Brad Stuart to Detroit
Defenseman Brad Stuart has signed a four-year deal with Detroit that averages $3.75 million per season. That's a big blow for the Kings.
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About Rich Hammond
Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Yes, yes it is.
Bring on Orpik!
Seriously, Who can blame him? He's got a good chance for a repeat. Why come to the lowly Kings? This leaves a slot open for a young guy.
Oh well. Maybe we can get a UFA D guy to shore up our back end. We are still about $15MM under the floor so even if Dean wants to save money for guys like Kopitar and Johnson, their new, bigger salaries will not count towards the cap until next year.
Not so good Al.
Oh well. Maybe we can get a UFA D guy to shore up our back end. We are still about $15MM under the floor and even if Dean wants to save money for guys like Kopitar and Johnson, their new, bigger salaries will not count towards the cap until the following year. He will need to spend that money somehow for next year hopefully without paying Blake $6MM again.
Arrrrrgh... and boo.
Hmm, that's a bummer. But yeah, what Bob said - the Kings need to spend some to reach the salary floor, right? Let's see what's out there...
Ok, the next question is... why did it post as anonymous when I was logged in as I submitted the post? For some reason it logged me out in the process... ah well, no matter :) Staying tuned...
As I stated on the board, it never seemed to me like it was a reasonable thing for Stuart to wanna come back. I'd have loved to see Stuart back, but if he were me and I was going to play for my SEVENTH different head coach since 2005-2006 and I was coming off of a successful cup run, I'd certainly rather go to an established team with a good track record (i.e. - chance to get back to the Cup Final) where, ya know, I already knew who the coach actually is...
And if I were him, and I'd been traded mid-season in two straight years, I'd get me one of them NTC's/NMC's as a little insurance, just in case my GM had any ideas come February. Not that they would, seeing as were I'd be signing to a cup contender and not a rebuilding through draft picks kind of a team...
The Kings wouldn't even be my 4th choice of teams...
That obviously makes more sense than anything Eklund makes up in his puny little head of his.
I've hated Detroit since the day I became a hockey fan.
4 years for Stuart is WAAAAAY too long (but good for him for getting it!). It would have been nice to have him back for a year or two but not 4. I'm assuming that DL has learned his lesson on this one ...then again, the day is still young.
Time for open tryouts.
The day is still young and besides, we knew LA wasn't going to be real active today anyway. Too bad about Stuart but I really don't think one more year for Blake will kill the Kings. Remember, he skated with that bad hip for the first half of the season and played pretty well the second half. His leadership is needed for the kids as we transition from an older to a younger, less esperienced club. We're going to be ok....stay tuned.
Looks like the way things are going in free agency, they will have to offer Blake a rediculous contract, Like 5-6 mill a yr. to be at the floor. I don't see any free agents that would want to come here. I would love to Sign Orpik to 4 yr deal, but no way is he coming here.