A look at 2012-13 salary structure

With Jarret Stoll and Colin Fraser now back in the fold, here’s a reasonable guess as to how the Kings’ lineup might look in 2012-13. This does not include Dustin Penner, as he is an unrestricted free agent, but it does assume a modest raise for Dwight King. If you assume all of the below, it’s a total salary-cap hit of approximately $59.05 million. The 2012-13 salary cap is tentatively set at $70.3 million, but that will depend on the labor negotiations. Based on that, it’s reasonable to get wide eyes and start thinking that the Kings could add another big salary this summer. Not so fast. Look ahead one season to 2013-14. The Kings already have almost $43 million committed to only 11 players, and that doesn’t include Jonathan Quick’s huge eventual raise and new contracts for players such as Slava Voynov, Alec Martinez and Trevor Lewis. Plus the Kings would have to replace or re-sign Rob Scuderi and Brad Richardson.

So, that’s the rub in terms of salary-cap math. You always have to have one eye on this season and one eye on upcoming seasons. So while it’s not unreasonable to think that the Kings might take a run at a free agent such as Zach Parise, it would also require some very tough math in the coming years. Here’s a look at next season’s possible salary structure.

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Brown ($3.175 million)-Kopitar ($6.8)-Williams ($3.65)
Gagne ($3.5)-Richards ($5.75)-Carter ($5.273)
King ($0.725)-Stoll ($3.25)-Lewis ($0.725)
Richardson ($1.175)-Fraser ($0.825)-Nolan ($0.532)
Clifford ($0.870)-Westgarth ($0.725)

Doughty ($7.0)-Scuderi ($3.4)
Mitchell ($3.5)-Voynov ($0.817)
Greene ($2.95)-Martinez ($0.738)
Drewiske ($0.617)

Quick ($1.8)
Bernier ($1.25)

TOTAL: $59.047