Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Ponikarovsky Goes to Los Angeles

This one is going to be more of a quick hit, but Alex Ponikarovsky, number six on my top UFAs remaining list, was signed by the Los Angeles Kings to a 1-year deal worth $3.2 million against the cap on Tuesday, shortly following the Rangers signing Alex Frolov to a deal.  Ponikarovsky played with both the Maple Leafs and the Penguins in 2010, picking up 50 points in 77 games between the two teams, ranking him not far behind Frolov on the pool rankings. 

The Kings have really had to settle with this deal, since they seemed to have lost out on the Ilya Kovalchuk sweepstakes and they also may have burned their bridge with Frolov, so Ponikarovsky becomes the bronze medal (if not worse) in this free agent period for the Kings. I'm sure they would have wanted to spend some money this year, but all that toiling in the Kovalchuk soap opera really set them back. It looks more and more like they might have to draw from their system a little bit deeper, if they can't sort some more free agents out.

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