An incredible signing for us. I'm so excited I think that I will now go have a brief interview with my wife . . .

This is an appropriate response.

Is it just me or is LA barely gonna have enough cap space to sign Durzi. I can't see him signing for only $1 million he was their best defenseman every game of the playoffs

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A "brief" interview. Oh, she will be so pleased.

Durzi will take whatever it takes to bridge one year and get a bigger contract, Anderson has established himself a 1LD and can justifiably be upset about not getting a payday.

Blake is playing the odds that no GM is going to either (a) have an offersheet on either player that he wouldn't match (b) That his young players will take a discount to have a deeper chance in the playoffs.

If a team offersheets Durzi or Anderson, we'll move JAD, Anderson, Walker, Edler, and play LTIR to make it work. And then Blake will have an axe to grind against that GM for a long time.

Eh, I dont agree with that assessment haha. He was the defenseman that put up the most points, in large part because he was the only one with the skillset to approximate doughty's role, but he was not particularly great (or at times even good) on defense, and wasn't particularly great on the power play. The underlying defense metrics I've seen aren't like, outstanding by any means. Add in that he doesn't have a ton of leverage unless someone wants to offer sheet him - which is unlikely - and I think the deal gets done closer to a mil than not.

Note that the OP has left himself $870,000 in the bank.

I wouldn't say Anderson has established himself as a 1LD. It takes a pretty good player to be an established 1LD. He only played 57 games last year and had 8 points

Durzi put up great numbers as a rookie and played a lot for a rookie. So i don't think playing absolute hardball with him would benefit the Kings being that he should be a part of their future. Now if Walker is on LTIR next year this fixes the issue but I cannot see Durzi signing for less than 2.5mill. If you use the general rule of $100,000 per point that's $2.7 million AAV

MIkey Anderson is never going to wow you with points, he is a defensive defenseman, similar to Matt Roy.

The Athletic recently rated him 8th overall shut-down defenseman.
https://theathletic.com/3272434/2022/04/27/nhl-shutdown-defensemen/

Mikey has averaged 20-21 ATOI over two seasons, is Drew Doughty's primary and preferred pairing partner. He took a big step after Doughty went down and became out teams primary shut down pair with Roy against McDavid and Drai during the playoffs. A big part of Doughty's resurgence is being paired with a defenseman that eases his responsibilities in his (Doughty's) own zone.

Durzi is fantastic, but the Kings have Clarke, Spence, and Grans coming, these defensemen will have to play their hearts out if they want to steal that 3RD.

Since the limit of an offer-sheet with no compensation is 1.38 AAV durzi will get at least 1.4. MANY teams would take him at that price for free if the kings don't match.
Also Vilardi's QO is around 940K.
Besides those 2 things this is exactly what I have them doing next year. Hopefully no offer-sheets at 2.1AAV for Durzi.

I was worried about this as well, but I find the offer sheet possibilities very unlikely right now.

From a GM perspective: Do you want to ruin a relationship with another GM for an offer sheet they will absolutely match? Especially one who will need to move a bunch of prospects over the next few seasons. Anderson will likely be matched up to $4-5M and teams aren't sure if his results are tied directly to Doughty, and Durzi is too unproven to make a Kotkaniemi-esque offer.

Even if Durzi gets a $2.1 offersheet you match and send Lias Andersson, JAD, Walker, or anyone away, and you move Durzi next season to the Coyotes make a statement on what happens to players signing offer sheets.

Over the last 22 years there have been 10 offer sheets, only one (ryan kesler in 2006) was for less than 2.5 mil. All but two were matched. its not like offer sheets are flying around the NHL. They're extremely rare. Trying to steal Durzi for like, a couple million extra right now would 100% result in a much more costly retaliation to whoever went for it. In addition to that, his actual defensive work - the real important metric for a defenseman - was pretty subpar this season which makes him less appealing for such a risk.

Couldn’t be more spot on, the player at risk of an offer sheet isn’t Durzi, it’s Anderson, and even at $5M, we’d begrudgingly match.