Jordan Weal’s fate as a King has been decided in rather predictable fashion today. Former Kings‘ Assistant GM Ron Hextall acquired him in exchange for noted bad forward Vinny Lecavalier and noted human being Luke Schenn.
Jordan Weal never seemed very long for the Kings. As a smallish forward in a big city roster mostly constructed of large players, rumors of Weal’s departure have been around since basically the time he signed a professional contract. Finally, he might get a chance to play in the NHL.
The Flyers are going to retain 50% of both contracts in the trade. According to Ryan Lambert, this will amount to $2.01m in added salary for the Kings.
Let’s get to the bottom line here: the Kings traded for a bad old player and a bad defenseman. Vinny Lecavalier is in the middle of an awful contract, and thankfully it appears that he will retire after this season. Vinny, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry to be mean. In 5th grade, I would’ve loved this trade! On the downside, I haven’t been in any kind of school at all for 9 years. This means that you are old! I’m sorry, but it’s true.
It will be cool that the Kings will finally have a Schenn in their regular lineup. It is not Brayden, of course. That is okay. Brayden is also not very good. Luke Schenn is possibly not as terrible as we all think that he is.
Luke Schenn. I don’t hate it. pic.twitter.com/1WlM7b8NNL
— Chris Jenkins (@anexanhume) January 6, 2016
Schenn is also playing on an expiring contract. He becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
The Kings have apparently decided that they will try to save money by not traveling to the draft at all. They have approximately 0 draft picks for the next 16 years. Their last pick in this span, a 2016 3rd rounder, was dealt to the Flyers along with Jordan Weal. An intriguing strategy to employ by a team that has been built almost exclusively through drafting and developing.
The summary of the deal is this: the Kings dealt a player that was never going to fit in with the Kings along with a mediocre draft pick to the Flyers for a couple of players that probably won’t have a very large impact on the team either way. Ultimately, I am confused. It seems like the Kings traded a player they were going to scratch all the time for a player that they probably should scratch all the time. Also Luke Schenn is there for some reason. This gives the Kings about 13 defensemen on the NHL roster. That seems to be too many.
I’m not a fan, but now that the stink of the deal has blown away, I have decided that the Kings are going to be fine so I don’t really care.