Rumor: Planning Ahead: 2019 Off-Season

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Ziggy Stardust

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The trade deadline has come and gone, so the focus shifts on what many expect to be a very busy off-season for the Los Angeles Kings. I wanted to start a fresh new topic on what we think the direction of the team should be moving forward.

The following are key dates in the upcoming schedule that will impact some of those decisions:

- Season Concludes - April 6 (final game of the season will be against the Vegas Golden Knights).
- NHL Draft Lottery - April (Date is TBD according to the NHL Media site).
- 2019 NHL Draft Central Scouting Final Rankings - Week of April 15
- IIHF World Championships - May 10-26
- CHL Memorial Cup - May 17-26
- NHL Scouting Combine - May 27 - June 1
- NHL Buyout Window Opens - June 15 or 48 hours after the Cup is awarded (whichever is later)
- NHL General Managers Meeting - June 20
- 2019 NHL Draft - June 21-22
- NHL Buyout Deadline - June 30
- Free Agency Begins - July 1
- Arbitration Notification Deadline - July 5 (for player elected), July 6 (for team elected)

At the NHL Board of Governors Meeting in December, league commissioner Gary Bettman proclaimed that the projected salary cap for 2019-20 will increase to $83-million.


According to CapFriendly, the Kings have $70,346,894 in commitments tied to 17 players. The average age of those 17 players will be 30.1, among the oldest teams in the league.

With the projected cap ceiling in mind, and with no changes to the roster, that would leave the team with slightly over $12-million in cap space to fill out the rest of the roster.

It is a safe assumption that the team will manage to find a way to bring the team average age down and also clear up more cap space, whether it be by trades or buyouts. Big changes are ahead.
 

HeadInjury

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Jul 30, 2005
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Remind me, if a contract is bought out, does that mean there is no recapture penalty?
 

LAKings88

First round fodder
Dec 4, 2006
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Move Quick and Carter if you can.

(See if there is interest at the draft) Move Toffoli, Amart, and Lewis, at the next deadline if needed.

Hope you get #1 or #2 at the draft.

Pray Vilardi is healed.

Hire a decent coach. Keep Sturm, lose the rest.
 
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YP44

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Jan 30, 2012
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LA should not buy anyone out next year. As brutal as Dion is if the Kings can stomach at least one more year with him then it helps the buy out term.
 
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KINGS17

Smartest in the Room
Apr 6, 2006
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Remind me, if a contract is bought out, does that mean there is no recapture penalty?
These are two completely different issues. With the buy out the player gets less money, and the time over which the cap hit is on the team's books is doubled.

The recapture penalty is related only to players who retire and were on long-term contracts designed to pay the player most of the money up front then back dive to reduce the cap hit.


In addition to placing some regulations on how salary structure can be done, the latest CBA introduced a penalty to punish teams that made cap-circumventing contracts a danger for the teams that signed them. This is called the Cap Recapture Penalty and it basically makes sure that a team is affected by the AAV of a contract should a player happen to retire.

This information is for a buy out.
NHL Buyout Rules - A Refresher

Player Pay:
The cost is either 1/3 or 2/3 of the remaining salary, averaged out over twice as many years that were left on the contract. This is determined by the age of the player at the time of the buyout - if they are under 26, they get 1/3, if they are 26 or older they get 2/3.
It is worth mentioning that any salary slide on the remaining years goes out the window. If a 26+ player has a year at $4.2m and a year at $3.6m left, they don't get $1.4m, $1.4m, $1.2m, $1.2m - they get $1.3m in each of the 4 years.

Cap Hit:
This is a little bit more complicated than the salary. It starts with the buy-out salary (as determined in the last step), but then for the original remaining contract years you need to adjust for the difference between the original salary and the original cap hit for each of those years. You take the original cap hit, subtracting the original salary, and add that value to the buy-out salary.
This means that the buy-out cap hit would go up for a year where the original salary was below the original cap hit, and down for a year where the original salary was above the cap hit.
It is possible for the adjusted cap hit to be negative. If that happens, the team gets it as a cap credit.



Also relevant:
A player with a no-move must be presented with the option to be put on unconditional waivers when being bought out, but the buy-out still goes forward if they say no. Players have 24 hours to decide when given this option.
 

GoldenBearHockey

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HeadInjury

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Thanks for the responses to my question.

On Phaneuf, I think Ottawa is on the hook for 25%. Could consider a buyout under those circumstances I suppose. That is, assuming they had a need for the cap space next year.
 

kingsboy11

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I think the most important offseason piece that needs to be taken care if the Head Coach. We will have gone through 3 head coaches since 2017. I think they made a mistake hiring Stevens as I think they should've hired someone outside the organization, but they probably had a handshake agreement with him that he would become the head coach should Sutter retire/fired. And replacing Stevens with Willie was also a mistake as I think its clear that he has zero chance to become head coach and I don't he helped matters and if anything made it worse.

We've talked on this board of having a Sean McVay type coach, but they also need someone to hold the players accountable. Stevens didn't do it because he was with the organization for many years and Willie is only here for this season and coaching for his next gig.

The players/picks that we'll receive for Carter, Toffoli, Quick, Martinez will come, but it means nothing if they hire the wrong guy.
 

KINGS17

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It's a culture thing though. If Carter mopes get rid of him.
It's sad. Two years ago I was saying Carter would age very gracefully because he was in great shape and doing everything he could in the off season. I wonder how much of a toll the recent injuries have taken.
 
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It's a culture thing though. If Carter mopes get rid of him.

Probably the biggest need for the Kings. Finding an identity, it’s been alluded to several times on here but the Kings are just going through the motions at practice and in games.

Get rid of the ones that don’t fit the identity/culture that the President/GM want. That’s been a problem with Luc and Blake, they don’t really have an idea of identity or culture they want. For the most part, Luc/Blake just listen to the same players who ran DL and DS out of town because they didn’t like hard practices and grind the other team style.
 
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kings11

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It's sad. Two years ago I was saying Carter would age very gracefully because he was in great shape and doing everything he could in the off season. I wonder how much of a toll the recent injuries have taken.
I’ve been thinking the same thing but how many guys actually come back from the type of injury he had so quickly? I think we’ll get a better idea of his future play next season because right now he’s at a negative value
 
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Mats26

Vet Movement - What's the Maatta?
Sep 16, 2005
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Before the draft
Hire a Head Coach + staff and then define their roles for the PK, PP etc..Wanna get the new coaching staff early so they feel like they are part of the rebuilding process.

At the draft
Move targeted pieces for cap space\picks
This is a huge draft year. Get some bluechip prospects with those early picks!

After Draft
Sign UFAs to fill small holes in roster but the goal is to get the young players to earn their ice time.(i.e Wagner, Leipsic)
Add to Player development(We need to start seeing results with our F and D. Our goalie development has been great so far.)
Establish a culture and plan for the next gen of players and execute it throughout the farm system and summer camp.
Hire Hextall. His leadership, pedigree and being a hardworker in the front office will translate well to the new culture we need to establish.
 
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Raccoon Jesus

Todd McLellan is an inside agent
Oct 30, 2008
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Don't know if you buy him out until AFTER next year, buying him out after this year, imo, really doesn't do anything

Also gives him time to re-establish some value--either for our club or for trade--as well in what's likely to be a 'meh' season.


I think the most important offseason piece that needs to be taken care if the Head Coach. We will have gone through 3 head coaches since 2017. I think they made a mistake hiring Stevens as I think they should've hired someone outside the organization, but they probably had a handshake agreement with him that he would become the head coach should Sutter retire/fired. And replacing Stevens with Willie was also a mistake as I think its clear that he has zero chance to become head coach and I don't he helped matters and if anything made it worse.

We've talked on this board of having a Sean McVay type coach, but they also need someone to hold the players accountable. Stevens didn't do it because he was with the organization for many years and Willie is only here for this season and coaching for his next gig.

The players/picks that we'll receive for Carter, Toffoli, Quick, Martinez will come, but it means nothing if they hire the wrong guy.

Which is why I don't know how I feel about Sturm. He seems to be a bit of an innovator and a fresh mind--which I love. He's also close in age and has played with some of these guys. But I think I'll risk the tradeoff. Knowing how happy/excited people were to play for him in other gigs.

I’ve been thinking the same thing but how many guys actually come back from the type of injury he had so quickly? I think we’ll get a better idea of his future play next season because right now he’s at a negative value

Some people never do. Erik Karlsson even still has a bit of a hitch in his step though I think his was worse. But what's strange about Carter's is he came back and performed like nothing ever happened (until the playoffs) the same year...it's only this year he tanked.
 

KINGS17

Smartest in the Room
Apr 6, 2006
32,320
11,113
Before the draftirn
Hire a Head Coach + staff and then define their roles for the PK, PP etc..Wanna get the new coaching staff early so they feel like they are part of the rebuilding process.

At the draft
Move targeted pieces for cap space\picks
This is a huge draft year. Get some bluechip prospects with those early picks!

After Draft
Sign UFAs to fill small holes in roster but the goal is to get the young players to earn their ice time.(i.e Wagner, Leipsic)
Add to Player development(We need to start seeing results with our F and D. Our goalie development has been great so far.)
Establish a culture and plan for the next gen of players and execute it throughout the farm system and summer camp.
Hire Hextall. His leadership, pedigree and being a hardworker in the front office will translate well to the new culture we need to establish.
Bring Hextall in to do what though? I don't think Blake would ever do this, so unless you're firing Robitaille (I am all for it), and replacing Blake with Hextall, I don't see where Hextall fits.
 
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