Credit © Dan Hamilton-Imagn ImagesSAN DIEGO, CA — As the season enters its final frame of games, the Los Angeles Kings have recently been named as one of three teams mentioned in an Auston Matthews grab over the Summer. It's time to look at this for what it really is, if it's true.
A leaguewide star who’s threatened 70 goals in the salary cap era and the other Captain America, has seen his name get thrown around as a trade exit, as there's a potential hockey Brexit from one of hockey’s toughest markets to play in, with respect to media saturation. The recent news from Toronto media was that from a source, “Matthews will be traded, this summer, to either the LA Kings, Anaheim or Utah. He won’t be back next season.”
That type of speculation certainly pops the head around.
Now, players of this magnitude don't become available that often, if not ever. Matthews is a franchise cornerstone and one of the previous ‘fab four’ for the Leafs, along with William Nylander, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner, who the former left Toronto for Vegas before the current season.
Things aren’t pretty in Toronto, not to say things in Los Angeles are much better. There is a legitimate inquiry into whether this franchise is starting to part ways with its core that couldn't quite get over the hump of Boston and Florida almost every season.
From LA’s perspective, that’s a no-brainer chase, even if he’s recently suffered a brutal injury that will require surgery. A franchise level 1C who tilts the ice is a welcome addition to a club that is seeing the best to ever do it in a Kings uniform retire. That also isn’t a jab at the still yet-to-be-fully-tapped-in potential of Quinton Byfield. But this is where it becomes clear, not complicated.
If the Leafs did, in fact, open dialogue with the Kings, Ducks, and Mammoth, the Kings cannot compete with the other two teams' asset pools. The Kings have already prioritized quality over quantity in acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois. That’s the type of trade made once in a decade for a franchise, just simply off of sheer asset reallocation. The remaining assets don’t come close, unless the Kings plate up Byfield and one of Brandt Clarke/Carter George.
That seems to be plugging one hole by tearing another away to plug it. If you are Brad Treliving, you go get an absolute haul if you are indeed doing this. They put him on the market, in real estate terms, the Kings can only offer 20% down, while the others can pay cash in full.
If the Kings want to add another top-six center, it won't be through the Matthews route.