Los Angeles Kings - 2010 Offseason in Review
After being knocked out of the playoffs in the first round by the Vancouver Canucks,
a series that went to 7 games, the Kings GM had a pretty good idea of the issues he needed to address in the offseason. Beginning with the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, held in front of our hometown crowd, the Kings GM brought excitement to the fans, twice moving up in the draft, all the way from the 19th pick to the 8th selection. The Kings crossed their fingers, and were thrilled to step up to the podium and take scoring winger Brett Connolly from the Prince George Cougars of the WHL. We knew that Brett has had injury troubles over the past year, but we felt that his high end potential was too good to pass up. The Kings also managed to swap 2nd round draft picks in a trade with Dallas which also saw Jamie Benn and Philip Larsen head to LA, and with the 41st pick they managed to select Tyler Toffoli, a first round talent who fell all the way to the Kings in the early 2nd. Having added Toffoli and Connolly, the Kings felt that they added to great prospects, both of whom have the potential to become top-six scoring forwards in the NHL. Along the way the Kings also managed to shave off $10.725M in salary, giving them just over $21M to play with in free agency. After pursuing three quality UFA's, the Kings managed to nab two of them, Matt Cullen ($3.25 per year) and Pavel Kubina ($5.75 per year), both of whom signed 3 year contracts. As for the other UFA, the Kings decided that 2009 top pick Brayden Schenn was ready for the NHL, and slotted the youngster into the 3rd line centre role alongside Andrew Brunette and Wayne Simmonds.
2010-2011 Opening Night Line-Up
Ryan Smyth - Anze Kopitar - Jamie Benn
Dustin Brown - Jarret Stoll - Matt Cullen
Andrew Brunette - Brayden Schenn - Wayne Simmonds
Scott Parse - Brad Richardson - Trevor Lewis
Extra: Marc-Andre Cliche
Drew Doughty - Rob Scuderi
Pavel Kubina - Matt Greene
Davis Drewiske - Thomas Hickey
Extra: Peter Harrold
Jonathan Bernier
Erik Ersberg
2010-2011 Payroll: $53,967,334
Cap Space: $4,032,666
We feel that this team has a great mix of character guys, veteran leadership and youth, which will combine into what we hope a long post-season run next year.
Top Prospects:
1) Brayden Schenn (C)
2) Jonathan Bernier (G)
3) Brett Connolly (LW/RW)
4) Thomas Hickey (D)
5) Philip Larsen (D)
6) Tyler Toffoli (LW/RW)
7) Andrei Loktionov (C)
8) Jeff Zatkoff (G)
9) Kyle Clifford (LW)
10) Nicholas Deslauriers (D)
Trades:
To Los Angeles: rights to Tomas Holmstrom
To Detroit: rights to Alexander Frolov
To Los Angeles: Jamie Benn, Philip Larsen, Dallas 2010 2nd (41st overall)
To Dallas: Jonathan Quick, Jack Johnson, Los Angeles 2010 2nd, Los Angeles 2011 3rd
To Los Angeles: St. Louis 2010 1st via Toronto (14th overall)
To Toronto: Los Angeles 2010 1st (19th overall), Philadelphia 2010 2nd (59th overall)
To Los Angeles: Atlanta 2010 1st (8th overall)
To Atlanta: Justin Williams, Slava Voinov, Los Angeles 2010 1st via Toronto via St. Louis, Los Angeles 2010 3rd
To Los Angeles: Austin Smith
To Dallas: Michal Handzus, Martin Jones
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