{"id":8677,"date":"2025-07-19T18:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T18:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8677\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T18:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T18:31:09","slug":"kings-to-ramp-up-extension-talks-with-adrian-kempe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/8677\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings To Ramp Up Extension Talks With Adrian Kempe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kings forward Adrian Kempe<\/a> is now eligible for a contract extension and is currently slated to be one of the better options in a 2026 UFA pool.\u00a0 In an appearance on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio earlier this week (Twitter link<\/a>), GM Ken Holland acknowledged that he\u2019d like to get a deal done with Kempe and intends to ramp up discussions on that front soon.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old was a first-round pick by Los Angeles in 2014, going 29th overall.\u00a0 At the time, he was playing a regular role in the SHL which is impressive in itself for a draft-eligible player but Kempe wasn\u2019t producing much offensively. \u00a0Accordingly, one of the bigger questions at the time was around his potential to become a legitimate threat offensively, complementing his strong defensive game.<\/p>\n

It has taken a while but Kempe has done just that.\u00a0 After having limited offensive production in the minors soon after being drafted with AHL Manchester and his first few seasons with Los Angeles, Kempe had a breakout year in 2021-22, notching 35 goals and making his first (and only) All-Star appearance.\u00a0 Considering his sluggish production beforehand, it was fair to question whether this was a blip or a sign of things to come so the two sides negotiated a four-year, $22MM contract that summer, one that bought the Kings two years of extra club control.<\/p>\n

Kempe has certainly outperformed that contract in the first three seasons of it.\u00a0 He has notched at least 67 points in each one and is coming off a 35-goal, 73-point campaign in 2024-25, one that saw him edge past 19 minutes per night of playing time, a career best.\u00a0 Kempe has also been quite productive in the playoffs over that stretch, potting 13 goals and 10 assists in 17 postseason games, all against Edmonton.\u00a0 Suffice it to say, he\u2019s looking at a substantial raise next time out.<\/p>\n

Earlier this offseason, AFP Analytics projected<\/a> a seven-year, $64.225MM deal for Kempe, one that would carry a $9.175MM AAV.\u00a0 When this contract kicks in for the 2026-27 campaign, the salary cap is expected to be $104MM at that time, a jump of $8.5MM.\u00a0 This year, the biggest contract for a winger was Nikolaj Ehlers<\/a>\u2019 six-year, $51MM deal with Carolina (a cap hit of $8.5MM) so it would make sense that Kempe\u2019s number should check in a bit above that, at least based on the way the market has operated this summer.<\/p>\n

A contract in that price range would make Kempe their highest-paid forward and second-highest-paid player behind defenseman Drew Doughty<\/a>.\u00a0 With Kempe being among several contracts set to expire next summer, the Kings have nearly $38MM in room for that season, per PuckPedia<\/a>, so Holland will have plenty of flexibility to work with to get a deal done for his top scorer from 2024-25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kings forward Adrian Kempe is now eligible for a contract extension and is currently slated to be one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[9056,49,48,763,448,82],"class_list":["post-8677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-adrian-kempe","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}