*Photo from Pucks and Pitchforks*
Trade season is heating up as free agency gets closer and closer. The Los Angeles Kings have acquired LW Kevin Fiala from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for a first round draft pick and D Brock Faber, according to announcements made by both teams.
The big piece to this trade is Fiala. He is a pending RFA when free agency opens on July 13, and the Kings are reportedly signing Fiala to a 7 year contract with a $7.785 million AAV. Fiala has a no movement clause that takes effect in the 2023-2024 season, and a modified no trade clause for the final 3 seasons of the deal.
The Wild found that moving Fiala was a necessity for them. They enter this offseason with a tight salary cap situation, as the dead cap hits from buying out the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are set to jump, with those two contracts counting for $13 million this season, and $14.7 million for the next two seasons.
Wild GM Bill Guerin said of trading Fiala that "We've been down the road a couple times with Kevin already. Hey look, he had a great year and we knew we just were not going to be able to do it. We knew that, they knew that. There's no sense in just trying to mess around and try to fit this and fit that and give them a lowball deal. It's not going to work. We knew we were going to have to move him."
Last season, Fiala enjoyed a breakout year with the Wild. Fiala finished the regular season with 33 goals and 52 assists, with an average of 17:39 on the ice, with a +23 plus/minus rating while playing in all 82 regular season games for the Wild.
In his career, Fiala has 124 goals and 159 assists to his name, with a +17 plus/minus rating while averaging 15:44 of ice time per game, playing in 419 regular season games with the Wild and Nashville Predators. Fiala has 9 goals and 6 assists with a -14 rating in 35 career playoff games.
Coming back to the Wild is Faber, a second round pick by the Kings in the 2020 NHL Draft. Faber is currently playing for the University of Minnesota, and is coming off a two goal, 12 assist season, playing in 32 games.
Guerin said of Faber that "I just think that Faber was really, really high-end prospect, somebody that we think is not far away from playing at all. I know he's just going back for his third year, but in all actuality, Brock could probably play sooner than that. But it'll be a good year for him back there and we'll cross that bridge at the end of the season. You can never have too many defensemen."
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