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Off the Ice

Insider Q&A – Following Up On A Busy Week

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Last week was about as news-intensive a week as you could imagine for early June, while the Stanley Cup Final is still ongoing.

News on Monday regarding the restructuring of the broadcast team, news on Tuesday regarding a big trade the Kings made to clear out some salary, leading into Wednesday’s big news of re-signing Vladislav Gavrikov with the cap space saved in the trade. After a rare day off on Thursday, Friday’s news of hiring Mike Buckley as the team’s new goaltending coach brought us into the weekend with the coaching staff not completed for the 2022-23 season.

Last week in many ways was a week we all knew was coming at some point, we just didn’t know when. We didn’t know the details of the moves, but we knew that moves were coming for sure. My word of the summer is choice. The Kings had choices to make and they made two of them last week, which included moving Cal Petersen and Sean Walker to Philadelphia, at the cost of a couple of assets, while choosing to re-sign Vladislav Gavrikov, who proved to be a good fit here after he was acquired at the deadline. Those were the first choices made, but they are not the final ones. The Kings have a clear opening in net, with half of their 2022-23 goaltending tandem up for grabs alongside Pheonix Copley. There are also decision to be made regarding restricted free agents, as well as additional players who could potentially be moved out. What’s to come next? We wait and see, though I think there are certainly areas we can feel may be affected.

I originally planned on doing this yesterday, but I was excited to get some last minute tickets to check out the practice round of the US Open at Los Angeles CC! Very cool to see some of the world’s best golfers up close and personal. I watched Viktor Hovland hit his shot out of the sand a certain way and I tried it in my own swing this morning, hitting it much worse than he did. Oh well. Interesting to see a lot of the different dynamics that players brought to the practice rounds, whether it was what they worked on, whether or not they worked together, how they approached the session. Fun day, not so fun next-day sunburn.

Whatever you got, Insiders, ask away! I will be away from my computer from 10:30 to 11:30, but other than that I am at your disposal!

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