Who is staying in LA and who could be on the move
Lisa Dillman of The Athletic: Looking at who will be back next season for the Los Angeles Kings and who could be playing elsewhere.
Locks to return – Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick, Phillip Danault, Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore.
Locks to return — injured division – Viktor Arvidsson and Sean Walker.
Almost certainly will return – Cal Petersen, Carl Grundstrom and Blake Lizotte.
Need to see more from him – Rasmus Kupari.
In limbo – Alex Turcotte.
Almost certain to return — blue line division – Mikey Anderson and Matt Roy
Potential trade chips – Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Tobias Bjornfot, Sean Durzi, Jacob Moverare and Jordan Spence.
Unlikely to be traded, but Blake should at least return the phone call – Quinton Byfield, Arthur Kaliyev and the first-round pick.
Unlikely to return/toss-ups – Andreas Athanasiou, Brendan Lemieux, Lias Andersson, Alex Edler, Olli Maatta and Troy Stecher.
On Rangers pending UFA Andrew Copp
Sportsnet: Jeff Marek on 32 Thoughts on New York Rangers pending unrestricted free agent forward Andrew Copp.
“Speaking of offseason negotiations. Although Andrew Copp is still playing right now, you wonder what’s going to happen to him after this season or after the next series, or whenever the Rangers are done their season.
Andrew Copp has put himself in a really nice position right now. He was a, he’s a UFA coming up at the end of the season. He was a great trade deadline acquisition, as Elliotte mentioned in the first intermission by Chris Drury and the New York Rangers. Playing on great line with Strome and Panarin right now.
And wonder about the marketplace for someone like Andrew Copp. It kind of sounds as if it’s this combination between Phillip Danault’s contract, maybe Zach Hyman‘s contract as well. Danault was six years, $33 million. Zach Hyman seven years, $38.5 million. It sounds like Copp is positioned himself right into that conversation.
It’s kind of a feel-good story as well. He bet on himself with Winnipeg. Was part of trade rumors at various times. We think of when Winnipeg tried to bring in Jamie Oleksiak from Dallas, Copp’s name was very much out there. But he bet on himself. He waited for his opportunity. It’s here now and it sounds very much Elliotte like he’s going to take advantage of it.”
** NHLRumors.com transcription