NHL Rumors: Did the Los Angeles Kings Want the Extra Cap Space and Sport for Quinton Byfield?

Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on the Jeff Marek Show talking about the Los Angeles Kings clearing some salary cap space by trading Pierre-Luc Dubois and how much of Quinton Byfield being in line for a big contract extension played a part in it.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

Marek: “Does LA need a goalie? Yes. Did things work out in your one with Dubois and  Los Angeles Kings? No. So it works from that point of view. But I look at this one Elliotte and I say, this one’s all about Quinton Byfield and opening up both cap space and opening up a spot for Quinton Byfield to go.

Now, we don’t know whether Wasserman who’s the agents here, is looking for a bridge deal for Byfield or they want to hit the home run right out of the gate that I don’t know. But my first thought on it is, this deal is all about making room for Byfield, both financially and on the ice. Agree or disagree?”

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Friedman: “I would say, I don’t think you’re wrong, but I would say is second. I think that, I, I had a chance to listen to Rob Blake yesterday when I got to Edmonton, and I thought it was really interesting how he, like Rob Blake took a bit of one for Dubois yesterday. Like he said that we had, we had problems integrating him.

And, but he also didn’t, didn’t really blame Dubois as much as he kind of blamed himself or the situation. I thought that was really interesting. Because to me, the number one thing, this is an admission, was that they couldn’t come back with him. That it wasn’t going to work.

That they, so yes, I, obviously, you know, Byfield took a huge step last year. I think everybody is really confident about where he’s going. But I would say that was second behind Blake making an admission that they had to move on from Dubois and that he wasn’t going to work in LA.

And you know, like I had a bunch of people ask me like, what’s, why is Washington doing this? You know, the Capitals. you know, someone pointed out to me, if you look at the Capitals, look at all the first-rounders they have on their roster who didn’t work out?

Like um,you know, (T.J) Oshie was a bit more of an accomplished player. But you know, St. Louis was down on him.”

Marek: “Dylan Strome.”

Friedman: “Strome.  Was (Sonny) Milano a first-rounder? I can’t remember.”

Marek: “Who.”

Friedman: “Sonny Milano.”

Marek: “He was a first-rounder.”

Friedman: “Yeah, so they have, yeah, they have, they have a bunch of guys on their roster, who were first-rounders who didn’t work out the way, workout the way they wanted to elsewhere. But they come to Washington, they found homes.

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And I think that’s one of the, as you said, I saw your tweet yesterday about big guys, yes, that’s definitely true. But I think that Washington also looks at how they, how first-rounders found a home there on their second or third tries. This will be a bigger challenge. I think that’s one of the reasons Washington wanted to do, or was willing to do this deal.”