Visnovsky Extends Five More

Star defenseman, Lubomir Visnovsky, extended his contract by five years on Wednesday and the Los Angeles Kings will have his services through 2014. This signing solidifies what looks to be a very competitive blueline for the upcoming season.

Visnovsky finished 109th in pool scoring last season (8th among defensemen) with 18 goals and 58 points, which was down from the year before. His drop in production was due to the 13 games he missed due to numerous injuries throughout the year. A healthy Visnovsky would generate close to 70 points a year and would be a good fit to anyone's pool team.

Alexander Frolov	Anze Kopitar	Dustin Brown
Ladislav Nagy	Michal Handzus	Kyle Calder
Scott Thornton	Derek Armstrong	Brian Willsie
Raitis Ivanans	Patrick O'Sullivan	Alyn McCauley

Lubomir Visnovsky	Tom Preissing
Rob Blake	Brad Stuart
Jaroslav Modry	Jack Johnson

Dan Cloutier

Jason Labarbera

The Kings spent a lot of time structuring their approach to the off-season and they have made great strides to become competitive, but they still have a couple more strides to make. The roster shown above is all signed up at roughly $41 million and they still need to sign Mike Cammalleri to a deal, as he is a Restricted Free Agent. Cammalleri will look to go to arbitration and hearings will start in just over a week. The Kings will also look to solidify their goaltending situation as concerns over Dan Cloutier's health and Jason Labarbera's reliability will come into question in the season.

Overall, the team has made some great strides and it will be interesting to see how the new faces will affect the team's overall scoring ability and their ability to win. The Kings could be a good sleeper team to pluck some ripe talent for your pool team. A healthy Michal Handzus could make all the difference in the world for a great second line (or even first line) for the Kings.

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NHL, Hockey Pool, Free Agents, Signing, Hockey, Los Angeles Kings, Lubomir Visnovsky