Kings Snap Up Cammalleri

You can also add Mike Cammalleri's name to the list of players that have signed on again with a former club and in his case, it was the team that initially drafted him into the NHL, the Los Angeles Kings.  After seeing the last two years of his deal with the New Jersey Devils get bought out last week, he signed a cost-effective 1-year deal at $1 million.

The 35-year old veteran had an injury-shortened year in New Jersey, only playing in 61 games, where he scored 10 goals and 31 points on an offensively-challenged team.

The Kings are also a team in transition, where scoring is going to be a bit tight for a little while, but they will certainly offer Cammalleri an opportunity to play every night.

Also on Saturday, the Kings blueline also got a much-needed boost, when they signed Christian Folin to a 1-year deal as well.  Folin was a fringe player for the Wild last season, playing in 51 games and scoring 2 goals and 8 points.  There is more work needed on that blueline, but Folin could be a reasonable add in the third pairing.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Anze Kopitar	10.000	Drew Doughty	7.000	Jonathan Quick	5.800
Dustin Brown	5.875	Alec Martinez	4.000	Jeff Zatkoff	0.900
Jeff Carter	5.273	Jake Muzzin	4.000
Marian Gaborik	4.875	Chaz Reddekopp	0.925
Tyler Toffoli	4.600	Christian Folin	0.850
Tanner Pearson	3.750	Alex Lintuniemi	0.729
Trevor Lewis	2.000	Derek Forbort	0.650
Kyle Clifford	1.600
Michael Cammalleri	1.000
Jordan Nolan	0.950
Alex Iafallo	0.925
Adrian Kempe	0.894
Andy Andreoff	0.678
Nic Dowd	0.640

The Kings are pinching pennies still, as their big cap hits are weighing this team down, especially those to Dustin Brown and Marian Gaborik.  With this 23-man roster above, the Kings only have about $4.7 million left to work with and they desperately need a couple more forwards and a couple more defensemen.

The 2018 season, if it started today, would be a long one for the Kings, unless their top three defensemen were logging some crazy minutes on the ice.  There's still lots of time and loads of names still out on the free agent market, but they'll have to be wise with their remaining cap space and hope for a good deal or two to fall into their laps.