jim Hiller will now have no issues giving minutes to in tough situations. Building a fourth line that Hiller could trust during crucial times, especially in the playoffs, was a task that was on Holland’s to-do list.