LA: Salary Cap Problems

Doesn’t that sound good? Hearing your team is spending too much on players to bring a cup home. Well, here in LA we have the opposite problem. The Kings have not spent enough money and if the season started today, they would have to forfeit their games. But “don’t worry, things will be fine”. That’s what general manager Dean Lombardi told me when I ran into him at the Kings training facility just a few days ago. Lets all hope he has a master plan in the works, I think he does.

I have read countless blogs on what the Kings exact payroll looks like for next season and they all have different numbers. So here are a couple things we know for sure. Please forgive me if I leave anything out.

* The salary cap floor is 40.7 million.

* The Kings are hovering around 30 million in committed salaries.

* Jarret Stoll, Patrick O'Sullivan, Erik Ersberg, Brad Richardson, Peter Harrold and Matt Moulson are RFA’s that still need to be resigned. All their salaries should total up between 6-8 million.

* If Dan Cloutier’s buyout goes as planned his cap hit will be 1.033 million, if his buyout gets voided, like he is trying to do, the cap hit will be 3.1 million.

* Nobody knows the exact numbers except Dean Lombardi and the NHL.

With all these things taken into consideration the Kings are going to start the season just above the cap floor. There have been some talks about trading for a veteran defenceman and goalie that is very possible. Those salaries would bring the Kings payroll to a higher number.

As you can see the Kings are not in trouble of making the salary cap floor. The Kings loyals should be worried about throwing a young and inexperienced team into a very dangerous Western Conference. So don’t worry about the money, worry about wins.