Kings Rumors: Examining the Recent Arvidsson Speculation

Trades are coming this summer for the Los Angeles Kings. Not the fun trades they’ve made in the last two summers, where the team brought in exciting forwards to improve the team.

This summer, they will be trades they don’t want to make but must. They need to free up cap space and to do that, good players will be on the move.

When looking at who might be cap casualties, there are a few consistent names thrown around. Sean Walker, Alex Iafallo, Sean Durzi, and for some people, Viktor Arvidsson.

A few weeks ago I touched on the potential of an Arvidsson deal, but with Elliotte Friedman mentioning Arvidsson in the latest 32 Thoughts, now seemed like a good time to circle back on it.

First, we have to look at what Friedman actually said.

“I’m hearing the Kings are looking to clear a bit of cap room. I guess that there’s some business that they want to do, so one of the names I’ve heard is Arvidsson,” said Friedman. “We’ll see what that means, we’ll see what it does; that is a player who I think might have some availability out there. I’m not saying it’s definitely gonna be him, but I’m looking at the guys in that similar salary range and I think the Kings need to clear some room and I’ve heard that [Arvidsson] could be a player of interest.”

It’s a pretty nothing statement from Friedman. He’s one of the most plugged-in insiders around and I don’t doubt he’s heard Arvidsson’s name, but I don’t think it means anything.

It seems more like connecting a few dots that, while obvious, aren’t actually connected.

Yes, the Kings have to clear some cap this summer to bring back all of their free agents and lock up Vladislav Gavrikov. When people hear, “need to clear cap,” they always look at players in Arvidsson’s salary range.

Someone who isn’t making so much that they’re unmovable but also makes enough to free up some significant cap. In that range, the Kings have Phil Danault, Adrian Kempe, Alex Iafallo and Arvidsson.

Knowing that Danault and Kempe aren’t being moved, Iafallo and Arvidsson become the candidates to move.

Then you have the “player of interest” part. This is where I think this link falls apart. Of course, Arvidsson is a player of interest around the league, he’s a true top-six winger on a reasonable cap hit.

But teams around the league looking at the Kings’ roster and saying, “yeah I’d trade for Arvidsson” doesn’t mean the Kings are interested in moving him.

The Kings made it clear they’re ready to compete now over the last year. Priority one for them is icing the best roster every night and Arvidsson is part of that group.

Yes, he has more trade value than someone like Walker or Iafallo, he would fetch more on the open market. And yes, the Kings risk losing him for nothing next summer if they don’t trade him.

But that’s unlikely to change the Kings’ plans with Arvidsson. A team that’s trying to win now doesn’t trade one of their most productive forwards in a cap dump. He’s too valuable to this team for any move to make sense for the Kings.

Anything is possible, and there’s never a zero percent chance someone is traded, but I don’t see an Arvidsson trade coming in the future.

Assuming the Kings don’t massively regress next season, I expect Arvidsson to see out his current deal in Los Angeles.