After making a deal with each other, the Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche are both heading towards next season with strangely unbalanced rosters. The Avalanche have seven defensemen under contract for $21.5 million to begin the season. Hannan, Liles, Clark, Salei, Foote, Preissing, and Quincey make up the seven. Quincey is the only good contract in the group and it's his entry-level deal. None of those would be considered a #1 in fact, it seems like a collection of #4 defensemen. The Kings have eight top six forwards in Kopitar, Smyth, Handzus, Stoll, Williams, Brown, Frolov and Moller. They also now have only four NHL defensemen signed [for $11,075,000] next season with Jack Johnson restricted.
The unlikely trade [Ryan Smyth for Tom Preissing and Kyle Quincey] that they just pulled off created this imbalance and it makes me think that neither of these teams is done working the phones. It doesn't look like any of the Colorado blueliners can be moved except maybe Salei, but he's actually somewhat valuable to a team that can lose Adam Foote at any moment. As for the Kings - going by the constant rumors, I'd guess Johnson and Frolov would be on the wire if there is a move made.
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