Joined: Jun. 2018
Posts: 6,430
Likes: 4,488
The primary point everyone is missing is that the Kings don't need Barzal now, once the rebuild is finished they are set to have one of the deepest center corps in the league (Kopitar, Byfield, Turcotte, Vilardi, Andersson, Madden, Kupari). There is no logic to the Kings paying $9M for Barzal handicapping signing future players. While in contrast there is a chance Vilardi signs a very team-friendly deal. Vilardi's injuries held him back, and the Kings did not rush that process, the team has never asked him to sacrifice his health and he seems to gel well with OPs and players.