Kings tender qualifying offers to Byfield, Spence, Kaliyev & Portillo

As the roster picture for the summer continues to come into focus, qualifying offers are an important step in getting there. Not necessarily for determining salaries or contracts, but in seeing a couple of decisions made towards what you might consider to be the signing bubble.

With that in mind, the LA Kings have tendered qualifying offers to the following players –

Quinton Byfield
Arthur Kaliyev
Erik Portillo
Jordan Spence

First things first, a qualifying offer is not a signed contract. It’s simply a move that is needed to retain the RFA rights of players who are restricted free agents. A qualifying offer is in fact that – an offer. The qualifying offer can be signed by a player to become a contract or the sides can negotiate. Or not. Many times, the qualifying offer is simply a formality to retain the rights to a restricted free agent. In some cases, it makes sense for the player to accept it, but that’s not always what’s best.

Of the players qualified, there’s not a surprise in this group.

For Byfield and Spence, they are viewed as NHL players, obviously. They spent the 2023-24 season with the Kings and are obviously NHL players. Byfield will be the biggest contract the Kings offer this summer among their restricted free agents and Spence is now an NHL player who will command at least a small raise off his entry-level deal. It’s unlikely that either player will sign his qualifying offer and the Kings will continue to negotiate with each respectively. For reference, Byfield’s qualifying offer would be a one-year, one-way contract with an AAV $874,125. He’s obviously not signing that contract and the two sides will work out a more lucrative, longer-team deal.

Regarding Kaliyev, there’s obviously a lot of talk about his future. Regardless of his fate, the Kings needed to tender him a qualifying offer to retain his rights. If the Kings and Kaliyev were to find a way forward together, the qualifying offer was necessary. Should there be a move formalize regarding a potential trade, the qualifying offer is also necessary. It feels unlikely that Kaliyev would sign the qualifying offer as it’s presented, but tendering it is a necessary step to proceed forward.

Portillo feels like the only player who might actually sign the qualifying offer he was presented. Portillo’s offer is a one-year, two-way contract with an AAV of $826,875. For a player with one professional season, played exclusively in the AHL, the qualifying offer could make sense. It’s possible the Kings and Portillo look to negotiate a deal that is structured differently or has more term than just the one year. Expecting Portillo to play this season in the AHL with Ontario, for sure, but he’s viewed highly by the Kings in the longer run. They see him as an NHL prospect going forward but with an eye towards 2025 or 2026. That could perhaps lead to a deal with multiple years. Remains to be seen how those negotiations go.

Today’s announcement means that the Kings did not tender qualifying offers to the following three players –

Jacob Ingham
Blake Lizotte
Tyler Madden

For Lizotte, man, it’s a tough one. I think the Kings like Lizotte and like what he brings. It’s possible the two sides work out a separate deal that keeps him on the team, similar in some ways to what happened with forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan last season. The Kings did not qualify Anderson-Dolan but re-signed him as a UFA to a deal with a lower AAV at the NHL level, just before free agency opened on July 1.

Lizotte is an effective fourth-line center. He’s a culture and character guy and you always know you’re getting 100 percent of what Lizotte has to offer. You want guys like that around but it’s also a dollars and cents business sometimes. Are the Kings in a position to tender a qualifying offer to Lizotte at $1,675,000, which is what he would be owed? Frankly, he’s maybe even outperformed that number but if you’re looking at paying $1.5 – $2.0 million on a fourth-line center, it’s money the Kings can’t allocate elsewhere. For a team that still needs to add players elsewhere in the lineup, it might not be feasible. I wouldn’t be shocked if Lizotte came back. If he doesn’t, I wish him all the best personally. Character is a word you see but don’t always fully understand. Lizotte has every bit of that word in his DNA.

On Ingham and Madden, both players spent the 2023-24 season playing in the minor leagues, with Madden in Ontario and Ingham playing most of his hockey with ECHL-Greenville. Madden will be 25 in November. He’s been a solid member of the Reign and plays mostly in the Top 6. He hasn’t quite made the jump, though, outside of a recall or two that didn’t result in his NHL debut. I wouldn’t have been shocked if the Kings qualified Madden because he plays hard and has been a consistent 15-20 goal guy in the AHL. Perhaps this gives him a better opportunity elsewhere and here’s to hoping he takes it.

For Ingham, he’s an interesting case. Ingham started this season on an AHL contract but earned an NHL deal midway through the season, which kept his NHL rights with the Kings entering this summer. Ingham missed all of the 2022-23 season with an injury but came back with an impressive 2023-24 campaign. Ingham was good in Greenville with a 17-10-4 record, a .916 save percentage and a 2.57 goals-against average. He’s in a bit of a tough spot with the Kings though. The NHL tandem is set with Darcy Kuemper and David Rittich and I’d imagine the Kings want to pair a veteran with Portillo in Ontario. Ingham deserves a longer AHL shot, to build on a solid six games in 2023-24, but that would likely require the Kings to not sign a veteran and go with a younger tandem of Portillo/Ingham. There’s risk in that should there be an injury at the NHL level. Or, it would force Ingham to start in the ECHL and wait for an opportunity. He’s probably earned a bit more than that, but we’ll see how his situation plays out. Could always come back later, as he did last season.

Free agency opens for the Kings tomorrow at 9 AM Pacific. From contracts we know about and the information at our disposal, here’s an approximation of what the Kings are working with.

The Kings have, approximately, $17,500,000 to work with in free agency. That number is in place to sign both Byfield and Spence, as well as round out the remainder of the NHL roster. The Kings have stated publicly that they expect to see Brandt Clarke on the NHL roster this season, along with forwards Alex Turcotte and Akil Thomas, as well as possibly Samuel Fagemo. Whether that winds up being true or not, the Kings likely would have players at their same salary-cap hits in those spots. So, for budgeting purposes, all four are included on the roster for now and we’ll go from there.