The first domino related to the Kings has fallen.
The Edmonton Oilers made a savvy (I don’t understand what is going on either) move by acquiring the veteran defenseman today. Edmonton signed Sekera to a 6-year deal at a $5.5m cap hit and with a full No-Movement Clause.
This is an interesting contract from the Kings’ perspective. For one, the Kings need a guy like Sekera. I don’t think there is any question about this, and I’m sure they will pursue another defenseman through free agency (though, already, Paul Martin is off the table). I already wrote about the lack of NHL-ready depth the Kings have in their organization when I reviewed Matt Greene’s season, and things have only gotten more dire since then.
In acquiring Milan Lucic, the Kings sacrificed the closest thing they had to a NHL-ready defensive prospect by trading Colin Miller.
So why didn’t they just give up the goods to Andrej Sekera. He’s pretty much the best defenseman available. It’s a puzzling decision since the Kings certainly have the cap space at the moment. On top of that, they had exclusive rights to negotiate with him up until today.
Dean Lombardi seemed prepared to let him go after trading for Lucic, which didn’t make a lot of sense since he acquired Lucic at a discounted cap hit.
It’s not like Sekera struggled as a King, he actually played quite well. His possession numbers were among the best on the team in his short stint on the roster.
Dean Lombardi’s decision making over the past few days has been confusing, to say the least.
Stay tuned to find out which city you should mail your Justin Williams-related tears to.