The Kings won't be sellers this deadline, which indicates their progress towards this point. Firmly in position to make the playoffs for a fourth year in a row, an upgrade is needed.

What do the Kings do even with $4,497,687 to play with at the deadline via Puckpedia? That imposes a pretty straightforward question: what assets do the Kings have to send the other way to slay their past three seasons of demons?

Well, putting it bluntly, the Kings don't have many enticing names to send the other way. That includes prospects, to which I believe Liam Greentree should be considered untouchable since the prospect pool outside his name is bleak, to say the least. The Kings have a stable of goaltending prospects building up, but other than Erik Portillo, who has one total NHL start to his name, this stable is completely untested. Goaltending prospects are as hard to read as Egyptian hieroglyphs and even when they do look good, that's moot point until they get regular playing time: see Cal Peterson.

Names like Trevor Moore were thrown out earlier in the season as potential trade pieces because he makes the most sense and is the lone 'low hanging fruit' potential trade piece the organization has on its NHL roster. His $4.2 million contract through 2027-28 and lack of no movement clause are extremely enticing as a player to move; however, being another general manager, do you really take on a 29-year-old, one-off 30-goal scorer with the term? Maybe one would in the last offseason, when his value peaked, but not anymore.

Jordan Spence has been mentioned as a potential piece in potential trades, but is this D core willing to have only one stable pairing and experiment post deadline? Will they run a Mikey Anderson-Vladislav Gavrikov pairing as their go-to, while they trust a pairing (with a poor sample size) of Jacob Moverare-Drew Doughty to handle top matchups? I'm not sold on moving Spence, particularly with an organization barest of names such as Sean Durzi, Helge Grans, Brock Faber, Sean Walker and Matt Roy on their right side.

That leaves one particular player with upside and youth to keep in mind. Alex Laferriere burst onto the scene this year after having a great first half last year until sinking into the void of being Pierre Luc-Dubois's most common linemate. He's exploded past last year's marks of 12g, 11a, 23p -14 in 81 games. In just 49 games, he has 14g, 16a, 30p as a +15. He's a right-handed forward with decent size and a good shot. He's responsible and is trending well despite being questionable on the first powerplay unit.

Laferriere has quietly put together an enticing asset if the Kings are coming to the table for trade talks not trying to leave other GMs laughing out the door. He's 23 years old and is only making 875k. In the second half of that last sentence, if moved, it becomes another team's issue to give him his significant salary increase come the offseason. The Kings might need any salary cushion they can get, if they plan to extend Gavrikov.

All in all, the team is going to stand by Moore, as the Kings have also reinstated recently, a true shutdown line consisting of Moore, Phillip Danault, and Warren Foegele. The Kings can actually dangle an enticing piece without dipping into their barren prospect pool, hoping to hook line and sink a top six forward who can play on the top line. Alex Turcotte bumps down to play with Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala, and the Kings just might have something cooking here.