The Los Angeles Kings have had themselves a very interesting off-season thus far.
It started when they traded Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Washington Capitals for Darcy Kuemper, which stabilized their goalie situation.
They then went through the 2024 NHL Draft, where they acquired Tanner Jeannot from the Tampa Bay Lightning. When free agency started, they signed Warren Foegele, Joel Edmundson, Trevor Lewis, and Pheonix Copley.
Now the Kings have $9.9 million in projected cap space and still need to attend to a bit of business. GM Rob Blake has addressed the goalie position and worked on adding more defensive depth. He will likely now turn his attention to the forward group.
They will need to sign Quintin Byfield to an extension, which will likely cost somewhere around $5–6 million. Which would leave them with about $3–4 million. The team has Alex Turcotte and Akil Thomas, who will be given the chance to make the team out of camp.
They will need to find a trade partner for Arthur Kaliyev since he has requested a trade and the team does not see him in their plans going forward.
This will leave 12 forwards and a bit of cap space to find another forward. Blake has addressed the team's size and lack of physicality this off-season with the additions of Jeannot and Edmundson.
If he wants to add another play up front, it will likely be a more physically gritty player as the 12/13th forward. A few names that could be of interest are Tanner Pearson, Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, and Sammy Blais, all of whom fit what Blake is looking for and could be viable options to sign as another depth forward.