Pagnotta: Oilers watching Adrian Kempe’s contract situation with Kings

A solid secondary scorer has apparently caught the attention of the Edmonton Oilers.

Los Angeles Kings forward Adrian Kempe has begun the final season of his contract, with many wondering what the future could be between the player and the team.

On Thursday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period hopped on Oilersnation Everyday to discuss the matter. He admits that, while there’s no current deal in place for Kempe to be in Los Angeles through next season, Kempe’s intentions are to stay in Hollywood.

“[Kempe] wants to stay,” Pagnotta said. “In talking to him over the years, in talking to him again at the media tour in Vegas, and talking to some of his teammates, he genuinely wants to stay. But at the same time, and I think he’s a guy that’s willing to take a smidge less, but he needs to be in that competitive window, that competitive ballpark financially. They just haven’t been there yet.”

Kempe’s current deal is a four-year contract that he signed with the team in July 2022. The deal has a cap hit of $5.5 million. The 29-year-old has been one of the best players on the Kings for the past few seasons, and is destined for a significant pay raise.

“The Kings and Kenny Holland have to accept the fact that his contract’s likely going to be in the [$11 million range]….the talking point from Kempe’s camp was in the [$10 million range]. From L.A’.s side, it was [$9 million] and just under. Both of those numbers have increased. I don’t know if L.A. has made significant ground in terms of bridging the financial gap. That’s one of the reasons why they put a pause in negotiations for the time being.”

Pagnotta also mentioned that the two sides will be meeting later this month.

There are certainly several reasons why Kempe has quickly become a sought-after commodity over the last couple of years. He has hit the 50-point mark in each of the past four season, scoring at least 60 in the past three years, including a career-best 75 points during the 2023-24 season. Last year, Kempe posted 35 goals and 38 assists for 73 points in 81 games, before scoring 10 points in the six games against the Oilers in the first round of the playoffs.

Even though there’s the possibility of Kempe taking a “hometown discount,” Pagnotta mentioned that the Kings will have to pay some sort of premium to keep him away from other teams.

“With the changing of the landscape, they’ve got to figure that out, from L.A. side of things, and accept the fact that it’s going to cost you a lot to keep this guy, and that there are teams like Edmonton and others that are quasi-lurking in the weeds, just curious as to where this is going to go. If he hits market, first of all, the [$11 million] is going way up. You’re talking [$12 million] in the open market. There are going to be a number of potential suitors that are going to go after this guy.”

In 635 NHL regular-season games, Kempe has scored 196 goals and 210 assists for 406 points, with another 29 points in 28 postseason contests.

You can watch the full episode below. The Kempe conversation starts around 1:09:00