and spoke to Corey Perry after he chose to return to Tampa Bay for a nice feature this week<\/a>.<\/p>\nBelow are a few excerpts from our conversation, which can be watched and listened to in full on the Kings YouTube channel as well as all major podcast networks on our LA Kings Insider Audio feed.<\/p>\n
On his overall thoughts on a quieter deadline
It sort of developed slowly on the day and then a pretty big surge at the end. A deadline does spur interest, it spurs action. It was a little bit of a different deadline this year, I think some of the CBA changes that we\u2019ve seen around the league, I\u2019m not going to say it\u2019s going to have a long term impact, necessarily, but I think teams are still feeling their way around. We\u2019ve never had a playoff salary cap for example, in the NHL, this will be the first season that\u2019s been in use and I think it\u2019s almost like the teams have to go through it and experience it to know what they will and won\u2019t do when it comes to acquiring players next year. At the same time, we\u2019ve also had the cap jumping after all those years though the pandemic where it was pretty flat, and we did see some trades where real salary moved. Nazem Kadri gets traded from Calgary to Colorado, he\u2019s got three more years after this one on his deal. MacKenzie Weegar goes to Utah, he\u2019s got multiple seasons beyond this. Often the deadline ends up becoming a player on an expiring contract for a draft pick and the Kings, for example, made a couple trades, both selling and buying, in that regard. But I think this deadline period did include some interesting trades that were different than before.<\/p>\n
On the Kings approach at the trade deadline after acquiring Panarin
I think it\u2019s an approach you\u2019ve seen some teams do where you\u2019re kind of both buyer and seller. Specific circumstances, obviously, this year hadn\u2019t gone as well for Warren Foegele, I think he was open for a change. They found a way to turn him into an asset, but also give him a fresh start somewhere else that he\u2019s happy about. You trade Corey Perry away, I had a chance to talk to Corey on Saturday morning, the day after the trade where he joined the Lightning, and he was very much unsure and ultimately made the decision to leave. But then you also bring in Scott Laughton to fill the void in the lineup and you\u2019re not giving up that much. I think it\u2019s probably a sensible approach for a team in the position LA is. Really tough losing a player like Fiala at the Olympics. The beauty of the Panarin deal is that they did get that contract extension at a reasonable rate beyond this year so the move will be judged over the next couple of seasons. For Ken Holland, and he\u2019s been doing this for so long, you almost have to just not give in to your impulses and be modest, and you\u2019ll see if the team on the ice can still get in the playoffs. When I look at the Pacific Division, I still think it\u2019s there for them even with the recent struggles they\u2019ve had. It\u2019s just a matter of putting it together for a strong five or six week push here to the finish.<\/p>\n
On Scott Laughton and his opportunity and role with the Kings
I think you\u2019re going to find a very motivated player in Scott Laughton. It was a year ago he went through the first trade of his career at last year\u2019s deadline from Philadelphia to Toronto, his hometown team. I think there was some good in it for him but I look at the way the Leafs used him and frankly, I don\u2019t know that it always made sense. He didn\u2019t get a lot of third line opportunities during his days in Toronto. He still put up some offense playing on a fourth line in some nights only seven or eight minutes is all he was getting. I noticed he played 15 in his first game for the Kings. So given that probably left a little taste in his mouth, not just his usage but, it was a difficult year for the Leafs, they started the season talking about trying to be a contender and they\u2019re at the bottom of the standings so it hasn\u2019t been much fun for anyone who\u2019s put on that jersey this season. For Laughton, he\u2019s a pending UFA so I think he\u2019s playing in some degree for his next contract to have a high finish to this year and put a high note on it. I think you combine all those factors, he\u2019s not that old, he\u2019s been at times of his career kind of a 15-goal guy, I think he can give you pretty good offense from the bottom-6 and super high character, I can tell you he was one of the most popular Leafs in his year with the team. I think that all adds up to being a pretty low-cost bet. I like betting on someone like Scott Laughton because of that character and because I do think he\u2019s got something to prove with how things went for him in Toronto.<\/p>\n
On the returns the Kings got for the players they dealt
No red flags for me. You look around and there just wasn\u2019t very many first round picks traded at this deadline. A lot of the players that got the first were playing premium positions like right-shot defensemen, or guys that are under contract for years to come. Perry was on an expiring deal, so to get a second for him is tidy business. I definitely think it\u2019s good to accumulate those kind of assets, no matter what stage your franchise is at. It didn\u2019t end up being a huge sellers market, I don\u2019t feel, I mean we did see a few players get maybe an outsized return above what I would have guessed, but certainly feel the Kings got fair value on their guys and did well by them too, I think there\u2019s a bit of gentlemanly business done there. Corey Perry, being in five of the last six Stanley Cup Finals, he\u2019s gone to great ends to try to chase that second cup to add to the one he won in Anaheim so it\u2019s nice of the Kings, I think, to work with him and find him a place to go. I know there were some discussions about an extension to keep him around there in LA so I do think you add it all together and it\u2019s a reasonable deadline and it wasn\u2019t a deadline where a lot of teams are true winners, I don\u2019t think.<\/p>\n
On the potential of seeing a flurry of trades at the NHL Draft in June
There\u2019s always draft pick trades at the draft and stuff like that, but I think that it\u2019s the only way for a lot of teams to address holes on their roster. Almost every goalie is signed, for example. There\u2019s almost no UFA goalies on this marketplace. There\u2019s still a few forwards out there, Alex Tuch doesn\u2019t have a contract, there\u2019s a few forwards and also some useful second and third pairing defensemen, but we don\u2019t have a headliner. We really don\u2019t have a sweepstakes, I\u2019d call it for July 1. I do think in late June there will be some fireworks going off around the league.<\/p>\n
Johnston also touched on the move the Anaheim Ducks made to bring in John Carlson, other players that might become available during the offseason in the summer and the lack of goaltending trades that we\u2019ve seen as of late.<\/p>\n
Stay tuned for more coming soon on The Insider Show as the stretch run ramps up!<\/p>\n
The Insider Show \u2013 Episode 109<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kings have now played three games since the NHL\u2019s trade deadline day frenzy came and went last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-535700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}