Should The Los Angeles Kings Have Interest In Leo Komarov?

Can The Kings Swing A Trade For The Leaf Winger?

Unless the Toronto Maple Leafs can shock the entire civilized world and win 12 or 13 straight games, it would be safe to assume that the Leafs will be sellers at the trade deadline. Its understandable given the state of the Maple Leafs the past few seasons and while new coach Mike Babcock has begun his transition from perennial losers to playoff contenders, the fact remains that this reset will take longer than when you shut off your Xbox because some 12 year old kid is embarrassing you. That being said, the Leafs do have some attractive pieces that they could move, and in return they could receive some valuable young prospects or draft picks.

Unlike the Maple Leafs, the Los Angeles Kings are not going to be selling at the deadline. Sitting atop the Pacific Division with 59 points, a 10 point lead on any other division rival, the Kings are playing more like their Stanley Cup winning 2012 and 2014 versions of themselves. Although they’ve been pretty much in control of the Pacific from the start, there are still a few tweaks the Kings can make to give them an even more complete roster. We’ve already seen general manager Dean Lombardi bring in veteran forward Vincent Lecavalier and depth defenseman Luke Schenn. Neither player is expected to carry this team, especially in the offensive end, but Lecavalier has already shown that he has enough left in the tank to provide scoring from the bottom-6 forward position.

Komarov has been one of the few bright spots for the Leafs this season, posting a stat line of 16 goals and 30 points.

The Kings could still benefit from adding another top-6 forward if the price happened to right. Enter the Maple Leafs and in particular Leo Komarov. Komarov has been one of the few bright spots for the Leafs this season, posting a stat line of 16 goals and 30 points. He’s been an even strength monster scoring 11 of his 16 tallies at 5-on-5. While the adage has always smiled upon special teams play i.e; power-play, penalty kill, having dominant even strength players may be an undervalued aspect of a players attributes. But even if the stats don’t impress you, which they should, his contract may be the best part about him. Carrying just a 2.95 million dollar cap hit per season, Komarov is one of the few extremely affordable, highly productive offensive weapons.

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So what could a player like Komarov bring in return to the rebuilding Leafs? Considering his statistical outputs and low contract value, Komarov is the type of rental that could easily go for a 1st round pick. It’s also important to consider the fact that a large volume of fringe NHL teams will be in the playoff hunt this season, making true deadline sellers a scarcity. This very basic supply and demand theory is only going to drive up the price for a player the caliber of Komarov. If the Leafs are asking for a 1st round pick in return for Komarov, would this effectively take the Kings out of the conversation? The Kings do not own their 2016 1st round pick due to the Andrej Sekera trade the Kings made last season with the Hurricanes. The Kings also moved their 3rd round pick this year in the deal with Philadelphia. (Lecavalier and Schenn) Taking that into account, one would assume the Kings are not in any position to move any more 2016 draft picks. I don’t suspect the Kings would want to part with their 2017 1st round pick as that would give the Kings 3 consecutive seasons without a number 1 draft pick, and if there’s 1 thing we know about the Kings, they aren’t the Penguins. Therein lies the problem.

Another direction the Kings could go would be offering prospect LW Valentin Zykov. The Kings traded 3 picks to move up and draft Zykov at the 2013 Entry Draft, so it’s obvious they liked his raw potential and skill. Zykov is consistently rated as one of the Kings top-5 best prospects and may certainly entice the Maple Leafs. The Kings could even sweeten the pot by adding a 2017 2nd or 3rd round pick as well. At the same time though, the Kings just about swung the exact same deal and that return was an aging Lecavalier and an overrated Luke Schenn. Hard to imagine the Leafs giving up a player like Komarov for that given price. Unless the Kings were willing to move a prospect like Adrian Kempe, this deal will more than likely remain nothing more than a pipe dream. Personally, I believe that Komarov might be a fair return for Kempe but I can also understand why the Kings would be unwilling to move their top prospect.