Free Agency Starts Friday

In baseball, the free agency signings are dragged out throughout the long winter months. There is very little activity on the first day. In the NBA, there's usually a two-week moratorium in which teams and players can negotiate but can't make any official announcements until the moratorium period ends. In the NHL? It's open season on the first day that's usually filled with a flurry of activity.

This year should be no different with free agency opening up tomorrow. And for the Kings, who have been active in recent years, just not on the first day, usually missing out on the top tiered guys who prefer to play on the east coast rather than in sunny Southern California, with players citing travel concerns and a lack of fan interest, tomorrow could be busy.

The Kings are not expected to be in pursuit of any of the top free agents this year. Aside from center Brad Richards, the top guys this year appear to be defensemen and goalies, two positions the Kings are in pretty good shape. Richards won't go to L.A. to play on the wing as the Kings are pretty well set at center after acquiring Mike Richards from Philly last week. They do seem to be a little thin on the wing, especially on the left side, and could look for some depth there among the second- and third-tiered wingers available.

As for the top free agents, Brad Richards is drawing interest from about one-third of the teams. Dallas, his former employer, is not one of them. And if he has his way, expect him to sign with a smaller market team, perhaps Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Nashville or Winnipeg. Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, whom the Kings coveted last off-season when he signed in Edmonton, is off the market. His rights were traded twice this off-season from Edmonton to Long Island, New York to Buffalo yesterday, where he signed a 10-year deal today. Defensemen Tomas Kaberle, James Wisniewski, and goaltender Tomas Vokoun round out the top five. Another defenseman, Ed Jovanovski, is in the Top 10.

The players that are drawing some level of interest from the Kings are all wingers, and as expected, all left wingers. Ville Leino, who had a breakout season for Philly last season, Tomas Fleischmann, Simon Gagne, Eric Cole and Scottie Upshall would be decent fits for the Kings. If they don't land one of these guys tomorrow, or if any of these guys end up somewhere else either tomorrow or in the days to follow, it will be an otherwise quiet day and free agency period for the Kings this season.

Major Realignment Overhaul Coming

With the move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg now official, the league has started talks of realignment to accommodate the relocated team. The Jets, as they will be called again, will play out of the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference for one final season with Tampa Bay, Washington, Florida and Carolina.

Originally, the league was going to just simply shift Winnipeg, but with teams like Detroit, Nashville and Columbus playing out of the Western Conference and creating traveling nightmares for them, as well as West Coast teams, the league has decided to do a complete overhaul effective with the 2012-2013 season.

The plan is two break up the league into four divisions - two in each conference - with one conference getting two 8-team divisions, likely the east, and the other getting two 7-team divisions.

The new realignment plan is likely to be approved at the Board of Governors meeting in December. So for now, for one more season, the league will continue under the current format.

I personally think they should just keep the current format and just do the overhauled realignment under it. With so many teams in the league now, seven and eight team divisions just seems to be too much. The idea of competing within a five-team division seems favorable and more competitive.

Smyth Finally Traded

Yes, he's going back to Edmonton. No, it's not the same deal that was nearly completed Friday during the draft.

In return, the Kings will get Colin Fraser and a 2012 seventh-round pick.

Fraser is nothing more than a depth forward who makes less than $1MM, so this will allow the Kings some room to find someone to replace Smyth.

That player will likely come via free agency and not a trade.

News From the Draft

This should be a short post because I won't pretend like I know who the Kings, or anyone else, drafted or know anything about them. Having said that, there was other news.

It appeared Ryan Smyth had been dealt back to Edmonton at one point early during the draft yesterday but as the night went on, it become more clear that the deal had not been finalized. In fact, the entire deal fell completely through, in large part, based on reports, due to the health concern of Gilbert Brule, whom the Kings would have then turned around and bought out or flipped to another team. (League rules prohibit a player from being bought out or traded while they're injured.)

So for now, Smyth is still with the Kings, but he could still end up in Edmonton any minute or day now, or he could still wind up in Calgary. The Flames were hot in on the talks for Smyth, but many felt they fell out of it when they inked Alex Tanguay to a five-year, $17.5MM extension. However, it appears they could still be in on Smyth now that the aforementioned deal has fallen through.

Stay tuned.

Kings Pull Off Blockbuster Deal

Kings have acquired center Mike Richards from Philly.

Philly gets prospect Brayden Schenn, RW Wayne Simmonds and a draft pick.

2011 Entry Draft is tomorrow.

Could this be a precursor to something else?

Rumors have it Ryan Smyth wants back in Edmonton for personal reasons.

We shall wait and see.

As for Richards, he is signed through 2019-2020 season.

He's played six seasons in NHL, averaging 70 points over last four.

I'm still on fence over this deal because of length of his contract and his reputation.

But here's hoping Richards can shed that reputation and fit in and help this team.

Kyle Clifford should slide into Simmonds' slot in lineup.

But it leaves a big hole at RW on 3rd line.

Let's hope Kings GM Dean Lombardi has other plans.

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Congrats to Kings Captain Dustin Brown on winning NHL's Foundation Award at last night's NHL Awards Show. The Foundation Award is given to the player who applies the core values of hockey to enrich lives of others in their community.

Boston Wins Cup

For the first time in 39 years, the Boston Bruins are Stanley Cup Champions after defeating the Vancouver Canucks 4-0 in Game 7 of the Finals on the road after trailing in the series 2-0 and 3-2. Boston goalie Tim Thomas was named series MVP and finished the series with most saves ever in Finals history.

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As you can see, it's been a while since I've checked in on this here blog. The Kings were down 2-1 to San Jose in the first round of the playoffs the last time I was here, and unfortunately lost the series in six games.

This Kings team played their butts off in the San Jose series despite the Game 3 meltdown, but they're still a young team learning how to play through playoff adversity. They could have easily won that series as they lost three of the games, including Game 6 at home, in overtime. One lucky bounce their way in those overtime losses, and who knows what might have happened.

In any case, we've reached the official end of the 2010-2011 season with Boston hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup tonight, and I'm sure Dean Lombardi and co. have been hard at work for weeks now looking for ways to improve the Kings as they head into the 2011-2012 season.

One thing is for certain, this team will only get better. A healthy Anze Kopitar should help the offense, as should a full season with Dustin Penner. And with one of the best defenses with young superstars such as Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson, and one of the best young goalies in the league in Jonathan Quick, the sky could be the limit for this team for years to come!