How the kings trade in shaun dorzy could affect their other casual plans

Why would the team trade in a skilled right-footed defenseman who skates well, has legitimate offensive ability, and is only 24 years old? And with an easily manageable salary cap on top of that?

Seeing as this team can use all the cap space it can squeeze in now, perhaps most importantly in this particular deal, has opened the door to a much better version of that aforementioned coveted profile.

Transferring Sean Dorsey on Saturday, the Kings traded their polarizing blueliner to Arizona for a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. She is one of four draft picks the Coyotes had for next year, originally snatched from Montreal trade center Christian Dvorak. And while that pick doesn’t add to Capital’s meager draft for the 2023 draft next week — just five picks and no first-round pick — it does help fill a hole for 2024 where the Kings had none between the first and fourth rounds.

That’s really not what this deal is about. It’s about the money, specifically the kind associated with the max cap. It is about Brandt Clark.

Dorsey has long been a candidate to be traded. He was still thought to eventually head elsewhere, even with Sean Walker being sent to Philadelphia in that cover-focused package with Cal Petersen that helped re-sign Vladislav Gavrikov. The Kings weren’t just crowded on the right side of the defense. Organizationally, they were crammed together like a can of sardines.

This opens the door for overconfident Clark, a 20-year-old prospect who made his NHL debut last fall, won a gold medal at the World Junior Championships and finished his year with an Ontario Hockey League record of 30 and 84 goals. points in 43 games between the regular season and the playoffs in his final junior season. Clark even got some ice time with Drew Doughty when the Kings were behind in games and needed offense. He will have Dottie and Matt Roy ahead of him on the right side, but this also allows him to ease off from a five-on-five and start working himself into the power play.

And if Clarke had a bad training camp and management decides he needs to do a spice job with the Ontario reign in the AHL, the Kings have Jordan Spence as someone who’s also slated to step in at their level. Spence, 22, has been holding off on getting a full-time opportunity to run. He doesn’t have Clark’s phenomenal offensive side, but he has accumulated 87 points in 102 games with the Reign in the past two seasons.

The rise of Clarke and the specter of taking his first steps to becoming a key long-term part of their defense is what the fan base hopes for. The Kings designated Mickey Anderson as such with their eight-year extension for the left shutout. Trading Dorsey — who scored nine goals and 38 points in 2022-23 — allows emerging reality Clark to become part of the big picture. We can see the process of that and how it is scaled or rapidly evolving.

But trading Durzi is also very much about positioning for the next big move. More and more, it seems so for Pierre-Luc Dubois. The grumbles that the Kings plan to deal with the Winnipeg Jets center haven’t been disproved, nor have they been subdued. In fact, the opposite is true.

How much closer does moving Dorsey bring them to acquiring Dubois? As we know, kings have been challenged. Getting rid of Petersen’s contract along with Walker helped general manager Rob Blake fix his mistake of giving Petersen that three-year, $15 million extension, but having to keep $2 million from Ivan Provorov’s contract in the three-way deal with Columbus and Philadelphia. Giving Blake complete flexibility.

Durzi makes $2 million in real cash this season, but his cap is only $1.7 million. Cap Friendly now has Los Angeles with an estimated over $9 million in available space. That’s still pretty tough when you consider that they have to get a goaltender to go with Pheonix Copley and they have some free agents locked down to sign, most notably Gabriel Vilardi.

When you consider that Dubois has Los Angeles among the teams he’d be willing to hitch his bandwagon to but also reportedly looks to make up to $9 million annually in a contract that must be negotiated, it’s still hard to see how the Kings could possibly work it out. But that brings us to Vilardi, which is an RFA with arbitration rights in its own right.

Velarde, 23, doesn’t have DuBois’ longest record. He’s just come off his first breakout campaign scoring 23 goals and 18 assists in 63 games. He made an impact in the playoff series against Edmonton when he returned from injury. The promise of a 2017 first-round pick is finally starting to be realized on a larger scale after years of pushing back issues and the amazing development that came with it.

But even with his breakthrough, Velarde was still sidelined for weeks at the end of the regular season, and the injury fault wasn’t something he could completely shake off. His size and talent are beyond doubt. Its availability may remain a question from time to time. Dubois comes up with his own offensive questions about ups and downs. It was also durable and was productive, even if it wasn’t at the level of a cutting edge first place.

Quinton Byfield could interest the Jets, who are trying to get the best deal possible from a player who has been clear about his intentions to leave. But Blake has been resisting severing ties with Byfield, and certainly holding out hope that he can turn into the impact player the franchise needs for the long haul. Something of value has to be included in DuBois’ trade, and that’s where Villardi comes in.

Blake has a second round selection from Arizona State. He has the second pick this year, No. 54, and is the initial pick since their first-round pick was sent to Columbus in place of Gavrikov and goaltender Jonas Korbesalo. More salaries have to be spent to make it work, but there are Victor Arvidsson ($4.25M) and Alex Ivalo ($4M) that could be moved as neither have commercial protection. Trevor Moore ($4.2 million) is also at a similar price point, but he has a 10-team no-trade clause on a five-year extension he signed last December.

Does Velarde, one of those $4 million wingers who was selected in the second round, accomplish? If the Kings are truly intent on acquiring Dubois, that’s something Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff should at least be open to since he doesn’t have a lot of leverage here. It’s the way Blake has it in terms of securing Dubois and handling the network, albeit at a much lower cost than it would have been the case with Connor Hellebuyck or Juuse Saros.

But that may be the view when it comes to allocating the remainder of the money earmarked in many other areas. The misstep with Petersen — combined with how Vegas won the Stanley Cup with a full team backing up Edin Hill — may leave Blake a bit hesitant about big spending for Hellebuyck, which has another year with its $6.1 million cap hit but is looking to make the jump. In Andrei Vasilevskiy District for his next decade.

There are free-agent goaltenders, including their own in Corbesalo, who will obviously be looking for their best deals, but they’ll also get less than Vasilevskiy and Saros – who are on a salary of less than $5 million and would take a King’s ransom to get out of Nashville – will now order. and in the future. Dubois’ racing is all about boosting the center and protection position when Anže Kopitar slips down the lineup or even the day he hangs up his skates. (Kopitar is entering the final year of his contract, but has spoken with the club about extending the 35-year-old Kings’ career.)

The Kings have always been interested in DuBois, a powerful forward who seems to be baffled and sometimes frustrated by his physical skills. They had a hard look at him when he wanted out of Columbus, but the Blue Jackets favored NHL talent over top-level prospects and got Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic. When he goes and fully interacts, DuBois can be a beast. But what stuck with the one-time #3 overall pick was that question of when.

With their Durzi trade, they opened a door for Clarke and might have broken the door a little for Dubois. It gives Dorzy a chance to be the most featured player on a young Arizona blue line that Jacob Cicciron no longer has. And Kings fans couldn’t be more rebuked at Dorsey’s faults or shortcomings.

The Kings may not have a first-round draft pick expected Wednesday of the draft, but they still look like a team out to make some noise in Nashville. Heck, apparently they’re already in the works this weekend.

(Top photo by Sean Dorsey: Perry Nelson/USA Today)