Remove that 2nd round pick going back to St Louis in that Durzi trade. Late first for Durzi would be reasonable as is.

Lizotte at 1.675m cap and dropping 34 points, while also being 51% on draws makes him more valuable than a 4th round pick. 2nd at minimum in my mind.

I assume Graves gets at least 4.5m a year on his next contract.

Vilaradi also gets more on a bridge deal. 23 goals, 41 pts in 63 games. His bridge could even be 4m x 2 years.

Just some of my thoughts

I wouldn't give that contract to Korpisalo. We should have learned our lesson from the Cal Petersen contract. Don't commit to a guy as your starter before he has ever played in the NHL as a starting goaltender.

I'd give him a "prove it" deal for 1-2 years $2-2.5M. If he works out, then you can sign him long term.

Just a couple or responses to your well thought out comments. (with the disclaimer that my post was more to look at the Cap situation of players still in LA after the trades)

1) I'd love to think Durzi gets a 1st on his own, but I'm not going to pretend that he doesn't have his faults. And teams know what those are. He's very good at what he does, I'm just not sure he's able to get that 1st rounder by himself.
2) I agree with Lizotte's value with you.... at the deadline when teams over pay. Off-season is about becoming cap compliant and value tends to drop a little. Maybe true value is somewhere in the middle? Meh. Not hard-over on it.
3) Graves is the biggest sticking point of this. If the Kings can save elsewhere (like Korpisalo's contract as tkecanuck341 suggests), then that money goes straight to upping the offer to Graves.
4) My thought process with the Vilardi deal is much more akin to what Mikey Anderson got this year. In essence, it's not a "bridge" deal so much as it is a "We'll pay you as soon as Kopitar's contract drops off the books" deal. And the Kings have proven they're good for their word with the 8 year deal to Mikey after signing the 1milx1year deal last year.

The only issue I have with that is we'd then be giving a 30 year old a long-term contract. My idea was more of a "meet-in-the-middle" type deal, where we give him some insurance for a premium and contract/cap stability, but we are only paying him until he's ~33. I'd be fine if Blake could get that contract down to ~3mil. All of the other 500k would go straight to the Ryan Graves offer to make that more of a realistic chance.

Just a couple or responses to your well thought out comments. (with the disclaimer that my post was more to look at the Cap situation of players still in LA after the trades)

1) I'd love to think Durzi gets a 1st on his own, but I'm not going to pretend that he doesn't have his faults. And teams know what those are. He's very good at what he does, I'm just not sure he's able to get that 1st rounder by himself.
2) I agree with Lizotte's value with you.... at the deadline when teams over pay. Off-season is about becoming cap compliant and value tends to drop a little. Maybe true value is somewhere in the middle? Meh. Not hard-over on it.
3) Graves is the biggest sticking point of this. If the Kings can save elsewhere (like Korpisalo's contract as tkecanuck341 suggests), then that money goes straight to upping the offer to Graves.
4) My thought process with the Vilardi deal is much more akin to what Mikey Anderson got this year. In essence, it's not a "bridge" deal so much as it is a "We'll pay you as soon as Kopitar's contract drops off the books" deal. And the Kings have proven they're good for their word with the 8 year deal to Mikey after signing the 1milx1year deal last year.

Remove that 2nd round pick going back to St Louis in that Durzi trade. Late first for Durzi would be reasonable as is.

Lizotte at 1.675m cap and dropping 34 points, while also being 51% on draws makes him more valuable than a 4th round pick. 2nd at minimum in my mind.

I assume Graves gets at least 4.5m a year on his next contract.

Vilaradi also gets more on a bridge deal. 23 goals, 41 pts in 63 games. His bridge could even be 4m x 2 years.

Just some of my thoughts

Just a couple or responses to your well thought out comments. (with the disclaimer that my post was more to look at the Cap situation of players still in LA after the trades)

1) I'd love to think Durzi gets a 1st on his own, but I'm not going to pretend that he doesn't have his faults. And teams know what those are. He's very good at what he does, I'm just not sure he's able to get that 1st rounder by himself.
2) I agree with Lizotte's value with you.... at the deadline when teams over pay. Off-season is about becoming cap compliant and value tends to drop a little. Maybe true value is somewhere in the middle? Meh. Not hard-over on it.
3) Graves is the biggest sticking point of this. If the Kings can save elsewhere (like Korpisalo's contract as tkecanuck341 suggests), then that money goes straight to upping the offer to Graves.
4) My thought process with the Vilardi deal is much more akin to what Mikey Anderson got this year. In essence, it's not a "bridge" deal so much as it is a "We'll pay you as soon as Kopitar's contract drops off the books" deal. And the Kings have proven they're good for their word with the 8 year deal to Mikey after signing the 1milx1year deal last year.

I'd be game for Lizotte. Maybe at 4c with poehling on the wing.