Kings Move Past Kovalchuk And Frolov, Ink Ponikarovsky To One Year Deal

 

Exhausted by the process of losing out on Ilya Kovalchuk and having just watched Alexander Frolov move on to the New York Rangers, the Los Angeles Kings were in dire need of adding some offensive punch to their roster to render this offseason just short of a complete failure. With plenty of money to spend and the available talent really starting to dwindle, the Kings made a move to bring aboard a top six forward that can actually make the team better at a cheaper rate than Kovalchuk and with a little bit more conviction to his game than Frolov. TSN’s Darren Dreger broke the news Tuesday that Alexei Ponikarovsky was signed by LA to a one year contract at $3 million with a $200,000 signing bonus for a full cap hit of $3.2 million.

Ponikarovsky is coming off a rather subpar finish to last season, in which he was dealt by the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Pittsburgh Penguins in a trade deadline deal. After netting 19 goals and 41 points in 61 contests with the team that selected him in the fourth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, the 30-year old Ukrainian netted just two goals and seven assists in 16 games with the Penguins. In 11 postseason games, he added just a single goal and four assists.

But Ponikarovsky is looking to rebound and has plenty to prove in Los Angeles on a one year deal. He has a consistent annual goal output of about 20 per season and, unlike Kovalchuk and Frolov, has a physical element to his game that renders him willing to hit hard and play good two-way hockey. He definitely wasn’t anybody’s first choice when it came to acquiring an offensively productive winger. But he’s far from an utter disappointment.

The Kings still have plenty of cap space left over to concentrate on re-signing their own to contract extensions and possibly re-entering the Kovalchuk race if the grievance filed on his part by the NHLPA over the rejected 17-year deal with New Jersey goes awry. The Kings’ payroll currently sits at $49,363,333 with $12,876,666 remaining in cap flexibility, according to CapGeek.