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Opinion
The NHL free agency begins overnight 1am (AEST) and it has a luxury of players available. The first big names that come to mind are the likes of David Krejci, Elias Pettersson (RFA), Ryan Getzlaf, Tuuka Rask, Alex Edler, Brandon Saad and many more.
The teams to look out for during this free agency period would be the Seattle Kraken, Columbus Blue Jackets, New Jersey Devils, Buffalo Sabres and the Los Angeles Kings.
Today I’ll argue with the Los Angeles Kings perspective, the Kings are currently in rebuild mode, however, GM Rob Blake has stated that the time to compete and push for the playoffs is now. Having 13 million in cap is the best thing to make it happen.
A few bad contracts are still needed to remove some space, however, when it comes to the free agency and the list of players available, the Kings have an unlimited amount of time and a wide variety of players they could obtain.
In my opinion a player that stands out and would be ideal for the Kings would be a star defence man in Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton played 42 points in 55 games played this year in Carolina and being a free agent this offseason, putting the likes of an offensive defence man in Hamilton with the likes of Drew Doughty would be an unstoppable force.
It is rumoured Hamilton is asking for around 7-9million per year and wants to compete right now. The 28 year old has stated that he enjoyed his time with the Hurricanes but now is the time to move on with another team and a chance at the Stanley Cup must come to him now.
Hamilton is one of the BEST offensive defence man in the league in my honest opinion and would help extravagantly.
This now leaves Los Angeles with around 5mil in cap space, when it comes to competing, adding the likes of fresh faces with experience could go a long way. In my opinion, adding someone like Tomas Tatar would be beneficial.
Tatar, 30, played 50 games this season with the Montreal Canadiens and scored 30 points. He went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals, however, fell short due to an injury and Covid-19.
During his days with the Red Wings, Tatar gained experience in the playoffs and now looks ready again to compete with the Los Angeles Kings. A cheap contract around 3-4 million for the player would likely be the contract that gets him over that line to LA.
This offseason for the Kings, if they really wanted to compete, will have to be significant.
With the best youth system in the league, LA could use their prospects to gain experience in the NHL alongside the likes of Hamilton and Tatar. I believe by adding these two would be beneficial in the long run in the Los Angeles Kings franchise.
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