Team: 2023-24 Los Angeles Kings

Initial Creation Date: Jun. 14, 2023

Published: Jun. 28, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

I don't think that this alternative-history post is at all unrealistic. I think that this plan would have left us significantly better off and, as far as I can tell, is based upon information that was available at the time. It's predicated on my conviction that if Kyle Davidson didn't mention Jake McCabe to Rob Blake, Blake should have asked about him, and then offered Chicago a better deal than the Black Hawks got.

Note that the Petersen trade still remains as made, including the $2,025,000 retention on Provorov, because the reversal shown here (trade #2) is basically to get our 2023 first from the Gavrikov trade back.

The two new trades are what we might have done had we traded for McCabe instead of Gavrikov. The Ullmark trade was suggested several times by Boston fans eager to relieve the Bruins' cap pressure. It has since been overtaken by events with the Arizona trade, but the gist of it is sound. (Boston fans can feel free to imagine some modest addition from our side, or perhaps even substituting Alex Turcotte for Sean Durzi.) And if Sean Durzi is worth a high future second, then Alex Iafallo is certainly worth a high future second plus a current third.

I'd rather have four (or five) seasons of Carson Soucy and two seasons of Jake McCabe than two seasons of Vladi Gavrikov. Plus, we get our 2023 first-round draft pick back, to draft whatever top LhD prospect the scouting staff wants -- Caden Price, Theo Lindstein or Dimitri Simashev, and one of Tanner Molendyk or Etienne Morin ought to still be on the board at #54 (unless one of the top two goaltender prospects is still there).

I don't think that this is "Monday-morning-quarterbacking" because there was significant talk about Chicago wanting to move McCabe and Columbus wanting to move Gavrikov in the entire week leading up to the trade deadline.

Of course, this makes the execrable Pierre-Luc DuBois acquisition -- which in my opinion will go down as the worst trade in Los Angeles Kings history -- utterly unnecessary.

July 1st edit: Carson Soucy signed with Vancouver for three seasons at $3.25 million, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he might have signed with us for $3.5 million for four seasons.

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