Kings Send Qualifying Offers to 4 Players; Let 3 Others Walk to Free Agency
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The Los Angeles Kings' summer keeps moving on, with the qualifying window on Sunday they tendered offers to four RFAs and let three of them walk to free agency.
Quinton Byfield, Jordan Spence, Arthur Kaliyev and Erik Portillo all received qualifying offers.
Blake Lizotte, Tyler Madden and Jacob Ingham were not qualified.
I don't see many surprises on this list. Byfield and Spence were qualified to give the team more time to work out extensions. Portillo is the closest goalie prospect to being NHL-ready and arguably has the highest ceiling among the Kings' goalie prospects.
Some fans were surprised Kaliyev received a qualifying offer given the likelihood he doesn't start next season on the Kings, however, getting Kaliyev signed to a qualifying offer to trade him makes sense.
I don't see any surprises in the players who weren't qualified either.
Lizotte has been a very serviceable center for the Kings since signing out of St. Cloud State in 2019 as an undrafted free agent.
He's been a staple in the team's bottom six and penalty kill and grabbed 37 goals and 106 points in 320 games.
Not qualifying Lizotte has nothing to do with his quality. The entire Kings organization would agree he's a useful piece. But he's also a replaceable piece.
With the top-three center spots filled by Anze Kopitar, Phil Danault and Quinton Byfield, the 4C spot is the only one available to Lizotte.
Yes, he's a good fit there, but with Alex Turcotte and Akil Thomas both NHL-ready, Lizotte becomes expendable.
The Kings can save some money at 4C, give a bigger role to two young players who can kill penalties, and re-invest that saved money into other holes on the roster.
Lizotte will play a lot more games in the NHL and be a fan favorite wherever he goes, but it was time for the Kings to move on.
It's also worth noting that not qualifying Lizotte doesn't completely shut the door on Lizotte returning. He could still re-sign with the team as a UFA, although that feels unlikely right now.
Madden is a loss to the Ontario Reign as he was a consistent top-nine forward for them, but not a loss to the Kings. A soon-to-be 25-year-old, sub-6-foot forward who produced at under 0.5 points per game is very unlikely to be an NHLer.
Ingham is in a similar situation to Madden. At 24 having played most of last season in the ECHL, Ingham is a long shot to be a consistent NHL goalie. With Portillo, Hampton Slukynsky and now Carter George in the pipeline, Ingham didn't have a place in the organization.
Now we wait on contracts for Byfield, Spence, Kaliyev and Portillo and the start of free agency on July 1.